As chief medical officer of the West Virginia Medical Institute, John Brehm, MD, oversees the clinical aspects of its utilization management projects and health care quality improvement programs. He also manages research and development initiatives for WVMI and Quality Insights and serves as the project director for WVMI's contract with the Veterans Health Administration External Peer Review Program.
Before joining WVMI in September 2000, Dr. Brehm served as vice president of medical management of John Deere Health, a part of the Heritage National Healthplan, a health maintenance organization with 450,000 members in five states.
Before 1997, Dr. Brehm was medical director of the 40,000-member Medical Associates Health Maintenance Organization in Dubuque, Iowa. During his tenure, Medical Associates was accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In addition, he served seven years on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care. He was president of the Dubuque County Medical Society and chairman of the section of internal medicine for Medical Associates, also in Dubuque.
Dr. Brehm was chief of staff at Xavier Hospital in Dubuque. He practiced internal medicine in a 100-physician multi-specialty clinic for 24 years until he joined management full time in 1997. During the 1980s, Dr. Brehm served as medical director of Sunnycrest Nursing Home in Dubuque, where most of the patients were eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.
Dr. Brehm is a fellow of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and a Member of the American Medical Association and the West Virginia State Medical Society. He is licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia, Illinois, Iowa and Tennessee. He has 15 years of management experience within the medical system.
In 1970, he earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In 1973, he completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. In 1997, he completed the advanced course in health care quality improvement at Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.