Physician Lead - Michigan
$243k - $328k USD
Homeward is rearchitecting the delivery of health and care in partnership with communities everywhere, starting in rural America. Today, 60 million Americans living in rural communities are facing a crisis of access to care. In the U.S. healthcare system, rural Americans experience significantly poorer clinical outcomes. This trend is rapidly accelerating as rural hospitals close and physician shortages increase, exacerbating health disparities. In fact, Americans living in rural communities suffer a mortality rate 23 percent higher than those in urban communities, in part because of the lack of access to quality care.
Our vision is care that enables everyone to achieve their best health. So, we’re creating a new healthcare delivery model that is purpose-built for rural America and directly addresses the issues that have historically limited access and quality. Homeward supports Medicare-eligible beneficiaries by partnering with health plans, providers, and communities to align incentives – taking full financial accountability for clinical outcomes and the total cost of care across rural counties.
As a public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp™, Homeward’s mission and business model are aligned to address the healthcare, economic, and demographic challenges that make it challenging for rural Americans to stay healthy. Our Homeward Navigation™ platform uses advanced analytics to connect members to the right care and local resources that address social determinants of health and improve holistic health outcomes. Since many rural communities lack adequate clinical capacity, Homeward also employs care teams that supplement local practices and reach people who cannot otherwise access care.
Homeward is co-founded by a leadership team that defined and delivered Livongo’s products, and backed most recently by a $50 million series B co-led by Arch Ventures and Human Capital, with participation from General Catalyst for a total of $70 million in funding. With this leadership team and funding, Homeward is committed to bringing high-quality healthcare to rural communities in need.
The Opportunity
Join us in tackling healthcare for rural America! The Physician Lead serves as the primary clinical authority for Care Delivery, responsible for overseeing clinical quality, documentation integrity, utilization appropriateness, and provider performance within a value-based care model.
This role combines direct patient care with broad clinical oversight responsibilities. You will lead clinical operations, support local health systems, and work closely with Product, Operations, and Clinical Strategy to ensure the effective implementation of our mission to provide high-quality, accessible care to rural populations. This hybrid role combines leadership with hands-on medical practice, making a direct impact on patient outcomes while building the capacity of the local healthcare ecosystem.
Scope of Authority
- This role provides clinical oversight and escalation authority for Care Delivery providers.
- This role is accountable for clinical quality, documentation integrity, utilization appropriateness, and provider clinical performance.
- Employment actions, compensation decisions, and enterprise risk strategy remain outside the scope of this role, though clinical input may be provided.
What You’ll Do:
Core Responsibilities
Clinical Leadership & Quality Oversight
- Serve as the primary clinical authority for Care Delivery programs.
- Establish and maintain clinical standards aligned with evidence-based practice and value-based care.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate clinical quality and safety risks.
- Maintain clinical practice to preserve frontline calibration and credibility.
Provider Oversight, Auditing & Performance Management
- Provide formal clinical oversight for providers across Care Delivery.
- Conduct regular chart audits to assess documentation quality, diagnostic accuracy, risk stratification, and utilization appropriateness.
- Establish calibration standards and audit expectations.
- Deliver direct, case-based feedback to providers.
- Intervene when care, documentation, or utilization falls outside acceptable standards.
- Identify persistent performance concerns and partner with operational leadership as appropriate.
Documentation, CDI & Coding Integrity
- Own clinical accountability for documentation quality and coding defensibility.
- Ensure accurate and clinically appropriate CAP assessment and quality gap closure.
- Translate CDI and coding requirements into clear clinician expectations.
- Identify systemic documentation risks and trends impacting quality, compliance, or revenue integrity.
- Serve as the clinical escalation point for documentation disputes or concerns.
Utilization & Payor Engagement
- Serve as the physician representative for payor-facing clinical discussions.
- Support medical necessity reviews, utilization alignment, and payer audits.
- Ensure clinical documentation supports defensible utilization decisions.
- Partner with internal teams to respond to payor inquiries, audits, or escalations.
Clinical Governance & Risk Management
- Oversee clinical governance for Care Delivery, including:
- Peer review
- Incident review and follow-up
- Member complaint review related to clinical care
- Conduct or oversee root cause analysis for safety events or patterns of care variation.
- Serve as the final clinical escalation point for quality, safety, documentation, and utilization concerns.
Cross-Functional & Program Leadership
- Provide clinical leadership input into program design, pilots, and workflow changes (e.g., CHF, COPD, TOC).
- Partner with Product, AI, and Data teams through defined CDSU leadership workflows to review, validate, and operationalize clinical tools (e.g., Percepta, Nabla, ChartSync).
- Ensure clinical tools and workflows are defensible, usable, and aligned with care standards.
Hiring, Onboarding & Provider Engagement
- Participate in interviewing and onboarding of providers.
- Reinforce clinical standards, escalation pathways, and documentation expectations.
- Maintain structured accessibility for provider questions, coaching, and escalations.
- Support provider engagement and mitigate burnout by reducing ambiguity and clinical friction.
