Bechara Choucair, MD
Executive Vice President, Chief Health Officer
Bechara Choucair, MD, serves as executive vice president and chief health officer for Kaiser Permanente.
A board-certified family physician, Dr. Choucair has more than 25 years of public health, health care, and environmental sustainability leadership experience in governmental, not-for-profit, and for-profit sectors.
He oversees $4 billion in annual investments supporting Kaiser Permanente’s community health and social health portfolio, including the creation of the nation’s largest social health network and the organization’s philanthropic giving. He is also responsible for the Medicaid line of business and advances initiatives to increase access to care and improve health outcomes for members enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare.
Dr. Choucair's accountability also includes leading enterprise clinical business development opportunities focusing on care delivery models, technologies, and products. He led the development of Habitat Health, an organization that will bring the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, known as PACE, to more Kaiser Permanente communities.
In addition to these responsibilities, he leads Kaiser Permanente’s environmental stewardship work. Under his leadership, the organization became carbon neutral in 2020 and has set a goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
In 2021, Dr. Choucair served as the White House national COVID-19 vaccinations coordinator, leading the nation’s vaccination effort. During his tenure, nearly 500 million doses of the vaccine were administered nationwide. Dr. Choucair served as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health from 2009 to 2014.
Dr. Choucair chairs the board of Maui Health System, is on the board of Habitat Health and Enterprise Community Partners, and is a member of American University of Beirut’s International Advisory Council. He holds a master’s in health care management. He has earned a number of local and national awards, including being named by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Health Executives in the United States, one of the Most Influential People in Healthcare, one of the Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare, and one of the Top 25 Minority Healthcare Executives.
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