Designation : CEO

Strategic Formation After several years in corporate accounting and finance, in 1987, John Ford, our founder, was asked to lead the health care programs for a Fortune 500 energy company located in 37 states. There, he redesigned benefits programs and began building select physician and hospital networks in Oklahoma and rural Alaska, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Working across the country, he began to more fully appreciate the challenges of organizing community health care co-ops purposed to reduce fragmentation and build coordination across the continuum of care.

Infrastructure In the early 1990s, wanting to make a difference in healthcare, John moved into the fledgling HMO insurance industry, both as an operations executive for PacifiCare of Oklahoma (now part of United) and as chief executive for a provider-sponsored HMO startup in mid-state Illinois. During this time, he forged key hospital/physician/insurance relationships and developed a keen appreciation for engaged physicians as drivers of meaningful cost containment and improved healthcare outcomes.

Provider Integration In the late 1990s, John ventured even closer by starting a staff-model medical group for a large Texas non-profit hospital. Here, he worked with primary care physicians, select specialists, and hospital affiliates to integrate clinical services and standards across the continuum. Learning from our industry’s numerous ill-formed reform attempts, John realized primary care was best positioned to lead reform. He realized that, if organized and resourced, primary care was the only true choice to expedite the change mandate.

Building for Success In 2000, John created Triad Physician Resources, Inc., a management organization that supports medical groups’ financial and structural needs. Recognizing the need for primary care to have an independent affiliation option, in 2003, he started PhyNet Inc., a staff model primary care group in East and South Central Texas. It has grown to include 10 PCP facilities in 9 Texas counties. Using PhyNet as a platform, John has since diversified his ”pre-acute” strategy by acquiring or partnering with other care management disciplines incorporating home health, chronic care, and rehabilitative services. With the 2012 ACA endorsement of PCP-driven reform, in 2013, he formed Prime Care Managers LLC, an independent regional primary care network in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, to position and equip primary care to lead the creative effort to build sustainable value-based advanced payment models. John has spoken to community leaders, boards, and various provider stakeholders as a business entrepreneur regarding health care strategy, finance, and operations. He has volunteered his time to serve on the Board of Texas Non-Profit Healthcare Organizations and was a principal in the establishment of Federally Qualified Health Centers in Texas.