Henish Bhansali

Dr. Henish Bhansali is a leader and executive in value-based care (VBC), with expertise in care model design and delivery, strategy and operations, data and analytics, and population health management. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer for Meridian Health Plan of Illinois, a Centene health plan serving Medicaid, Marketplace, Medicare, Dual Eligible, LTSS, and foster care populations. Dr. Bhansali provides executive clinical leadership and oversight for Medical Affairs and Quality, advancing clinical strategy, quality, health equity, regulatory performance, and member outcomes. He most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer of Medical Home Network (MHN), caring for 300,000+ Medicaid and Medicare patients served by 85 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across eight states in both urban and rural geographies within Medicaid and Medicare (MSSP, ACO REACH, MA).
Dr. Bhansali joined Duly Health and Care in 2021 as their SVP of Medicare Advantage (MA) where he was responsible for total cost of care, HEDIS/STARS performance, and payor relationships. This included global strategy and operations for MA and ACO REACH, compensation and incentive structure redesign, care model design and delivery, and compliance for 700+ physicians caring for 2.1 million patients across four states, managing 90K full risk lives and a $840M budget.
Dr. Bhansali joined Oak Street Health in 2018 where he learned the operational constructs of Medicare Advantage. As Medical Director, he and his team served an 80% dual-eligible population with a 10% prevalence of homelessness. He transitioned to a national role as the Vice President and Senior Medical Director of Care Navigation, structuring specialty and diagnostic care navigation and curating a high-performance network for 100,000+ MA patients across 22 states at 100+ clinics. He also integrated e-consults to reduce part B spend and improve physician engagement with collaborative specialty care.
Dr. Bhansali spent the prior five years as an Associate Program Director for the University of Chicago’s Internal Medicine Program at NorthShore where he co-directed the outpatient residency training. He trained fifty-one residents annually in evidence-based medicine, social determinants of health, the ‘medical home’ model, and advanced care planning alongside caring for four thousand Medicaid and undocumented patients. He created NorthShore’s Global Health Program leading an interdisciplinary team (residents, attendings, PTs, and RNs), curating mutually beneficial experiences at a hospital in Port au Prince, Haiti. He directed Medical Grand Rounds for five years, recruiting nationally recognized speakers to further both GME and CME for 200+ conferences.
Prior to that, Dr. Bhansali trained in internal medicine at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital (WU-BJH) where he served as a Chief Resident and co-created the Primary Care Track. In 2011, WU-BJH was amongst the bottom 10 hospitals in the US for readmissions. As the Director of the 'Stay Healthy Outpatient Program’, Dr. Bhansali led a multidisciplinary team of an NP, MSWs, care managers, pharmacists, EMTs, and a geriatrician to reduce WU-BJH's readmissions. He also served as a primary care consultant for Independence Center, optimizing primary care for Medicaid patients with serious mental illness (SMI). He practiced as a PCP and precepted internal medicine residents at Affinia, an FQHC. He further directed WU’s Global Health Program, leading resident
education and program development in Bhutan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Honduras,
Japan, and Eritrea.
Dr. Bhansali has been formally trained in VBC by Dr. Michael Porter at the Harvard Business School
and has an appointment with the University of Illinois as an Adjunct Professor teaching population
health servicing for their Master of Healthcare Administration program. He serves on the National
Association for Accountable Care Organizations’ Board of Directors and chairs their Education
Committee, is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the AOA Medical Honor
Society, a 2024 Presidential Leadership Scholar, an Economic Club of Chicago member, was
inducted in 2024 to the Payment Technical Advisory Committee reporting to the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, and is Board Certified in both Internal and Obesity medicine. He has been
recognized by Modern Healthcare as the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives and Pearl Health's
Top 50 Value-Based Care Thinkers of 2025.
Dr. Bhansali lives with his wife, a Chicago Public Schools Pre-K teacher and advocate for education
equity, and their two loving and mischievous sons and one courageously kind daughter, in Chicago.