Expectations:
- Lead and participate in clinical governance and leadership huddles, including debriefs for safety events or quality failures, to support a culture of learning and improvement.
- Reinforce adherence to clinical standard operating procedures and workflows, including peer review participation, timely documentation, and coding accuracy, intervening when out of standard or when clinical defensibility is at risk.
- Review and support the development of clinical SOPs and safety protocols to ensure alignment with best practices and provider usability.
- Support Utilization Management and special case reviews by providing clinical input, identifying trends, and educating providers to drive care alignment.
- Partner to address provider engagement and burnout.
- Maintain structured accessibility for clinical questions and escalations within defined workflows, including ride-alongs and real-time clinical support.
- Complete provider chart reviews and provide feedback at a consistent cadence (bi-weekly/monthly/quarterly) on clinical trends, provider needs, or quality/safety concerns.
- Deliver quarterly clinical quality and outcomes reviews to SLT/CDSL, including trend analysis, risks, and improvement actions.
- Actively support and model use of clinical technology tools (e.g., AI documentation support, coding prompts, virtual triage tools), providing feedback to improve implementation and adoption.
- Proactively identify clinical risks, emerging trends, and workforce challenges impacting care delivery.
- Represent Care Delivery in payer, vendor, and health system meetings, providing clinical leadership to ensure alignment with value-based care priorities.
- Serve as the designated escalation physician for complex clinical decision-making, with on-call expectations defined and limited to escalation coverage.
Clinical Performance Metrics Accountable For:
- Documentation quality and audit pass rates
- CAP assessment accuracy
- Quality gap closure
- Chart closure timeliness
- Appropriate ED utilization
- Provider clinical performance
- Payor audit outcomes related to clinical defensibility
Timeline & Cadence Expectations:
Weekly
- Attend CDSU leadership syncs to align on priorities, escalations, and team needs.
- Ensure completion of 1 chart audit per provider per week for at least 3 weeks/month to meet monthly audit goals to maintain calibration and oversee quality trends.
- Share clinical observations and coaching insights from provider interactions and chart reviews.
- Engage in real-time chart audits or provider coaching in coordination with Clinical Leads, as needed.
- Respond to clinical escalations via Slack, email, phone, or huddles.
Monthly
- Ensure 3 chart audits per provider are completed monthly.
- Submit provider Chart Quality Report summarizing documentation quality, coding accuracy, and improvement opportunities, identifying emerging quality or utilization risks.
- Deliver individualized coaching notes to providers based on trends in their documentation and clinical decision-making.
Quarterly
- Lead clinical quality and outcomes reviews for Care Delivery, including trend analysis, program impact, and provider performance insights.
- Refresh clinical onboarding and education materials.
- Conduct structured performance discussions with providers to review clinical performance trends, coaching themes, and development goals.
Ad Hoc / Project-Based
- Participate in payer, vendor, or health system meetings as the clinical representative.
- Support incident reviews, audits, or focused quality initiatives.
- Contribute to clinical program pilots and evaluations.
- Interview and onboard providers as part of the provider growth strategy.
What You Bring:
- MD or DO with an active medical license; board certification in family medicine, internal medicine, or another primary care specialty strongly preferred
- Must be licensed in Michigan and ideally Minnesota, preferably both
- 8+ years of clinical experience with demonstrated clinical leadership responsibility, including experience in rural or underserved settings
- Experience overseeing providers with strong documentation, CDI, and utilization management expertise.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, and collaboration skills.
- Comfort serving as the clinical authority in payor, audit, and escalation scenarios.
- Ability to balance clinical practice with broad leadership accountability.
- Occasional travel to meet with providers across the region
Bonus Points:
- Experience in a healthcare leadership role in a value-based care setting
- Knowledge of rural health systems and the unique challenges faced by rural healthcare providers and patients
- Experience in data-driven care models, including the use of population health tools and electronic medical records (EMRs)
What Shapes Our Company:
- Deep commitment to one another, the people and communities we serve, and to care that enables everyone to achieve their best health
- Compassion and empathy
- Curiosity and an eagerness to listen
- Drive to deliver high-quality experiences, clinical care, and cost-effectiveness
- Strong focus on the sustainability of our business and scalability of our services to maximize our reach and impact
- Nurturing a diverse workforce with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and points of view
- Taking our mission and business seriously but not taking ourselves too seriously– having fun as we build!
Benefits:
- Competitive salary, equity grant, generous paid time off
- Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision insurance with 100% of monthly premium covered for employees
- Company-sponsored 401k plan
- Flexible working arrangement
The base salary range for this position is $242,800 - $328,400. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, location, competencies and experience. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work at Homeward Health. This role is eligible for an annual bonus, stock options, as well as a comprehensive benefits package.
At Homeward, a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences enrich our teams and allow us to achieve above and beyond our goals. If you have yet to gain experience in the areas detailed above, we hope you will share your unique background with us in your application and how it can be additive to our teams.
Homeward is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information. Homeward is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities.