ISSUE 24

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this issue of WAMJ, we interviewed Dr. Jaewon Ryu, an ER physician, an attorney and renowned health care system administrator who is the current president and chief executive offcer of Geisinger Health System (GHS). Geisinger is a regional health care provider to Pennsylvania which services over three million patients in 45 counties. It has been widely recognized for delivering high-quality care at low cost through an integrated delivery system model of healthcare.

Dr. Jaewon Ryu became Geisinger’s president and chief executive offcer after serving as the executive vice president and chief medical offcer since 2016. He oversees all aspects of patient care at Geisinger, working to improve the quality, affordability and experience of care delivered across the enterprise. During his tenure at Geisinger, Dr. Ryu has cultivated a spirit of innovation and transformation across the organization, engendering new approaches to some of healthcare’s most complex problems which include initiatives like primary care redesign that brings healthcare services to patients in their homes. Dr. Ryu is committed to making health easier by improving outcomes, engagement, and affordability.

He said, “There is beauty in the simplicity of taking care of whoever comes in the door, for whatever they are there for, regardless of what insurance they have (or don’t have) and what language they speak (or don’t speak).”

In the era of pandemic, Dr. Ryu’s philosophy serves as a paragon that the country’s health care system needs to consider and adopt.

New trends and current issues of the bio-health industry are featured in our biopharmaceutical articles. In one of the articles titled “Medicare’s National Coverage Determination could boost chances of limited Aduhelm coverage in Alzheimer’s disease despite current backlash,” the author explores how Medicare showed a willingness to provide limited coverage for Biogen’s Aduhelm, which has been at the center of controversy for its little evidence of beneft for patients and how the CMS is likely to take an unprecedented route by covering the drug under CED in case of an outright coverage denial.

WAMJ has made major progress over the past few years and is celebrating the completion of our 24th edition. Thank you for your continued support. We will remain committed to our goal of always providing a quality journal for our readers. I hope that you enjoy our selection of articles and find them to be inspiring.

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DoHyun Cho, PhD

Publisher

President & CEO of W Medical Strategy Group

Chairman of New York Health Forum

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Having served the people of Pennsylvania for more than a century, Geisinger Health System has been nationally and internationally recognized for the breadth and quality of its services. The System evolved from a single, 63-bed hospital in 1913 into a healthcare colossus comprising a multi-specialty group practice with well over a thousand members, nine hospital campuses, two research centers, a 550,000-member health plan, and a medical school offering, among other things, a Primary Care Scholars Program that enables students graduate without tuition debt.

In this issue, the Journal is privileged to offer an interview with the renowned Jaewon Ryu, MD, JD, Geisinger’s president and chief executive offcer. His career is remarkable for its variety and scope, and for the innovation his leadership has fostered.

Dr. Ryu earned his BA degree from Yale and his MD and JD from Chicago. After college, he worked as an AmeriCorps member within an inner-city school, which allowed him to observe the impact of policy on vulnerable populations. He completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Later, Dr. Ryu held leadership roles at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System; at Kaiser Permanente, where he continued his emergency medicine practice; and in government, at CMS, and as a White House Fellow at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Furthermore, Dr. Ryu served as president of integrated care delivery for Humana, where he assumed responsibility for Transcend, an MSO assisting affiliated practices to adopt population health under value-based reimbursement.

At Geisinger, Dr. Ryu has encouraged System-wide innovation. Among the initiatives he has nurtured are Geisinger at Home that brings healthcare to patients’ homes; primary care redesign; and Geisinger 65 Forward, its senior-focused, concierge healthcare centers, where Geisinger offers not only diagnostic and therapeutic services but yoga lessons, for example, as well.

Dr. Ryu was appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other policies governing health plans and providers serving Medicare beneficiaries. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the White House Fellows Foundation and Association, of My Health Direct Inc. (acquired by Experian), a provider of digital care coordination services, and of MCCI and JenCare, organizations focused on care financing and delivery.

In recognition of these and other accomplishments, Dr. Ryu was chosen as a member of the Council of Korean Americans and was selected as one of Modern Healthcare’s 2020 Top 25 Minority Leaders. WAMJ is deeply honored to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ryu and to present our interview with him in this issue. We hope you enjoy it.

Joseph P. McMenamin, MD, JD, FCLM

Editor in Chief

EVP of W Medical Strategy Group