Lou Fragoso joins Children’s Hospital New Orleans (CHNOLA) as Chief Administrative Officer

Seasoned Healthcare Executive a key addition to CHNOLA Leadership Team

Children’s Hospital New Orleans, the largest and most comprehensive provider of pediatric healthcare services in Louisiana, has announced the appointment of Lou Fragoso as the organization’s Chief Administrative Officer.

“Lou is a nationally-sought after pediatric healthcare leader with a demonstrated track record of success in high stakes environments,” said John R. Nickens IV, President and CEO of Children’s Hospital New Orleans. “I look forward to working closely with Lou as we advance the important cause of improving healthcare for kids across Louisiana and the Gulf South.”

As Chief Administrative Officer, Fragoso will serve as a senior adviser to the CEO and will manage a wide range of administrative and executive responsibilities. Fragoso will work closely with CHNOLA physician leaders to further develop and grow the organization’s provider services infrastructure to help attract and retain top pediatric provider talent. Later this year, CHNOLA will formally introduce a provider practice plan designed to allow physicians to govern physicians, the first of its kind for pediatrics in Louisiana. Fragoso will serve as the primary administrative partner for the practice plan.

“The way we engage with and support providers – including those affiliated with our two academic partners, LSU and Tulane –sets us apart from our competition,” said George Bisset III, Chief Medical Officer at CHNOLA. “Lou is an experienced leader with deep experience in pediatric academic medicine and will be a tremendous partner as we launch the practice plan later this year.”

As The Health Experts for Kids in Louisiana, CHNOLA is focused on ensuring communities across the region have access to highly specialized pediatric care. To that end, Fragoso will be charged with expanding upon CHNOLA’s statewide network of pediatric specialty centers and advanced care capabilities by spearheading key business development and partnership initiatives in Baton Rouge and Lafayette and throughout Northern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi.

“I am thrilled to be joining CHNOLA at this exciting time in the organization’s history,” said Lou Fragoso. “There is something very special happening at Children’s Hospital and in New Orleans and I look forward to joining the team to help make an impact to improve health outcomes for kids across Louisiana and the Gulf South.”

Fragoso joins CHNOLA after most recently serving as President of the Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP), the nation’s first and largest Medicaid health maintenance organization created just for children. Under his leadership, TCHP underwent a cultural and financial turnaround. Fragoso fully integrated TCHP into the Texas Children’s system to enable and strengthen physician partnerships, drive better patient outcomes and reduce the cost of care for TCHP members. This integration, along with building a network of community partners, set the stage for the launch of the Texas Children’s Population Health initiative.

“His combination of finance and operations experience will be a wonderful complement to our leadership team,” said Courtney Garrett, Chief Financial Officer at CHNOLA. “As alternative payment methodologies become more prevalent in pediatric healthcare in Louisiana, Lou’s experience in sustainable, risk-based Medicaid managed care contracting will prove invaluable. He’s a tremendous value-add both for CHNOLA and to the entire community.”

Prior to TCHP, Fragoso served as the Vice President of Business Operations at Texas Children’s Pediatrics, the largest pediatrics network in the country. In this role, Fragoso partnered with Texas Children’s Community and Emergency Department staff and pediatricians to create and establish a network of pediatric urgent care clinics, which increased access to pediatrics, reduced the cost of care, and relieved the overcrowding of low-acuity Emergency Department visits.

After completing his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting at Loyola University Chicago, Fragoso began his career in accounting at KPMG. He went on to hold senior finance and accounting roles at Resurrection Health Care (now Presence Health), Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Baylor College of Medicine.

Fragoso joins Children’s amidst a wave of other nationally recognized pediatric healthcare leaders like George Bisset, III, M.D. (Chief Medical Officer), Ellis Arjmand, M.D. (Surgeon-in-Chief), and Thomas Kimball, M.D. (Medical Director of Cardiology and Co-Director of the Children’s Hospital Heart Center) choosing to join the CHNOLA team.