John Howser

David Posch, MA, Executive Vice President for Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) Office of Population Health and Executive Director for Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN), has transitioned into the new role of Senior Vice President for Business Consulting effective Jan. 1.

Posch will be succeeded as Population Health leader by C.J. Stimson, MD, JD, Senior Vice President of Value Transformation in the VUMC Office of Population Health. (See accompanying article about Dr. Stimson).

Posch, who has served VUMC in multiple senior leadership roles since joining the organization, is the Medical Center’s first population health leader, having held this role since 2015 where he has been responsible for the development and coordination of population health activities within VUMC and VHAN.

During his tenure with VUMC, Posch has led major efforts in cost and operations improvement; significant expansion of ambulatory volume and services, customer service, patient care center development and ambulatory EMR implementation; and development of Vanderbilt’s retail, contract and specialty pharmacy programs.

In this new role, he will continue to report to C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer, and will, in consultation with Stimson in his role as EVP for Population Health, continue to support the activities of the Office of Population Health and VHAN. He will continue to support the ongoing implementation of VUMC’s value-based approaches to care and will also provide consultative services to the Clinical Support Services Division.

“I want to thank David Posch for his numerous contributions as our founding leader for population health. David’s efforts have been instrumental to our innovation and growth in this area. Given his unique history with the organization, serving the health system in such varied leadership roles, along with the numerous relationships he holds within VUMC and throughout the state, David is uniquely positioned to continue to help guide business development across a range of our programs and services,” said Pinson.

Spanning Tennessee from Memphis to Johnson City, VHAN is a clinically integrated network of physicians, nurses and allied professionals who are transforming the delivery of health care and improving the overall health within the communities they serve. VHAN currently includes 13 health systems, 73 hospitals, more than 370 medical practices and more than 7,300 providers.

In addition to the responsibilities of VHAN, the Office of Population Health also oversees one of Vanderbilt Health’s most successful clinical offerings, the MyHealth Bundles program. Bundled payments are a value-based approach to managing several common health conditions and are designed to improve health outcomes and lower costs. Because payments for services are bundled, patients have little or no out-of-pocket expenses. These popular programs, which offer services like weight loss management, joint replacement and childbirth, have served more than 7,000 patients so far.

“It has been an honor to work with so many truly dedicated and outstanding colleagues in my various roles at Vanderbilt, and I am grateful to all.  Our collective work has been focused on how to continuously improve health outcomes for the patient populations we serve through coordinated efforts to create realiable elevated quality and service with wise stewardship of cost. I look forward to the next iteration of my career and continuing to work to advance Vanderbilt as the preeminent organization for health care value,” Posch said.

Posch joined VUMC after having served in administrative roles at Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans and with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Since joining, he has been successively promoted to positions that include an increasing scope of responsibilities spanning VUMC’s clinical enterprise.

He arrived at VUMC in 1999 in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer of the Vanderbilt Clinics and Executive Director of the Vanderbilt Medical Group.

His role was expanded to include CEO for Vanderbilt University Hospital in October 2011. In July 2015, he was appointed Executive Vice President for Population Health to lead Vanderbilt Health System’s evolution in value-based care and related management systems and to provide executive oversight of the development and management of the Vanderbilt Health Affiliate Network (VHAN). In 2017, he also assumed the position of Executive Director for VHAN.

Posch serves on the Board of Directors for the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. In July 2022, he became the chair for the Board of the Safety Net Consortium of Middle Tennessee. He formerly served as president of the Board for Vanderbilt Integrated Providers and has served on the boards of several Vanderbilt subsidiary organizations to include Vanderbilt Home Health, Vanderbilt affiliated ambulatory surgery centers, a skilled nursing facility, and a VUMC-founded FQHC.

Posch holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a Master of Organizational Development and Analysis from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.