Israel Rocha

Israel Rocha Jr. is president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States.

In this role, he leads the organization’s focus on providing integrated, high-quality health care and coverage in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. The Mid-Atlantic States Region operates 42 medical offices and serves 800,133 members.

Rocha joined Kaiser Permanente in December 2023 after serving as the chief executive officer of Cook County Health in Illinois — the third-largest public health care system in the nation. During his tenure, he improved the organization’s financial performance, oversaw the million-dose mass vaccination program and COVID-19 pandemic response, addressed social risk factors that restrict access to care and cause premature illness and death, and improved clinical and quality outcomes.

Prior to Cook County Health, Rocha held executive leadership roles at the Elmhurst and Queens hospitals of NYC Health + Hospitals, and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Health in Texas.

Throughout his career, Rocha has demonstrated his commitment to enhancing access to care for all. He has overseen the expansion of charitable care programs while reversing budget deficits and has also transitioned fee-for-service systems to value-based care models while enhancing patient safety and care outcomes.

Rocha has a passion for changing the health care industry through the advocacy and enactment of public policy. He worked in senior staff roles in the United States House of Representatives on health care reform initiatives that would incentivize new models of care, address nursing shortages, restructure graduate medical education funding programs, and expand patient protection programs.

Rocha serves on the boards of directors for the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Association of Health Plans, and the NYU Alumni Association. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a bachelor’s degree in political science and environmental science from Columbia University.