OneCare Vermont’s board of managers has tapped Abe Berman to be the accountable care organization’s CEO, elevating the former health care executive from his position as interim CEO.
Berman, a former executive at the University of Vermont Health Network and the commercial insurer UnitedHealthcare, will step into a permanent leadership position atop the organization, which negotiates agreements with health care providers and insurers in an effort to improve the quality of care and lower costs.
Berman has served as the interim CEO since May 2023. Salary information for Berman was not immediately available.
“The OneCare Board of Managers conducted a thorough national search and Abe was the clear choice to lead the organization as CEO,” Anya Rader Wallack, the chair of OneCare’s board of managers, said in a press release Wednesday. “He is the right leader as we evolve the organization and continue to build on the momentum and progress made over the last decade.”
The appointment comes as Vermont health care administrators and regulators look toward further reforms in an effort to expand access and bring down costs. The state is nearing the end of the timeline for its all-payer model, a deal with the federal government that allows some Medicare and Medicaid payments to be made based on health outcomes, rather than as reimbursements for individual procedures.
OneCare, as the state’s only all-payer accountable care organization, is at the center of that model. But Vermont’s agreement with the federal government is scheduled to expire at the end of 2024, and it’s not clear exactly what will replace it in 2025.
“Our health care system is at a critical inflection point as we approach the end of the Vermont All-Payer Model extension and I’m excited to explore how best to support Vermont’s providers in the next evolution of system transformation,” Berman said in the release.
