Leaders in Public Health: Mr. Chris Klomp

Why It Matters

Klomp’s emphasis on data‑driven, mission‑first health reforms accelerates value‑based care adoption, directly improving patient outcomes and reshaping Medicare financing.

Key Takeaways

• Collective Medical unified emergency‑department records, reducing repeat visits.
• Klomp emphasizes mission‑first values over profit in health ventures.
• Interoperability now powers Medicare Advantage quality accountability for plans.
• Data‑driven care coordination cuts opioid‑related ER admissions nationwide.
• Public‑health week highlights need for bipartisan health system reform.

Summary

The Yale School of Public Health hosted Chris Klomp, the new director of Medicare and deputy administrator of CMS, to discuss his unconventional path from a personal health tragedy to leading national health‑policy initiatives. Klomp recounted how early exposure to inequities in Romanian hospitals and a mentor’s business advice steered him from a potential medical career to Bain, then to co‑founding Collective Medical, a platform that stitches fragmented emergency‑department records into a single, actionable patient view.

Collective Medical’s breakthrough was its real‑time data‑sharing network, now used by more than half of U.S. hospitals to identify frequent‑flyer patients and coordinate addiction treatment, dramatically lowering repeat ER visits. Klomp leveraged that experience at CMS, announcing a new Medicare Advantage rate notice that ties private‑insurer payments to quality and outcomes, reinforcing the shift toward value‑based, accountable‑care models that consistently outperform fee‑for‑service.

Klomp repeatedly stressed a “moral obligation” to place mission above profit, noting that health should be a bipartisan issue and that entrepreneurs must accept responsibility for patients’ lives. He described his company’s investment decisions as filtered through a clear, values‑driven framework, ensuring that capital inflows never compromise the core goal of improving care coordination.

The conversation underscores how interoperable health data and mission‑centric leadership can reshape payment structures, reduce opioid‑related emergencies, and accelerate nationwide health‑system reform—an agenda that will influence policymakers, insurers, and providers for years to come.

Original Description

Join Dean Megan Ranney and Mr. Chris Klomp, Chief Counselor, HHS, Deputy Administrator & Director of Medicare, CMS, for this fireside chat.

With extensive experience in payment reform and data sharing, Chris Klomp has built and led Collective Medical, the largest real-time care collaboration network in the U.S. Mr. Klomp has driven health care reform at both state and federal levels, focusing on value-based care and interoperable health technology. He has co-founded and advised numerous health care organizations, and previously worked at Bain Capital and Bain & Company.

This conversation explores Mr. Klomp’s career journey, his current efforts in health care reform, and perspectives on how academia can contribute to practical health care needs through research, policy, and data visualization.