David L. Holmberg is president and chief executive officer of Highmark Health, a $27.1 billion blended health organization that includes one of America's largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Highmark Health's 44,000 employees serve millions of customers nationwide through the nonprofit organization's affiliated businesses, including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, HM Insurance
Holmberg is shaping the future of the healthcare industry by engaging with trade associations, regulators, peer organizations, strategic partners, and government to resolve critical health care issues. In 2016, Highmark Health sued the U.S. government in federal claims court, resulting in a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed that the federal government must fulfill its promises to preserve the trust that ensures the successful of public-private partnerships, including the ACA marketplace.
Holmberg joined Highmark Inc. in 2007 and served in a series of executive positions, including president of its Diversified Businesses, where he was responsible for businesses representing more than $3.5 billion in revenue, chief executive officer for HVHC Inc. and chief executive officer and chairman for HM Insurance Group, United Concordia Dental and San Antonio, Texas-based Visionworks, which was divested in 2016 for $1.6 billion.
Under Holmberg's leadership, Highmark Health successfully navigated the tumultuous post-ACA years as well as the financial turnaround of Allegheny Health Network (AHN), which was nearing bankruptcy when it was acquired by Highmark Inc. in 2013. In 2019, Holmberg successfully negotiated an agreement with the Pennsylvania Attorney General to provide residents of western Pennsylvania with continued access to the region’s two leading health systems.
In early 2020, Highmark Health's financial strength and stability enabled the rapid deployment of more than $1.4 billion in resources needed to diagnose, treat, and support the organization’s members and patients through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite national challenges including inflation and staffing, Holmberg has overseen Highmark Health's consistently strong consolidated financial performance—proving the success of the blended health and diversified business model. During his tenure, the organization has grown from $15 billion in revenue in 2013 to $27 billion in 2023.
Holmberg has also expanded the footprint of the organization's insurance markets to western and central New York and southeastern Pennsylvania, while also growing the government business segment. Allegheny Health Network has also grown to include 14 hospitals in western Pennsylvania and five multi-specialty medical malls.
Holmberg is investing to build a better-connected ecosystem for health, coverage and care, designed to improve the consumer and clinician experience. In 2022, Highmark Health launched My Highmark, a first-of-its-kind health platform providing seamless care navigation, shared care plans, virtual and digital health, simplified bill payment, and cost transparency to Highmark’s 7 million members.
Board of Director Affiliations:
Chairman, Highmark Inc., the Blue-branded health insurance affiliate of Highmark Health
Chairman, The Allegheny Conference on Community Development
Allegheny Health Network
VSP Vision
The National Institute for Healthcare Management Foundation
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Former Chairman, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) (Jan. 2022 – Jan. 2024)
Former Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) (Nov. 2019 - Nov. 2021)
Thought Leadership Topics:
Experience is Everything
Holmberg advocates for a personalized approach to health that brings the best of retail experiences, like shopping or banking, to health care.
If we get experience right, both individuals and clinicians will be more engaged and proactive, and that's the most effective and sustainable way to improve health outcomes and reduce overall costs.
Holmberg is focused on meeting consumers where they are, including through accelerating digital/virtual capabilities as well as expanding facilities and care access closer to—and into—the home.
Building Integrated Transformational Business Models
As former CEO of VisionWorks and Davis Vision, Holmberg developed a unified insurance-provider-manufacturing-retail model that serves as the prototype for the vertically integrated payer-provider model at Highmark Health today.
This transformational model has reached its height in western Pennsylvania, where Highmark Health owns both the payer and provider capabilities.
This integrated system means data-sharing, predictive analytics, value-based approaches and more.
Making Allies out of Adversaries
A better health experience requires closer collaboration and alignment across legacy silos like “payer” and "provider."
Holmberg embraces disruptors and believes even established players need to be willing to disrupt their own business models to address industry challenges.
Partnerships vs. M&A: Highmark Health doesn't need to own everything — Highmark Health partnerships include Google Cloud, League, Penn State Health, and ChristianaCare, among others.
Health Evolution: How organizations can build ‘best-in-class’ personalized health care, July 2023 Holmberg said organizations must "really understand not only the journey once somebody has a disease, but also what their socioeconomic issues are and what's driving behavior." He continued, "Organizations can take all that information and turn it into a superpower by putting it back in patients’ hands in simple formats that they can understand and use to take action."
AHIP Consumer & Digital Health, September 2023 "We need you to bring innovative ideas, we need you to bring things that are disruptive, but we need you to simplify them in such a way that they can be adopted."
Fierce Healthcare, June 2022 "Stemming the tide of rising drug prices will require bringing all the major players to the table, experts said Tuesday {at AHIP 2022). David Holmberg said health insurers want to approve every new therapy that hits the market, but drug companies need to meet payers halfway in finding ways to address climbing expenses."
HLTH Conference MM&M Podcast, October 2021
Appetite for Health Transformation — Podcasts — MM+M (mmm-online.com)
Axios View from the Top, May 2020: The Hidden Health Crisis "[Being an insurer and a health care provider], we knew we would be the front line of defense if [COVID 19} came to America. We needed to stand up our pandemic operations center. It is designed to give us as much information as possible, both from the Blue Cross Blue Shield side but also from the front line caregivers to be able to look for the early indicators."
Washington Post Live, May 2018: The Future of an Evolving Industry "I think the biggest challenge in health care is recognizing that we can — it's no longer about us, it’s got to be about them. It's got to be about the people that we serve. And meaning, we need to have a retail mindset where we understand what motivates that individual, how do we connect with them, and then how do we provide them the services and capabilities that fit their lifestyle and their choices?"
