Patrick Conway, MD, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) chief medical officer, deputy administrator for Innovation and Quality, and director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, is leaving CMS to become president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. He will join the company October 1.
Brad Wilson, current president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina will remain CEO during a transition period. “At this important time in healthcare and health insurance transformation, Dr. Conway brings a unique background and perspective to our company and state,” Wilson said.
Conway joined CMS in 2011 as chief medical officer. In 2014, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine Institute of Medicine, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement. Conway is a practicing pediatric hospitalist and was selected as a master of Hospital Medicine from the Society of Hospital Medicine. He has received the President’s Distinguished Senior Executive Rank and Health and Human Services Secretary’s Distinguished Service awards.
Prior to joining CMS, Conway served as director of Hospital Medicine for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and as a private sector consultant for McKinsey & Company. He is a former White House Fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. He completed his pediatrics residency at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital Boston, and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University.
“Blue Cross NC’s role in transforming the healthcare system in North Carolina is a model that other plans aspire to and that I want to work with the Blue Cross NC team to further improve,” Conway said.