Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Aetna's Mike Kolodziej MD: Flatiron's National Medical Director

Update:  MK moved to the ADVI Consultancy in October 2017.
For info on the 2018 acquisition of Flatiron by Roche, here.

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Press release from Flatiron Health announces Michael Kolodziej MD is joining them as National Medical Director for Managed Care Strategy.   Kolodziej has been a senior medical director at Aetna and has often spoken at national conferences on payer policy in oncology.  Earlier, he had been a senior physician leader US Oncology.  See two of his recent articles here and here, a detailed interview here, and June 2016 Youtube remarks here.


Regarding health policy, during Kolodziej's tenure, Aetna recently announced it would favor cancer-risk testing at genetic labs that share data into ClinVar (here).  Kolodziej has strongly supported ASCO's TAPUR registry for off label precision medicine (here).

Flatiron Health is discussed in my Spring 2016 white paper on digital health and genomics (here).  They raised $130M in Series B funding in May 2014 (Google Ventures, First Round Capital, Labcorp).  They raised $175M in Series C funding in January 2016 (Roche, Casdin Capital, Allen & Company, Baillie Gifford).

Press release here.  Clipped after the break.

Michael Kolodziej, M.D., a Leader in Oncology Value-based Care, Joins Flatiron Health to Lead Managed Care Strategy 

July 25, 2016

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flatiron Health announced today that Michael Kolodziej, M.D., joined as national medical director, Managed Care Strategy. In this role, he will focus on supporting innovative alternative payment programs on behalf of community oncology providers in a number of commercial markets across the country.

“Dr. Kolodziej brings a wealth of expertise across providers and commercial payers, and will be critical to Flatiron Health’s strategic growth as we continue to evolve in parallel with today’s changing reimbursement environment. We are thrilled to welcome him to our team and believe his deep knowledge will enable us to further develop our innovative value-based care solution for providers facing a growing number of alternative payment programs,” said Nat Turner, co-founder and chief executive officer, Flatiron Health.

This marks the next phase of Flatiron Health’s ongoing investment in developing industry-leading products for cancer care providers as they transition to a value-based care reimbursement model. A nationally recognized leader in payer relations, Dr. Kolodziej will leverage Flatiron Health’s existing value-based care solution to forge new relationships with commercial payers in partnership with providers and help shape new clinical transformation approaches.

“Dr. Kolodziej’s experience across provider and commercial payer markets will be invaluable as we continue to build out our technology platform, focused on improving provider workflow, tracking and reporting quality metrics, and reducing costs,” said Robin Shah, head of Strategic Initiatives, Flatiron Health.

“As healthcare professionals, we have a tremendous opportunity to help ensure oncology practices have the support they need to succeed in today’s constantly evolving reimbursement landscape,” said Dr. Kolodziej. “Flatiron Health has the technology and analytics expertise to help payers and providers streamline these complex processes, and I am honored to help guide and grow our program for the benefit of the greater oncology community.”

Dr. Kolodziej joins Flatiron Health from Aetna, where he served as national medical director for Oncology Strategies and built the company’s first oncology medical home project. Prior to Aetna, he was the medical director for oncology services at US Oncology. He is board certified in internal medicine, specializing in hematology and medical oncology, and has been published in more than 50 medical journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.