Karen van Caulil, Ph.D.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Florida Alliance for Healthcare Value

Karen van Caulil, Ph.D. joined the Florida Alliance for Healthcare Value, formerly known as the Florida Health Care Coalition, in 2011 as the President and Chief Executive Officer. Previous positions included the Director of Healthcare Planning at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine, the Executive Director of the Health Council of East Central Florida, and the founding Project Director of the Primary Care Access Network.

Karen teaches graduate level courses in health services administration and health informatics and lectures frequently on a wide array of topics in the healthcare field. Karen serves on numerous state, regional and national boards and committees that address quality of care, patient safety, healthcare delivery and payment reform. She is the Vice Chair of Florida’s Consumer Health Information and Policy Analysis Advisory Council, charged by the legislature with overseeing the State’s transparency efforts including implementation of the state’s all payer claims database.

Karen graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology and completion of the “Science, Technology and Human Values” degree program. Karen completed a US Public Health Service Traineeship and a Master of Science in Public Health in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She obtained an interdisciplinary Doctorate in Public Affairs (Health, Public Administration, Criminal Justice and Social Work) from the University of Central Florida.

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Speaker Questionnaire

What is the biggest thing you learned in 2020?

With each challenge that came at us in 2020, we were allowed to learn and to adapt, and think outside the box.

What do you feel are the two most important benefits or areas that need to be a top priority in 2021?

Mental health and addressing vaccine hesitancy.

Can you share a story on an area of your healthcare program or employee benefits where you were able to create significant savings or stop costs from rising?

Our Cancer Navigation program was able to help participants fully understand and use all available employer resources and benefits so they could access care at the right time and the right place at the right cost, secured financial assistance when they needed it, and kept them out of the ER and hospital.

If you could automatically receive a 10-20% reduction in costs in three areas/programs, what would your dream list be?

Inpatient hospital, ER, and drug spend.

What is the most innovative program you will focus on in 2021 and/or 2022?

Working hard to get the collaborative care model fully implemented in Florida. Integrating behavioral health into primary care.

How are you re-imagining corporate culture & well-being?

Focusing on Total Person Health. Total Person Health focuses on the interplay of multiple bio-psychosocial dimensions of individuals across the spectrum of health status and health intervention to meet them where they are on a more personalized basis, recognizing diversity within populations. Total Person Health strategic interventions have outperformed (clinically and financially) efforts that have been more one-dimensional.

What virtual care solutions did you roll out during the pandemic? How valuable were they and why?

Telebehavioral health took off and has been a lifesaver, literally!

If you look at our 3 Moonshots - Costs, Culture, and Care; In one sentence, tell us what would be something positive for us to take from 2020 and bring into this new year?

We saw that high-value care can be delivered outside the expensive hospital setting. Virtually and at-home, with excellent patient outcomes at a much-reduced cost.