Dr. Mitch Katz

Dr. Mitchell Katz is President and Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal health care system in the United States, with a workforce of more than 40,000 health care professionals across a network of 11 hospitals, 5 skilled nursing facilities, dozens of community health centers, a home care agency and an insurance plan, MetroPlusHealth. Katz is renowned for improving health care for vulnerable urban populations by leading major initiatives like NYC Care, which provides universal health care to uninsured New Yorkers.

Since September 2017, Dr. Katz has financially stabilized the health system, closing a deficit of approximately $2 billion; invested in ambulatory care to ensure everyone has access to a primary care doctor; and led the health system through the COVID-19 pandemic. Since his appointment, the health system has significantly expanded access to care, including the creation of NYC Care, a health care access program that provides care to more than 100,000 uninsured New Yorkers. Modern Healthcare has named Dr. Katz one of the year's most influential clinical executives for his leadership guiding the nation's largest municipal health care system through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Career history

• President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals (September 2017–present)
• Director, Los Angeles County Health Agency (November 2015–September 2017)
• Director, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (January 2011–November 2015)
• Director and Health Officer, San Francisco Department of Public Health (1997–2010)

During his San Francisco tenure, Katz is well known for funding needle exchange, creating Healthy San Francisco, outlawing the sale of tobacco at pharmacies, and winning ballot measures for rebuilding Laguna Honda Hospital and San Francisco General Hospital. In Los Angeles, he created the ambulatory care network and empaneled more than 350,000 patients to a primary care home, eliminated the deficit of the department through increased revenues and decreased administrative expenses, and moved over 4,000 medically complex patients from hospitals and emergency departments into independent housing.

Dr. Katz is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine residency at UCSF Medical School and was an RWJ Clinical Scholar. He is the Deputy Editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the Los Angeles County Medical Association 2015 Healthcare Champion of the year. Dr. Katz continues to practice as a primary care physician and sees patients at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

What Dr. Katz could bring to his role at NYC Health + Hospitals: Dr. Katz's track record demonstrates proven expertise in large-scale public health system transformation, deficit elimination, and designing equitable access programs. His three decades of experience leading America's largest and second-largest public safety-net health systems, combined with his deep clinical engagement and national recognition as an influential healthcare leader, positions him to continue advancing comprehensive care delivery while sustaining financial stability in the nation's most complex urban health environment.