Chris Stenzel, an executive with Kaiser Permanente (KP) for 33 years and a founder of their industry-leading healthcare venture fund, KP Ventures, recently joined Hummingbird Healthcare as chair of the board of directors.
Stenzel served as National Vice President for Business Development & Innovation and Executive Managing Director of KP Ventures, which has raised and invested over $760 million in innovative healthcare companies. Stenzel oversaw venture investments in 80 companies and served as a board member or observer for 18 portfolio companies, as well as other innovation initiatives and large strategic partnerships. His team contributed to the development of the value-based technology platform for Risant Health. He also held executive roles across strategic planning, information technology management, and business development in KP’s medical group, health plan, and hospital areas.
Hummingbird helps health systems standardize primary care and specialty patient access services into centralized contact centers, improve contact center operations, and optimize access technology to provide patients with the responsive, personalized experience they’ve come to expect in other industries.
“Creating an intuitive, seamless experience for patients while improving providers’ efficiency and satisfaction addresses some of the most important issues in healthcare delivery today. Hummingbird’s spectacular growth is evidence that they have identified a critical need for health systems and have assembled people, processes, and technology to provide enormous value quickly,” said Stenzel.
Stenzel joins an impressive board with deep experience in healthcare provider organizations, corporate strategy and growth, and IT and AI to support Hummingbird’s continued growth and innovation. Board directors include Grant Blevins, Partner at Health Velocity Capital; Julie Miller-Phipps, Past President of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, Southern California and Hawaii Markets; Steve Hess, CIO at UCHealth; Steve Lindseth, General Partner at CU Healthcare Innovation Fund; Albert Prast, Chief Technology Officer at AdaptHealth; and Jeremy Schwach, Hummingbird CEO.
In addition, John Bertrand, CEO at Digital Diagnostics; Elizabeth Burke, Senior Director of Innovation at UCHealth; and Kristin Torres Mowat, Partner at Health Velocity Capital, serve as board observers, and Heidi Jackson Everett, Managing Director at CRA | Admired Leadership, and Mikhail Naumov, Founder and CEO at Paylode, serve as advisors.
ABOUT HUMMINGBIRD HEALTHCARE AND ITS INVESTMENT PARTNERS
Hummingbird is a healthcare managed services company that specializes in patient access, including appointment scheduling, registration, insurance verification, authorizations and referrals, nurse triage, and prescription management. Their goal is to reduce the $30 billion health systems spend every year answering phone calls by managing patient access as a technology-enabled service to provide patients with the responsive, personalized experience they’ve come to expect in other industries. Hummingbird also focuses on creating good jobs that attract and keep talent in healthcare. As a member of the Good Jobs Institute, Hummingbird’s operating philosophy is rooted in the Good Jobs Strategy, where paying front-line team members living wages, investing in learning and development, and committing to internal mobility are key to enduring success.
Contact:
Justin Jozwik, Senior Leader, Growth
608.332.8782, justin@hummingbird.healthcare