Michael W. Cropp, M.D., is the President and CEO of Independent Health, a health plan based in Buffalo, NY, serving approximately 400,000 members.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 and his medical degree in 1979, both from Brown University. He completed his residency in family practice at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, R.I., affiliated with Brown. He received his MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003.

Dr. Cropp worked previously in the public health service, and was an Associate Medical Director and Family Physician for two other managed care organizations, Harvard Community Health Plan in Massachusetts and Health Care Plan in Buffalo. More recently, he served as Associate Medical Director for HealthPartners in Minneapolis from 1993 to 1995, and just prior to joining Independent Health as Medical Director, he served as Medical Director and Gates Hospital Chief Operating Officer for the Millard Fillmore Health System.

Dr. Cropp is a board-certified family physician as well as a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physician Executives. He has nearly 20 years experience practicing medicine and working as a physician leader. His prior work at Harvard Community Health Plan and HealthPartners, as well as locally with Millard Fillmore Health System, has been characterized by a patient-driven, results-oriented focus that has teams of health care professionals working together to find creative approaches to solving common problems.

His major accomplishments at Independent Health reflect a focus on creating partnerships that share a vision of excellence in care and service for members/patients. Independent Health has been at the forefront of the development of incentive programs to effectively engage physicians in health promotion and disease management. They have also been involved in helping physicians reengineer their practices to a more patient-centered, results-oriented model through the Idealized Design of the Clinical Office Practice initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement since 1998. Independent Health has not only maintained “Excellent” accreditation status with NCQA for all lines of business (Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid), it has also received honors for its innovative and partner-oriented approaches to managing care.

Under Dr. Cropp’s leadership, Independent Health has become recognized for operational excellence, both locally and nationally. Dr. Cropp and members of his team are frequently invited to present Independent Health’s processes and results at both health care industry meetings such as the America’s Health Insurance Plans’ annual meeting, as well as general business seminars focused on process improvement or reengineering.