Sean Cavanaugh

Chair

Head of Aledade Policy Institute

Aledade

Sean Cavanaugh is the Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Policy Officer at Aledade. Founded in 2014, Aledade partners with independent practices, health centers, and clinics to build and lead Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) anchored in primary care. Through these practice networks, Aledade empowers physicians to stay independent, focus on their patients, and thrive financially by keeping people healthy.

Sean has previously served as the Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He was responsible for overseeing the regulation and payment of Medicare fee-for-service providers, privately-administered Medicare health plans, and the Medicare prescription drug program. Previously Sean was the Deputy Director for Programs and Policy in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where he was responsible for overseeing the development and testing of new payment and service delivery models, including ACOs and medical homes. Prior to that, Sean was Director of Health Care Finance at the United Hospital Fund. He has also served in senior positions at Lutheran Healthcare, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Health Insurance Access, and the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Ashley Yeats

Vice Chair

Vice President of Medical Operations

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Dr. Ashley Yeats joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in November 2019. His areas of responsibility include clinical partnership innovation, ​mental health strategy, physician & psychologist utilization review, medical policy administration, care management consultation, clinical appeals, and corporate peer review.​

Yeats has practiced in the Boston area for 20 years, following a career in academic emergency medicine at the Ottawa Civic Hospital in Canada. He has held executive and medical leadership positions within system hospitals and the liability captive insurance carrier of the Harvard teaching hospital community. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Healthcare Quality & Clinical Integration within the Beth Israel Lahey Health System, with operational oversight of hospital-based, non-nursing patient care services, infection control, pharmacy, clinical program development and physician recruitment, graduate medical education, credentialing, and healthcare quality & patient safety. Prior roles include serving as Associate Medical Director of the CRICO Academic Medical Center Patient Safety Organization (AMC PSO) and as Associate Chief of Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Faulkner Hospital.​

He completed a dual residency in family medicine and emergency medicine at the University of Ottawa, receiving certification as a patient safety officer from Intermountain in Salt Lake City, Utah and a medical degree from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.  ​​

In addition to his current role at Blue Cross, Dr. Yeats is an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine where he teaches on topics of quality and patient safety, also lecturing in the Northeastern University Physician Assistant Program.  He sits on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Alliance for Communication & Resolution after Medical Injury and the Health Care Transformation Task Force in Washington, DC.