The hiring of Jack Stoddard brings a veteran business mind into the effort to shake up the US health care system by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase — an entrepreneur with a track record of using digital tools to change the way services are delivered to patients while saving money.
Stoddard, the Boston-based venture’s chief operating officer, has worked in health care for 25 years, spending much of that time building companies focused on using data and technology to guide patients to the most appropriate and cost-effective care. Most recently, he led the reshaping of health benefits at Comcast Corp.
He doesn’t have the clinical experience and public profile of Dr. Atul Gawande, the surgeon and author named to run the new, and still-unnamed, entity for the three companies. Instead, people who have worked with Stoddard said he brings business know-how and a deep understanding of how technology can address friction points that often frustrate patients.
“He has uniquely broad experience across the spectrum of the health care ecosystem — large company and small, technology and service providers, payers and software,” said Bryan Roberts, a partner at Venrock, a venture capital firm that has invested in Comcast’s portfolio companies. “He is an accomplished operator who will be a terrific complement to Atul Gawande — they will be a potent team.”
This won’t be Stoddard’s first attempt to break the mold in medicine. He was among the founders of a startup called Accolade, an online health benefits navigator that has already changed the way tens of thousands of American employees get medical services.
The company uses technology and personal health data to help employees understand their medical problems and find the most convenient, cost-effective solutions. As its first chief operating officer, Stoddard helped the company sign up several major clients, establishing a roster that includes Lowe’s, Hewlett-Packard, Amerigas, and Comcast. (Comcast later hired Stoddard to lead its digital health initiatives.)
In a 2012 press statement about the opening of a new Accolade office, Stoddard said: “Our growth has been driven by caring employers who can see the value of providing their employees and their families with a professional who knows them and works for them when they need it most — when they are about to use our complex and fragmented health care system.”
On its website, Accolade claims that its products have had a significant impact on the use of medical services at its client companies, including a 6.1 percent reduction in emergency room visits and a 4.4 percent first-year cost reduction.
Stoddard’s experience at the company helped him reimagine health benefits at Comcast, which contracts with an array of digital health firms, including Grand Rounds, which provides second opinions and help finding in-network doctors, and Doctor on Demand, a telehealth company.
Prior to joining Accolade, he worked for UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, where he served on an executive team that created Optum, a division that uses data and analytics to deliver preventive care and wellness services to patients.
The unit was part of a broader movement within health care to leverage technology to make medical services more proactive and accessible — a mission Stoddard will now be able to pursue on the industry’s biggest stage.
Stoddard’s work at large and small companies gives him another major asset: deep connections to key players throughout the industry.
Dr. David Utley, founder of a smoking cessation startup called Carrot Inc., first met Stoddard about a year ago, when he was looking for a new board member to help guide the company’s strategy. He said he quickly determined he was the best person for the job.
“He’s an operational pro,” Utley said. “As we’ve talked to partners, health plans, and employers, everyone knows Accolade, and most guys know Jack. He’s been a great sounding board for helping with the strategy of how we go to market.”
Stoddard has worked with the novel Medicare Advantage plan Devoted Health and BehaveCare, a technology company that seeks to personalize care for high-need Medicaid patients and address underlying social problems. He also serves on the board of NovaSom, which sells home testing for sleep apnea patients.
“The most valuable thing he brought to us was his Rolodex,” said NovaSom’s chief executive, Greg Stokes. “He’s got a lot of connections with people — from health insurers, to providers, to other groups dealing with employees. Whatever you need, he can help you get it.”
Stokes said Stoddard displays deep command of health care without being overly aggressive about imposing his ideas. “He’s very sharp and has a lot of ideas, but I wouldn’t say he’s particularly intense,” Stokes said. “He’ll ask, ‘Well, have you thought about this or looked at that?’ It’s caused us to measure things we hadn’t even thought about measuring.”
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Stoddard’s hiring is that the new venture by Amazon and its partners is serious about using technology to upend traditional business models in health care.
That has been the work of Stoddard’s career: modernizing services to rid the industry of rampant waste, especially on behalf of large employers who directly fund their employees’ medical care.
During his work at Accolade, Stoddard spoke of how easily costs can spiral out of control, noting that companies with 100,000 employees can spend $1 billion a year on medical services. He asserted in a 2012 article that about 30 percent to 40 percent of that is spent on overuse or misuse of benefits.
“Jack has had a transformative effect in health care, insurance, and corporate benefits,” Utley said in a statement when he invited Stoddard to join his board last spring. “He has a proven record of scaling companies in this space with truly innovative, consumer-centric solutions.”
Before taking the job with the Gawande-led company, Stoddard was working on another big technology deal — a partnership between Comcast and Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia, which serves 8.5 million customers in 24 states, to create a new digital tool for patients. The project is creating a personalized guide to deliver better information to patients about their health conditions and how to seek convenient and cost-effective care.
While it is too early to tell how Stoddard will approach his new job with Gawande, those who know him say it is safe to assume that using technology to disrupt the traditional relationships will be a big part of it.
“This is probably the best job in the world for him,” said NovaSom’s Stokes. “It gives him a platform to make vast changes in this business.”
Casey Ross czan be reached at casey.ross@statnews.com.