Dr. Salil Deshpande has been with UnitedHealthcare for 19 years and for the past 13 years has served as Chief Medical Officer of the United Healthcare Community Plan of Texas, a $10 billion health insurance plan with over 500,000 Medicaid, CHIP and dual-Medicare-Medicaid members statewide. He leads clinical quality and affordability initiatives, facilitates design and implementation of alternative payment models for physicians, home health agencies, behavioral health clinics, pharmacies, and other providers, and develops innovative strategies, including telehealth and community collaborations, for optimizing population health.

Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Deshpande is on the voluntary faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, where he completed medical school and residency training. A native Houstonian, Salil is a graduate of the DeBakey High School for Health Professions. He received his undergraduate biology degree at the University of Southern California, and his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

With a longstanding interest in health policy, Salil worked on health care reform at the White House during the first Clinton administration. More recently, Dr. Deshpande was appointed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to the Statewide Health Coordinating Council and the Texas Health Services Authority, and he serves on Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Medicaid Advisory Committee and Drug Utilization Review Board. He is on the boards of the greater Houston area March of Dimes and Chester Street Foundation, and chairs the Board of The Living Bank. He lives in Boulevard Oaks with his partner Drew, recently empty nesters as their twins enter their 2nd year of college.