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Kevin McAvey
Healthcare Data Strategist & System Transformation Leader
Kevin McAvey is a professional with a diverse career spanning various prestigious organizations and educational institutions, holding advanced degrees in Applied Economics & Management, Public Policy, and Economics & English.
Kevin's educational background includes a Master of Science in Applied Economics & Management from Cornell University, a Master of Public Policy in Economic Development Policy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and English from Colgate University.
Throughout his career, Kevin McAvey has held significant roles in multiple organizations, showcasing leadership and expertise. He formerly served as a Managing Director at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Treasurer on the Board of Directors at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH DATA ORGANIZATIONS, Director at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and Senior Manager at Manatt Health within the same organization.
Kevin has also served as President of the Board of Directors at the Association of Public Data Users, Member of the Finance and Warrant Commission at the Town of Westwood, Massachusetts, and Chair of the 2016 National Conference at the Association of Public Data Users.
His experience includes roles such as Associate Director of Analytics, Manager of Analytics, and Senior Policy and Research Analyst at the Center for Health Information and Analysis. Kevin also worked as an Advisor for Economic Competitiveness Strategy & Data Analysis at Economic Partners, Inc., contributing valuable insights.
Furthermore, McAvey has been involved in various capacities, including as an Associate Member at the City of Cambridge's Board of Zoning Appeals, an Associate at Mt. Auburn Associates, a Research Analyst/Consultant at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, and an Intern in the Office of Senator Hillary Clinton at the United States Senate.
Kevin also gained experience as a Business Analyst at Deloitte Consulting, rounding out his versatile skill set and aptitude in different professional domains.
With a wealth of experience in economics, policy, analytics, and consultancy, Kevin McAvey's career trajectory reflects a commitment to excellence and a significant contribution to various fields.
Highlights
On this #FathersDay, I wanted to take a moment to talk about our children (and not necessarily #healthdata).
For me, I have two boys - four and two - who, along with my incredible wife, are my life, and whose health and wellbeing I strive to support every single day. We do whatever we can to ensure the boys have access to nutritious food, are in safe environments where they can learn and play and thrive, that their colds are tended and scrapes are cared for, and that they have a warm, stable home as their foundation on which to build. It is the privilege of our life to be their parents; it is also our greatest responsibility.
Every child in New York deserves such access to a safe home, healthy food, health care, quality schooling, and every opportunity to grow and succeed. But we continue to struggle to realize this imperative.
In May 2024, the Office of the NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a report on "New York Children in Need," which highlighted key statistics about children in New York State that still haunt me, including:
- Nearly one in five children in New York are living in poverty.
- New York has the 41st highest childhood poverty rate in the US, behind our adjacent states, as well as CA, IL, and FL.
- It is an urban problem. Among our counties, the Bronx and Brooklyn top our list; while Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo ranking among the top large cities in the US with the highest rates of child poverty.
- It is also a rural problem. Underrepresented in the report (IMO), rural child poverty is pervasive in NY. In Broome and Chautauqua counties, childhood poverty rates exceed one in four; NY's Southern Tier persistently struggles.
This is not new news. In Dec 2021, the legislature passed and the Governor signed the Child Poverty Reduction Act, and convened a Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council to develop proposals to reduce our poverty rate by 50% by 2031. The Council (https://otda.ny.gov/cprac/) has since met on a number of occasions since it was convened in Oct 2022, together and as issue workgroups, and with help by the Urban Institute, aims to release recommendations on how the state can address #ChildhoodPoverty in late fall: nearly three years after the Act was enacted. I look forward to the recommendations, and hope they will be fully considered.
In the meantime, I took the opportunity and occasion to make a donation to the Westchester Children's Association. I hope you’ll join me in finding ways to support so many of the local efforts hoping to address this overwhelming, generational need.
Happy Father's Day, all. Time to take care of the kids.
New #HealthData report: Sorry/not sorry for the flurry of posts. Our #datastrategy and #analytics teams at Manatt Health have been busy. Last week, the Rhode Island Foundation released a report "Examining the Financial Structure and Performance of Rhode Island's Acute Hospitals and Health Systems." The report comprises a wealth of publicly available data on the Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut health care systems, allowing public and private stakeholders to have fact-based discussions about state health care system issues and potential policy solutions.
Four notables, for me: (1) Market transparency is not exclusively a public sector need. The Foundation served as a neutral convener for an industry-funded effort to develop a shared set of facts about the RI health care system. Public and private sector leaders were engaged in its development, and are poised to use its results.
(2) Public health care system data abounds, if you know where to look - and most importantly, if you know how to properly interpret it. Public data can provide stakeholders with a solid, directional understanding about many health care system concerns.
(3) Public data only gets you so far. As extensively outlined in the Report's Limitations section, public data is often limited, incomplete, outdated, and inconsistently reported across states. There are more comprehensive and timely #healthdata resources out there, but they will cost you - and that's a shame, and a structural barrier to #goodgovernance in this country.
(4) State health care #affordability policies can only take you so far. States have tremendous market leverage - as regulators, purchasers, and conveners - to advance (often public and privately shared) goals of health care quality and affordability, market transparency and accountability, but remain limited by in their authority and by the nature of a health care system that is not bound by state borders: payers and providers work dynamically across state lines; patients flow to their preferred health care providers regardless of location; and workers flow to where the jobs and resources are. In the absence of federal leadership, it again comes back to the states to lead, to work with one another and with industry leaders to set shared regional goals and coordinate in shared regional action to support patient health, service delivery, and system sustainability.
Kudos to the Foundation, the funders, RI's incredible public sector leaders, and Jan Norris and Justine Y. for advancing this report. Looking forward to the discussions that follow.
https://lnkd.in/enpgkbig
