Kush Das
Kush has been in the healthcare industry for over a decade, both as a business consultant at McKinsey & Co. and as a healthcare attorney at Foley & Lardner. His expertise is in value based payments, digital and community-based provider operations, and growth partnerships. Kush got his start in healthcare in Emergency Medical Services.
Kush has expertise in both the business and regulatory/reimbursement aspects of healthcare, where he specializes in value based payments, digital and community-based provider operations, and growth partnerships.
Professional: Kush was most recently a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. where he worked with healthcare industry clients, including payors, providers, digital health companies (i.e. services and technology), and public sector entities (e.g., state departments of health). Kush’s client engagements have included:
Designing a tech-enabled provider-product partnership for a top payer to grow and reduce population total cost of care by 10-15% by capitating payments and changing delivery with an integrated provider-patient digital platform and chronic disease management.
Developing a provider-partnership strategy for a large payor to move more care to lower cost settings and reduce cost of care by ~10%, including PCP based capitation models and partial ownership, hospital-based joint ventures and product partnerships, and ancillary provider partnerships to move care to lower cost sites (e.g., outpatient surgery to Ambulatory Surgery Centers, rehabilitation and skilled nursing to the home, radiology to freestanding centers, and emergency room visits to urgent care centers).
Developing a financing pilot focused on making out-of-pocket expenses more affordable for low income populations (~1M target patient population) through a point of sale (POS) installment plan that incorporated risk.
Implementing the transformation of a national health system’s operating model from brick and mortar hospitals to site specific solutions built around joint ventures and leaner care delivery (e.g., telehealth, home health, outpatient) to create $100M+ in margin improvement.
Refining and articulating an enterprise-wide provider/network strategy for a top national insurer to move more healthcare spending to risk-based arrangements (e.g., capitation) and innovative delivery methods (e.g., mobile health, telemedicine, ambulance, home).
Advising a state Department of Health supporting hospitals to transform to a global budget model to improve margins by 5-20%, create ~$40M in savings by reducing potentially avoidable utilization (PAU), and increase revenue with community-focused service mix. Worked with state leaders on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation agreement, including operationalizing the model.
Diagnosing network utilization opportunities to improve performance for a hospital in a global budget model, with a focus on reducing potentially avoidable utilization (PAU), improving service mix, and strengthening provider alignment.
Kush was also a leader in McKinsey’s digital healthcare and healthcare services and technology practices. He pitched, received funding for, and built an advanced analytics opportunity simulator for digital health interventions’ impact on healthcare outcomes and costs (e.g., care coordination, digital therapeutics).
Kush was on the fastest trajectory to partnership in McKinsey’s healthcare practice (rated in top 5% among all peers in each cycle) before starting Circa Health. He is trained in McKinsey’s “mini-MBA”, where he has received the same business training as elite MBA programs (e.g., corporate finance, marketing and sales, lean operations).
Before joining McKinsey, Kush was a healthcare corporate lawyer at Foley & Lardner focused on transactions, reimbursement, and compliance. Kush has lead provider acquisitions and private equity transactions. He has also advised on digital health reimbursement, value-based payments, state licensing, and innovative joint ventures and partnerships (e.g., post-acute care joint ventures with acute health systems as a growth, volume, and margin strategy).
Personal: Kush grew up in northern New Jersey and both his parents worked in New York City. Because of the impact 9/11 had in his life, Kush became a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician when he was still in high school, which is how he got started in healthcare (he still volunteers and keeps his EMS licenses active). He currently lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Kirsten, who is an OB/GYN resident at GW hospital.
Education: Kush has a J.D. from Georgetown Law with a focus on healthcare law, and a B.A. from the George Washington University with 50%+ merit scholarships awarded for academic performance and dedication to community service.