Management Team

Dr. Sherif Abdou has focused his 30-year career on managing and leading the transformation of the health care delivery system throughout the United States. A highly respected healthcare professional known for his forward-thinking efforts in business strategy development, patient care and network expansion, he currently leads the patient-centered, physician led and population health focused healthcare company he co-founded in 2015.

Dr. Abdou guides all aspects of company operations, reducing costs and improving medical outcomes through data-driven strategies. Regarded as a pioneer in coordinated care, Dr. Abdou has successfully integrated specialty providers into primary care networks while improving physician engagement, creating a winning culture, and developing financial models to incentivize patient-focused objectives.

As part of a 15-month P3 consulting agreement, Dr. Abdou led Ascension Medical Group as its CEO where he transformed a disparate hospital-owned physician group with 7,500 physicians in 23 states into a high-performing medical group. He fostered a culture of excellence dedicated to successful health outcomes through improved care experiences for both physicians and patients, while conserving costs.

Dr. Abdou held various leadership positions with DaVita HealthCare Partners, Inc. (NYSE: DVA). where he developed and led HealthCare Partners Nevada (HCPNV) where he facilitated expanded the five-clinic group to a comprehensive organization with 52 medical clinics, more than 1,700 specialists, and 310 primary care providers serving 300,000 patients each year. He guided the organization’s efforts to expand its Medicare Advantage population by nearly 700 percent from 2006 to 2014. He also led the company’s strategic acquisitions while improving quality metrics and earning a four-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In his role as Desert Region President for DaVita HealthCare Partners, he formulated in-depth strategies to expand the company’s commercial and Medicare patient populations in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

In 1999, Dr. Abdou founded Summit Medical Group, where he developed an innovative, coordinated approach to health care in Southern Nevada. He successfully guided the company through an acquisition to become Pinnacle Health System, which later became HCPNV. During his tenure as the President of Physician IPA, he formed the Inpatient Physicians Network, the first organized hospitalist company in the state of Nevada, and secured the nation’s first population health capitated contract for hospitalists. P5 became the nation’s second-largest third-party administrator under his presidency.

Prior to leading these prominent medical organizations, Dr. Abdou worked as a hospitalist and primary care physician for Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas. He also served as a clinical research fellow at the University of Southern California.

He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Mansoura University School of Medicine, later completing an internship at the institution. He also completed an internship in internal medicine and a hospital residency at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Dr. Abdou was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1995 and completed his master’s degree in medical management from the University of Southern California in 2003. He is a member of Cigna’s Accountable Care Organization National Council and the Nevada Association of Managed Care Physicians. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Physician Executives.

With 23 years of experience in operating, managing, and guiding physician groups, Dr. Amir Bacchus, engages providers to succeed in a dynamic healthcare landscape. Much of his career has focused on healthcare delivery and working with managed care organizations to promote improved quality, access, and cost of care through quality and performance metrics.

As the Chief Medical Officer and P3 Health Partner’s co-founder, his unwavering passion for medicine fosters P3’s culture where clinical engagement and aligned incentives prioritize quality, utilization, and customer satisfaction.

Through a P3 consulting agreement, Dr. Bacchus recently served as the Chief Medical Officer for Ascension Medical Group. There, he engaged directly with 7,500 physicians in 23 states to lead the organization’s efforts to move from a fee-for-service model to managing patient risk portfolios.

Prior to founding P3, Dr. Bacchus served as the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of HealthCare Partners (HCP) Desert Region as well as the company’s National Corporate Medical Director. In this role, he oversaw all aspects of care for the organization’s medical group, IPA network, and care management teams. He led, mentored, and educated all providers on the organization’s innovative, value-based approach to medicine. He guided the company’s clinical leaders and medical directors to support HCP’s patient-focused mission and best practices.

Dr. Bacchus was also the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Pinnacle Health System where he built a medical group and a national hospitalist group, Inpatient Physicians Network, and the independent physician association (IPA), which became the sole delivery system for PacifiCare/Secure Horizons and other health plans before it was purchased by HCP.

As the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Diagnostic Center of Medicine in Las Vegas, he led a 27-primary care physician practice at five Las Vegas offices. Prior to taking on a leadership role with Diagnostic Center of Medicine, he worked as an internist for the company, providing primary care and inpatient/outpatient management with a significant intensive care unit workload.

Dr. Bacchus served as the Chairman of Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center’s Department of Medicine and he is a member of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Medicine Community Advisory Board. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the American Medical Association, Clark County Medical Society, the American College of Physicians and the Society of Hospital Medicine. He also founded the Nevada Regional Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Bacchus received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, where he was named Resident of the Year for both1993-94 and 1995-96. In 2003, he received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Bacchus has also been recognized by Las Vegas Life Magazine as one of the best doctors in Las Vegas.

Jessica Puathasnanon is an expert legal and compliance executive who joins the P3 family with more than 20 years of experience practicing law in the public and private sector. In her role as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of P3 Health Partners, Jessica provides a full range of company-wide legal analysis, advice, and solutions. Skilled in people leadership and management, compliance program development, investigations, litigation, privacy, corporate governance, and public company (SEC) matters, Jessica’s leadership and experience enables P3’s current and future business growth.

Most recently, Jessica served as Chief Legal and Compliance Counsel over Medtronic’s Diabetes Group where she received multiple awards recognizing her leadership and functional excellence. Prior to her role with Medtronic, Jessica served as an Advisory Director at KPMG, where she counseled executive management on legal issues such as anti-bribery, corruption risk-assessment and compliance.

