Dr. Bartholow fosters collaborations between providers, payers/purchasers, and communities, seeking to tangibly improve healthcare coordination and affordability. He provides leadership to a variety of healthcare quality organizations including Wisconsin’s CMS contracted Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization contributor Metastar, Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN), WI Health Information Organization (WHIO), physician leadership training through Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association (IPMA), the first non-actuary board member of the Concerned Actuaries of the US, and the University of WI School of Medicine and Public Health for both the Community Advisory Committee of the Master of Public Health Program, and advisor to the Population Health Institute (publishes County Health Rankings). He advises for self-insured employers, The Diabetes Prevention Program in WI, primary care delivery, YMCAs in WI, and the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program.
He advises for Venture Investors and HealthX Ventures to bring innovative solutions to patients’ need for more coordinated health care.
Dr. Bartholow formerly served as board member of Wisconsin Collaborative for Health Care Quality (WCHQ), including leading WCHQ’s Measurement Advisory Committee. He has encouraged community health with board service to United Way of Dane County (board member and Vision
Council chair), Wisconsin Literacy and has served on Governor-appointed healthcare taskforces.
Previously as VP/Chief Medical Officer for WEA Trust and Health Tradition Health Plans, Dr. Bartholow worked for safe, affordable care, focusing on proper access, appropriateness, harm avoidance, engaging members to action, and value-based provider relationships. He assisted America’s Health Insurance Plans with Chief Medical Officer Committee projects.
Before joining WEA Trust in 2014, Dr. Bartholow served as the Wisconsin Medical Society’s Chief Medical Officer for five years, working on appropriateness of care, health disparities, unintended variation of episode costs, advance care planning, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation cardiology grant SMARTCare, and bilateral buyer-provider payment reform.
Prior to joining the Wisconsin Medical Society in 2008, Dr. Bartholow spent 16 years caring for patients and supporting/designing care coordination programs at the Prairie Clinic in rural Sauk City, Wisconsin, where he was initially one of six and ultimately 12 physician owners. In the late 1990s, he served as medical director for a risk-bearing independent physician association with more than 400 primary-care providers and worked to strengthen relationships with the business community.
He completed family medicine residency at The University of Missouri-Columbia and medical school at Washington University–St. Louis, and he earned chemistry and biology degrees at Drake University.