Kusserow believes healthcare leaders get better ideas by staying close to caregivers and the people they support.
Paul Kusserow is executive chairman and CEO of Careforth. A former Amedisys chief executive with a background in healthcare strategy and home-based care, he leads a business that supports relatives and friends caring for adults at home.
From Literature to Healthcare Leadership
He earned a bachelor’s degree at Wesleyan University and studied English language and literature at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. His later career took him into healthcare strategy and operations, including executive roles at Humana, Tenet Healthcare, and Alignment Healthcare, as well as work at McKinsey & Company.
The combination of strategy and operating experience became central to his work in home-based care. He went on to serve as chairman, president, and CEO of Amedisys before joining Careforth.
Leading Home-based Care Businesses
At Careforth, Kusserow’s work concerns a different part of home care: the family member or friend providing daily support. The company pairs payment programs with coaching and a continuing care team. Its official biography describes his leadership philosophy as listening closely to the people doing the work and the families receiving care.
His other healthcare roles include executive chairman of Unified Women’s Healthcare and board service at Healthpilot, PurFoods, and Matrix Medical Management. Those positions extend his work across care delivery, consumer navigation, and services used by people living at home.
Writing About Organizational Change
Kusserow is the author of The Anatomy of a Turnaround: Transforming an Organization by Prioritizing People, Performance and Purpose and The Coming Healthcare Revolution: 10 Forces that Will Cure America’s Health Crisis. The subjects connect his experience running healthcare organizations with questions about how care is delivered.
Outside work, Careforth’s biography describes his interest in writing and tending a family farm that grows grapes, olives, and lavender.