Sean Cavanaugh is the Chief Administrative and Performance Officer of Aledade, which helps independent physicians thrive in new value-based payment models. Until 2017, he was the Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He was responsible for overseeing the regulation and payment of Medicare fee-for service providers, privately-administered Medicare health plans, and the Medicare prescription drug program. Medicare provides health coverage for over 57 million older and disabled Americans, with an annual budget of over $650 billion.
Before assuming his leadership role at Medicare, Mr. Cavanaugh was the Deputy Director for Programs and Policy in the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing the development and testing of new payment and service delivery models, including accountable care organizations, primary care medical homes, bundled payments and others.
Previously, Mr. Cavanaugh was director of health care finance at the United Hospital Fund in New York City. He has also served in senior positions at Lutheran Healthcare (Brooklyn, NY), the New York City Mayor’s Office of Health Insurance Access, and the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. He started his career on Capitol Hill working for a Representative serving on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He now serves on the board of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a legal services organization representing Medicare beneficiaries, and is an adviser to Patient Ping and Omada Health.