PITTSBURGH, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Donald R. Fischer, M.D., MBA has been named senior vice president and chief medical officer for Highmark Inc. He will oversee the company’s new Integrated Clinical Services unit, which comprises medical management for Central and Western Pennsylvania, medical policy, quality management, health management services and pharmacy affairs.
Fischer, who joined Highmark in 2001, recently served as the company’s medical director for strategic physician relations. His focus has been working with primary care physicians and specialists to reduce unwarranted variation in practice patterns. Fischer has also been instrumental in developing the company’s Performance Based Incentive Program, an initiative that rewards community physicians for achieving quality improvement targets in the management of their Highmark patients. In addition, he is actively involved in Highmark’s initiative to create a regional strategy to address childhood obesity.
Fischer is a 1973 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and he received his medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1977. After completing a pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 1981, he joined the full-time faculty in the pediatric cardiology division at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was promoted to the rank of professor in 1995, and held the position of medical director at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh from July 1996 through December 2000. Fischer also holds a master’s of business administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business. He continues to see patients in the cardiology division at Children’s Hospital on a part-time basis.
Fischer is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology, and he is a fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Cardiology. He is a certified physician executive in the American College of Physician Executives.
He is a member of the boards of directors of the Pennsylvania Cancer Control Consortium, the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Heart Association and the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, an oral-aural school for the profoundly hearing impaired. In addition, Fischer serves as co-chair of the Pennsylvania Coalition to Save Antibiotic Strength.
For more information about Highmark, visit http://www.highmark.com/ .
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield
CONTACT: Phil Neubauer of Highmark Inc., +1-412-544-4221, orphil.neubauer@highmark.com
Web site: http://www.highmark.com/
