DALLAS — Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR), the clinically integrated network of UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources, has appointed Breck Garrett as Vice President of Strategic Growth. Garrett comes to SWHR after serving as Market Head of Sales for Aetna, a CVS Health Company, in South Texas and New Mexico.
In his new role, Garrett will be responsible for helping to grow SWHR's attributed lives by driving new and deeper relationships with carriers, payors, brokers, consultants and employers. Garrett will lead the SWHR team helping design, develop and deploy products and solutions for employers.
"Breck has deep expertise in health plan sales and success in implementing transformational best practices that lead to organizationwide growth," said Steven Abramson, SWHR Senior Vice President, Chief Market and Payor Relations Officer.
"His knowledge and proven ability to strategically expand relationships with employers and brokers will be extremely valuable to SWHR as we continue to grow our relationships and improve the value of care we provide. Breck will be tasked with expanding and building strong external relationships leveraging our clinical, operational and financial partners to ensure we are driving value through improved quality and managing total cost of care across the organization."
Before joining SWHR, Garrett held a number of strategic roles during his seven years at Aetna. As Director, Strategy & Operations, in Aetna's Accountable Care Solutions division, he grew accountable care organization (ACO) membership to more than 100,000 medical members. And as Senior Director of Joint Venture Markets, he helped launch a venture between Aetna and Texas Health Resources. In his latest role as Market Head of Sales, he managed customer growth and retention for 159,000 members and helped grow Aetna's geographical footprint in the South Texas and New Mexico region.
Prior to Aetna, Garrett served as a lead consultant in strategic communications at Allstate Insurance Co., and managed public affairs, strategy and operations as a top aide to Cabinet-level officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Garrett earned his MBA from the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and received his undergraduate degree in history and sociology from Rice University in Houston.
About Southwestern Health Resources
Southwestern Health Resources, which blends the strengths of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Resources, includes a network of 29 hospital locations and more than 5,000 providers, committed to being the national leader in population health. With more than 650 points of access to care, this provides for higher value and allows patients to access services across a full continuum of medical needs. The network serves people across 17 counties in North Texas. In total, SWHR coordinates care for nearly 700,000 patients, aligned with commercial healthcare plans and Medicare programs. SWHR operates the nation’s top-performing Next Generation Accountable Care Organization.