2 - There's No One-Size-Fits-All Solution to SDoH with Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy is the CEO at Medicaid Health Plans of American (MHPA). In this episode, Craig discusses the personal challenges and complications that we often don't think of when we discuss SDoH, including his own personal experience growing up in rural Oregon.

Questions we discuss include:

• Why is it important to address SDoH now?
• What is healthcare missing when it comes to SDoH?
• What are the challenges and complications that affect individuals that we don't traditionally think of?

To connect with Craig:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-kennedy-9892505/
• Email: ckennedy@mhpa.org
• MHPA: https://www.medicaidplans.org/

Craig joined MHPA in December of 2019 after more than two decades in non-profit association management and in leadership positions on Capitol Hill. He has management responsibility for all aspects of the Association and reports to the MHPA Board of Directors. MHPA represents the interests of the Medicaid managed care industry through advocacy and research to support innovative policy solutions that enhance the delivery of comprehensive, cost-effective, and quality health care for Medicaid enrollees.

Prior to joining MHPA, Craig was the Executive Director for the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU). He led ACU to record growth over his six-year tenure and helped secure new federal grant funding for the organization. He also helped establish their advocacy infrastructure, which grew to include thousands of active participants across the country. Craig previously served as the top lobbyist for the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) for more than a decade, which included negotiating the 2008 reauthorization of the Health Centers and National Health Service Corps programs, the 2009 Stimulus package, and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He began his tenure at NACHC working to double the Health Centers program (the REACH Initiative) and subsequently drafted the ACCESS for All America plan for the organization. During his thirteen-year tenure at NACHC, the Health Centers program grew from $875 million in annual funding to over $5 billion.

Craig has also worked on Capitol Hill and in the Oregon State Legislature. His work on Capitol Hill included a stint in the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over all health, tax and trade issues. He also served as the Senior Legislative Assistant for a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and later as the Legislative Director for a member of the House Rules Committee.

He received his Masters in Public Health from the George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington, DC, and has a Bachelor’s of Science from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Craig currently serves on the Board of Directors for First Focus Campaign for Children and as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Primary Care Leadership program.

He lives with his wife Linda and three daughters in northern Virginia.