Healthcare IT Leaders today announced the hire of Steven Cardenas, MBA, FACHE, Colonel, USAF, MSC (Retired) as SVP, Government Services. Mr. Cardenas brings 35 years of healthcare and military experience to the role and is charged with growing the company’s IT consulting and staffing efforts within the federal government.
During his 23-year career in the United States Air Force (USA), Mr. Cardenas was promoted to the rank of Colonel and took an active role in reshaping the USAF health care delivery model from a hospital-based, area-management model to a fully integrated delivery network model. During his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director at TRICARE Northeast Health Plans, he was responsible for joint implementation and monitoring of Department of Defense (DoD) health care delivery for 23 Medical Treatment Facilities (MTFs) in 13 states and the District of Columbia. He was accountable for a budget of $2.5B that provided commercial health services to over 1.2M beneficiaries.
Post military, Mr. Cardenas has worked as a strategic consultant to help clients better understand and deliver quality services to the Defense Health Agency and Veterans Health Administration. Past engagements include consulting for OptumServe Federal Services, Cerner, Allscripts, ECCOSelect, CliniComp, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, Mobil Armor and Humana.
Healthcare IT Leaders is an approved primary or subsidiary vendor on several government contract vehicles allowing the firm to provide IT consulting and staffing services to federal agencies. Representative contract vehicles include:
• GSA MAS Schedule Healthcare IT Services SIN (Prime, Healthcare IT Leaders)
• VHA Integrated Critical Healthcare Staffing Program (ICSP) (Prime, SDVOSB)
• VA 621 I –Professional & Allied Healthcare Staffing Services (Affiliate Prime)
• NITACC CIO-SP3 (Prime, HUBZone prime, active task order)
“Steve is highly experienced at navigating the ins and outs of federal agencies. I’m confident he will grow our federal practice by meeting the specialized healthcare IT and workforce needs of the government,” said Healthcare IT Leaders CEO Ben Hilmes.
Mr. Cardenas and Healthcare IT Leaders Managing Principal Bob Bailey will attend the DoD/VA & Government Health IT Summit, May 1-2, 2024, National Harbor, MD.
