Lynn Barr is recognized as an influential leader in the movement to transform and improve our nation’s rural and safety-net health care systems. As founder of Caravan Health, Ms. Barr led the development and implementation of nationwide programs that resulted in better patient care and helped health care providers achieve sustainable financial success. Caravan Health, now CVS ACO, was established to support safety-net providers interested in value-based payment models under population health programs such as accountable care organizations (ACOs).
Prior to forming Caravan Health, Ms. Barr shepherded 4 start-up companies and 12 medical inventions through the Food and Drug Administration and worldwide markets before dedicating the remainder of her career to health care reform. While earning her master’s degree in public health, she led the group purchasing of Electronic Medical Records for California’s rural hospitals, including individual needs assessments, vendor selection, negotiations, contracting assistance, and financing.
After taking a role as a CIO in a rural hospital, Ms. Barr became involved in payment policy and the transition to value. Learning that her rural health system’s 2,000 Medicare patients were insufficient to qualify for an ACO, she sought like-minded early adopters and forged an alliance of 8 unrelated rural hospitals and 6 FQHCs in California, Michigan, and Indiana that served 12,000 patients as the first National Rural ACO. Ms. Barr formed Caravan Health to manage the ACO’s services and was awarded a $30 million Transformation of Clinical Practice Initiative grant from CMS to provide similar services to rural providers and small practices who were not yet ready to participate in value-based payments. These investments led to more than 250 rural health systems succeeding as accountable care organizations, improving care for more than 600,000 rural Medicare beneficiaries in 44 states and Guam while saving the Medicare Trust Fund hundreds of millions of dollars. In March 2022, Ms. Barr sold Caravan to Signify, a division of CVS Health, and created the Barr-Campbell Family Foundation, which focuses on rural health, the underserved, education, and the environment.