Mark Taylor, president and chief executive officer for Columbia St. Mary’s Health System, will serve as the next chairman for the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership, a public-private consortium dedicated to improving health care for underserved populations in Milwaukee County.
Taylor succeeds Bill Petasnick, immediate past president and CEO for Froedtert Health and a founding member of the consortium.
Taylor will work with Joy Tapper, the Partnership’s executive director, to advance the members’ strategic goals, focused on ensuring adequate and affordable health insurance coverage, improving access to quality health care providers and services; and enhancing care coordination across the delivery network. His two-year term, which began in January, will coincide with impending Medicaid reforms, the implementation of the health insurance exchange and significant changes under the Affordable Care Act which will affect low-income individuals.
“As a relative newcomer to the community, I am eager to maintain and strengthen the relationships among health systems, health centers, academic institutions and public health agencies to improve health care for vulnerable populations; especially low income individuals. The Partnership provides a unique forum to improve health outcomes, reduce disparities, and reduce the overall cost of care. I am grateful for the leadership Bill and his predecessors have provided and am pleased to lend my support to our collaborative work,” Taylor said. “Our collaborative efforts to improve access and quality of care are extremely important during this time of health care reform, given that more than 30 percent of the County population is at or below the federal poverty level and either enrolled in a Medicaid program or uninsured.”
Founded in 2007, the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership is an unincorporated, managed consortium committed to improving coverage, access and care coordination for low income uninsured and Medicaid receipts in Milwaukee County. Members include the five Milwaukee-based health systems – Aurora Health Care, Children’s Hospital and Health System, Colombia St. Mary’s, Froedtert Health, and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare; the four federally qualified health centers -Progressive Community Health Centers, Milwaukee Health Services, Inc., Outreach Community Health Centers, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center; the Medical College of Wisconsin; and the City, County and State health departments.
