04.07.2023 / Press Release

Innovative national health care delivery reform leader returns to the Families USA board of directors

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Phil Villers, President of Families USA, announced today that Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle has been re-appointed to the organization’s Board of Directors. He was first appointed to the Board in 2015 and served until spring 2022.

A national leader in health care delivery reform and a practicing physician, Dr. Fernandopulle serves on the Harvard Medical School faculty and the Massachusetts General Hospital staff. Most recently, he was Chief Innovation Officer of One Medical, a leading advanced primary care company based in San Francisco, California. Dr. Fernandopulle is most well-known for co-founding and serving as CEO of Iora Health, one of the first national primary care practices to embrace new models of payment and care for complex health care patients. He also was the Executive Director of the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement and Managing Director of the Clinical Initiatives Center at the Advisory Board Company.

Co-author or editor of several publications and a member of the Albert Schweitzer; Ashoka; Aspen; and Salzburg global fellowships, Dr. Fernandopulle earned his A.B., M.D., and M.P.P. degrees from Harvard University and completed his clinical training at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Rushika is one of the most innovative thought leaders paving the way for our society to have a health care system focused on helping patients get and stay healthy by meeting their individual needs rather than simply performing a battery of tests or procedures to run up the bill,” said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA. “We are delighted, again, to be able to avail ourselves of his leadership and expertise as we work to fix the cost and quality of America’s broken health care system.”

“With the launch of Families USA’s new Center for Affordable Whole Person Care and the increasing interest of voters and Congress in reducing health care costs and reorienting our national resources toward health, this is an opportune time for me to be rejoining the Board,” said Dr. Fernandopulle. “I’ve seen firsthand how changing the ways we organize, pay for, and measure health care can profoundly improve the lives of patients and help boost equitable outcomes. I look forward to working with the Board and Frederick to transform the way we organize and pay for health care in our nation so that it is affordable, and people’s needs come first.”

###