InnovaCare Health Executive Meets with President Trump to Discuss Healthcare

– Penelope Kokkinides one of eight women invited to the “Women in
Healthcare” panel at the White House –

FORT LEE, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Penelope
Kokkinides, Chief Administrative Officer for InnovaCare,
Inc., a leading Medicaid and Medicare Advantage organization
providing healthcare-related services in Puerto Rico, attended a recent
meeting at the White House to discuss federal healthcare legislation
with President Donald Trump and CMS Administrator Seema Verma. The Women
in Healthcare Panel was a roundtable discussion held Wednesday, March
22, in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing.

Kokkinides was one of eight women invited to the panel, which also
included other executives and professional caregivers. During her time
with President Trump and administrator Verma, she spoke to the
importance of increased funding for Medicare Advantage within Puerto
Rico. Since 2011, cuts to federal funding in Puerto Rico for Medicare
Advantage have dropped by an annual amount of over $1 billion – a figure
that is significantly disproportionate to cuts in the States.

“The current administration – through CMS – is considering changes to
Medicare Advantage payments that could help begin to dig us out of the
hole we are in, and we are hopeful CMS will do the right thing for
Puerto Rico,” said Kokkinides at the meeting. “Fixing these cuts is not
only the right thing to do, but it is the fiscally responsible thing to
do. If the Medicaid system collapses in Puerto Rico, many may be forced
to leave the island for the States, where their Medicaid costs could be
up to three or four times higher.”

Medicare Advantage is the island’s most popular plan, thanks to private
plans such as MMM
Healthcare, and PMC Medicare Choice, two InnovaCare subsidiaries. In
total, the company serves more than 560,000 beneficiaries.

One of the major discussion topics at the meeting was the important role
of women in healthcare.

“The doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals here today represent
the millions of women – millions and millions – who play a vital and
indispensable role in Americans’ healthcare,” said Trump.

In the final notice, released days after the meeting, CMS provided
favorable adjustments for the Puerto Rican healthcare system.

Kokkinides has more than two decades of health care experience
specializing in government programs (Medicare and Medicaid) and the
managed care industry. She has served in a number of executive roles,
including as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for
Centerlight HealthCare, where she was responsible for overall management
and strategic direction of the managed care division; Chief Operating
Officer of Touchstone Health; and Corporate Vice President for Care
Management and Disease Management at AmeriChoice, a business unit of
UnitedHealth Group, where she was instrumental in developing and
implementing the company’s health model.

About InnovaCare, Inc.

InnovaCare,
Inc. provides managed healthcare services, operating the leading
health plans in Puerto Rico – MMM Healthcare, Inc. (MMM) and PMC
Medicare Choice, Inc. (PMC) whose membership base includes more than
200,000 individuals, served by a network of over 7,500 providers.
InnovaCare also manages two Medicaid plans within the Government Health
Plan (GHP) of Puerto Rico, with broad benefit coverage through a
coordinated care model. Offering the Island’s only NCQA-accredited
health plans, InnovaCare is committed to providing members with quality
healthcare by creating sustainable models of managed care that are
coordinated, cost-effective, innovative and fully integrated with
advanced technologies. For more information, please visit innovacarehealth.com.

Contacts

For InnovaCare, Inc.
Ellis Metz, 615-254-0575
emetz@jarrardinc.com