Cognosante Appoints Health Industry Veteran John Calabro as Managing Director

John Calabro, the former health information technology coordinator for the state of Oklahoma Health Information Exchange Trust, has recently joined Cognosante, as managing director of the company's HIT offerings for state and federal clients.

In his new role, Calabro, will be responsible for leading the development of the next generation of modular Medicaid and HIE solutions.

“John was truly an innovator for the state of Oklahoma and we are privileged to have him join Cognosante,” said Michele Kang, Cognosante's CEO, in a press release. “Leveraging his deep experience in state Medicaid programs will be a tremendous asset to our clients. John provides the leadership necessary to help bridge the gap between state and federal programs.”

Prior to joining Cognosante, Calabro provided leadership, direction, management and coordination of HIT strategy, including oversight of the implementation of federal and state requirements for HIT and HIE, for the Oklahoma HIE Trust.

In collaboration with the Oklahoma State HIE Governance Committee, he also provided health informatics leadership, vision and direction to the HIT office.

A 25-year health industry veteran, Calabro has also served as chief information officer for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and director of Information Services for the University of Oklahoma Family Medicine Health Sciences Center.

Academically, he holds an MBA from the University of Central Oklahoma and a BA in mathematics from Wilkes University.

Cognosante is a premier provider of IT services to healthcare organizations. Over the past two decades the company’s contributions to the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture and accomplishments in the state Medicaid environment, have positioned them to lead the industry in a transition to the modular age.

Calabro said, “I look forward to working with executives at both the state and federal level to bring agile enterprise solutions and services for the benefit of better efficiency and improved outcomes for healthcare entitlement programs.”

In related news, Cognosante won a contract with the state of Utah to assist in designing an IT blueprint for future development of the current Utah Health Exchange.