Jessica holds a masters of corporate law from New York University School of Law, a JD from Pepperdine University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree cum laude from University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a frequent guest panelist at American Bar Association conferences, has served as an executive sponsor for multiple employee resource groups such as KMPG’s Network of Women, Medtronic’s African Descent Network and Asian Impact Network. Jessica is a recurrent lecturer at USC Gould School of Law and is involved with various social justice organizations, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Girls, Inc.

Todd Lefkowitz has spent his career in operations, network development and contracting, and management of healthcare organizations. As Chief Operations Officer at P3 Health Partners, Lefkowitz brings more than 20 years of experience working with managed care organizations, insurance companies, hospitals, medical groups, and other providers.

Prior to P3, Lefkowitz spent nearly seven years with DaVita HealthCare Partners (DHCP) as Senior Vice President of Managed Care Operations and Network Development, as well as Vice President of National Contracting. In his role, he oversaw all third-party administrator services, including claims, quality/accreditation, systems configuration, network development and contracting, credentialing, utilization management, pharmacy services, patient experience and an independent provider network comprised of nearly 2,000 physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. During this tenure with DHCP, he also assisted with national payor and provider contracting and strategy, oversaw revenue cycle management for a 200+ provider multi-specialty medical group in Nevada and Arizona, helped develop a Medicare Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (PACO), Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACO, and the first commercial ACO in NV. He also obtained the first insurance license held by a medical group in Nevada.

Lefkowitz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters of Health Administration degree from Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was the recipient of the 1997 Charles Cardwell Leadership Award.

He is active in his community, devoting much of his free time to several non-profit organizations and currently serves on various boards, including the DISCOVERY Children’s Museum, Nevada Healthcare Forum and the Advisory Board for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Health Care Administration Department.

Throughout her career, Sarah Bussmann has integrated her passion for patients, quality and teaching to cultivate environments of shared learning with a focus on patient and provider engagement and satisfaction. She has a proven track record of developing teams, leading provider groups to five-star metric scores, and managing continuous quality improvement initiatives, including provider bonus programs.
As the Chief of Staff, Sarah combines her experience and passion to build and oversee the organization’s utilization, quality pharmacy and care management programs.

Prior to joining P3, Bussmann served as the Associate Vice President of Clinical Quality at DaVita HealthCare Partners. Through her coordinated approach to healthcare, she integrated a multitude of data sources to create rich reporting to guide the organization. During her tenure, she built a team of passionate professionals whose efforts led to the improvement in the group’s patient engagement, overall quality care gap scores as well as the  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) star rating program.

As a leader in population health management, Bussmann offers expertise including care management, quality management – quality care gaps and CMS star rating, patient experience, utilization management, NCQA accreditations, health plan delegation oversight and special needs plan reporting. A successful author of health care quality management curriculum, she teaches undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health.

Her leadership skills have been recognized by the Nevada Nurses Foundation with a 40 under 40 award, by the Clark County Medical Society as a Winged Heart Award finalist and by the March of Dimes as a runner up for their Nurse of the Year award. She is president of the UNLV Community and Health Sciences Alumni Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society and is a sought-after speaker for various healthcare organizations.

Bussmann received her undergraduate degree in nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center followed by a Master’s of Healthcare Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She holds a specialty certification as a Certified Registered Nurse of Infusion.

Kassi Belz develops and implements integrated communications programs that reach patients, physicians, and payers to inspire behaviors, change perceptions, and, most importantly, engage communities.

Prior to joining the P3 team, Belz served as partner and president of MassMedia, an integrated communications agency headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she successfully expanded the agency’s national footprint, resulting in unprecedented growth for the agency and its clients. She built the agency’s healthcare division, serving as the chief marketing strategist for many of the firm’s clients.

As a leading communications strategist, she is a frequent guest speaker for organizations such the Public Relations Society of America, Medical Group Managers Association, Clark County Medical Society, the Healthcare Strategies Institute, and the International Association of Business Communicators. In addition, she serves as a guest writer and source for many blogs, magazines, and newspapers. She is a member of the Gator Alumni Association and Public Relations Society of America.

Atul Kavthekar is an accomplished leader with more than a decade of experience as a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a number of public and private companies. In his role at P3 Health Partners, Kavthekar will lead the Company’s Finance organization and will oversee the Accounting, Treasury, Finance Analytics, and Investor Relations teams.

As CFO, Kavthekar will continue to build the Company’s finance function, cultivate talent, and provide sound financial insight and disciplined capital management, as P3 works to achieve our vision of expanding our value-based care model to lead the transformation of healthcare.

Before joining P3, Kavthekar served as the CFO of EyeCare Partners, where he was responsible for the financial oversight of 650+ locations, 1,000+ providers, 8,500+ employees, and driving the industry consolidation and clinical integration of optical and ophthalmology offices, clinics, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).

During his career, he has also held CFO and Divisional CFO positions with Diplomat Pharmacy, Walgreen Co., Sears Holdings Corp., and LivingSocial. Additionally, Kavthekar has extensive M&A and capital markets experience and has held roles at leading investment banks including Morgan Stanley, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Barclays Capital.

Kavthekar earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a MSE from Wayne State University, and a BSE from the University of Michigan.