Dr. Doug Jacobs (CM) Doug Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., is the chief transformation officer in the Center for Medicare (CM) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). At CMS he helps lead Medicare’s efforts to promote value-based care, advance health equity, and encourage delivery system transformation. He most recently served as the chief medical officer and chief innovation officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, helping to oversee the state’s Medicaid and human services programs amidst the pandemic for the 16,000-person agency.
Dr. Jacobs was tapped by Governor Tom Wolf to lead Pennsylvania’s Whole Person Health Reform initiative, which included expanding value-based care, promoting health equity, and addressing the social determinants of health. Under his leadership, the Department of Human Services created Pennsylvania’s first equity incentive program in Medicaid, established new rules to incorporate community-based organizations in addressing social determinants of health, and oversaw Medicaid’s increasing movement towards value-based care. He also helped lead the COVID-19 response for the agency, creating programs to protect long-term care facilities and roll out the COVID-19 vaccine to vulnerable populations.
Dr. Jacobs is a practicing board-certified internal medicine physician and an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He is also an avid writer with published pieces in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He trained in internal medicine primary care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as chief resident at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center. Dr. Jacobs received his Doctor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, his Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and his Bachelor of Science from Brown University.