Press Releases: 2012

AMFC Associate VP Appointed as Innovation Advisor to U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

January 18, 2012
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Tonya Moody, Associate Vice President of Health Promotion and Program Development for the AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies, has received a prestigious appointment to serve as an Innovation Advisor for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Moody was among 73 clinicians, allied health professionals, health administrators and others chosen from a field of more than 900 applicants for the new program. The advisors will be part of a network of experts who will test and refine new models to improve the delivery system for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“It is such an honor to be selected to serve as an Innovation Advisor and to be a part of this important project,” Moody said. “I look forward to working with all the partners in this endeavor in developing new ideas to help improve health care in our country.”

The first group of Innovation Advisors, including Moody, have begun a six-month orientation and applied research period. Innovation advisors will work with the Innovation Center to test new models of care delivery in their own organizations and create partnerships to find new ideas that work and share them regionally and across the United States. Funding for the initiative is through the Affordable Care Act. 

CMS’ Center for Innovation works to revitalize and sustain Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and ultimately improving the health care system for all Americans through better care, better health and reduced costs.

“We’re looking to these Innovation Advisors to be our partners — we want them to discover and generate new ideas that will work and help us bring them to every corner of the United States,” said CMS Innovation Center Director Rick Gilfillan, M.D. 

About AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies

The AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies is one of the nation’s leaders in health care solutions for the underserved. AmeriHealth operates in 11 states and serves more than 4 million Medicaid, Medicare and SCHIP members through its Medicaid managed care products, pharmaceutical benefit management services, behavioral health services, and other administrative services. Headquartered in Philadelphia, AmeriHealth Mercy is a mission-driven company with more than 25 years of experience serving low-income and chronically ill populations. AmeriHealth Mercy’s divisions include:

• Keystone Mercy Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care health plan servicing over 321,000 members in five southeastern Pennsylvania counties;
• AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care health plan servicing 108,000 members in 15 Pennsylvania counties;
• Select Health, a Medicaid managed care health plan serving 214,000 members throughout the State of South Carolina;
• MDwise Hoosier Alliance, a Medicaid managed care health plan serving 133,000 members throughout the State of Indiana;
• PerformCare/CBHNP Behavioral Health Services, servicing almost 1.1 million members in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and South Carolina;
• Perform Rx, a pharmacy benefits manager servicing over 1.8 million members.

The AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies also provides other administrative services in New Jersey and Kentucky.