Medical cost manager MedSolutions has hired a former UnitedHealth quality executive to be its chief strategy officer.

Gino Tenace will help develop and roll out strategic initiatives that will help drive the company’s future growth and profitability. Most recently, he was president of Northeast Florida Accountable Care, an organization he launched early this year to link up and improve the operations of a number of primary care practices in the Jacksonville area, including through intensive data analytics.

“Having been a chief executive officer himself, Gino has great strategic perspective, which will help our company continue to grow intelligently," said Curt Thorne, president and CEO of MedSolutions. “Additionally, his experience at the nation’s largest health insurer gives him a deep understanding of what is needed to help our customers solve the challenges they face every day, especially as implementation of healthcare reform really gears up.”

Before his time at Northeast Florida Accountable Care and its parent company Rise Health, Tenace spent 15 years at UnitedHealth Group, where he led quality and affordability programs and continuous improvement initiatives. In that role, MedSolutions says Tenace’s programs drove about $1.3 billion in savings on both the insurance side and in operations.

Tenace also has been involved in health care policy. While at Rise Health, he led a team that outlined approaches to cutting Medicare cost trends and improving quality to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. He also advised President George W. Bush's health care team and helped California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration develop programs to cover that state’s uninsured citizens.