NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Partnership HealthPlan of California (PHC) announced that Michael Vovakes, M.D., a board certified pediatrician, has been selected as the new Regional Medical Director for Shasta, Lassen, Siskiyou, Modoc and eastern Trinity counties.  

He will be working in PHC’s future Redding office, starting in August.

After working as a pediatrician in private practice in Tehama County, Dr. Vovakes has worked for the past 19 years at Shasta Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center, where he is currently the medical director of pediatrics, informatics and quality.  

He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Letterman Army Medical Center. He has a master of science degree in medical informatics from Northwestern University.

He has served the medical community as a pediatric preceptor for the Family Medicine Residency Program at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, and is on the voluntary clinical Faculty at UC Davis School of Medicine. He is well-respected by medical colleagues and members of the community.

Dr. Vovakes’ major responsibilities will include utilization management reviews, representing PHC in the local medical community, and communication with physicians about quality improvement and utilization management activities.

Partnership HealthPlan of California is the county organized health system selected by the state of California to provide a Medi-Cal Managed Care delivery system to eight new counties starting on September 1, 2013.  

The new counties include those listed above plus Humboldt, Del Norte and Lake counties.

Partnership HealthPlan of California began operating in 1994. Additional information about PHC can be found at www.partnershiphp.org .