Paul Martino, Co-Founder of VillageMD, Joins Parsley Health as Chair of the Board
Martino will serve on the board alongside Lee Shapiro, Managing Partner at 7wireVentures; Dr. Clive Fields, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at VillageMD; and Christian Scherrer, Investment Director at Kinnevik AB.
Paul Martino has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Parsley Health, a digital health company designed to improve health status and lower costs in patients with complex and chronic conditions using root cause medicine.
“Parsley Health simplifies complex health care, manages costs and ultimately helps patients live healthier lives,” said Paul Martino. “The CDC reports that 60% of Americans have at least one chronic condition and that this population is driving 90% of annual healthcare spend. I’m thrilled to be joining Parsley’s board so that together we can scale access to Parsley’s crucial approach to care for the patients that need it most.”
Martino brings more than four decades of healthcare innovation and business acumen to the role of Chair, positioning him well to scale Parsley’s growth and impact. His mandate includes leveraging his extensive industry knowledge to guide the company’s strategic initiatives, ensuring its continued success as a pioneer in helping patients with costly chronic conditions and multiple comorbidities.
“Paul is a seasoned healthcare veteran with a proven track record of innovation. His leadership and partnership will be instrumental in accelerating Parsley’s growth,” said Dr. Robin Berzin, M.D., Founder, and CEO of Parsley Health.
Martino is the co-founder of VillageMD, a leading value-based care company that delivers comprehensive primary, multispecialty, and urgent care. Prior to VillageMD, he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Innovation at Anthem/WellPoint, where he was instrumental in architecting Anthem’s payment innovation strategy, developing its Patient-Centered Primary Care model, and establishing value-based contracts with Anthem’s primary care physician network.
In joining the board, Martino will be working alongside Lee Shapiro, Managing Partner at 7wireVentures; Christian Scherrer, Investment Director at Kinnevik AB; and Clive Fields, M.D., Co-Founder and CMO of VillageMD.
Founded in 2016 by Dr. Robin Berzin, MD, a Columbia-trained physician and digital health expert, Parsley Health originally opened with brick-and-mortar centers in New York and California. Today, Parsley also offers direct-to-consumer medical programs and virtual care nationwide.
Over the past year, Parsley has rapidly expanded its employer-focused business, developing programs for self-insured employers and plan sponsors while also expanding in-network insurance coverage for patients. Parsley is in-network for more than 10 million patients, through plans including Aetna CA, Blue Shield CA, and more as a member of Mount Sinai Health System’s clinically integrated network.
In 2023, Parsley published an independent actuarial analysis of 20,000 patient claims, showing that Parsley drives a 32% reduction in total medical expense (TME) and a 77% reduction in specialist referrals. A recent Frontiers in Digital Health publication also validated that Parsley’s method of providing large-scale holistic telehealth programs for the management of complex chronic diseases is proven to work.