Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Marion Couch, MD, PhD, MBA has a deep understanding of healthcare that stems from her significant leadership experiences as a senior executive in health systems, the federal government, and a large commercial insurer. She is a co-founder of IntoValue, a company of experts committed to bringing value-based care to self-insured employers.

She served as the Senior Medical Advisor (career) in the Office of the Administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Washington, D.C., which had a $1.4 trillion annual budget and insured 145 million Americans. In this cross-cutting role within the agency, she reported directly to the Administrator to work on policy creation, improvements in the quality programs, and national coverage decisions. During the pandemic, she helped lead the vast expansion of telehealth. She was also involved in developing value-based payment models in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).

Marion has worked as Senior Vice President of Health Care Services and the Chief Medical Officer at a large regional insurance company which covered over 3.1 million lives. She also worked closely as an advisor to their venture capital company. Most recently, she gained valuable insights about what self-insured employers desire for their employees by serving as a senior advisor at the Whole Health Institute.

Before joining CMS, she held senior leadership roles at several large medical centers. She began her career as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins. Marion has previously served as the Chair of the Board for a large academic medical group practice. She has been a physician executive in two large medical groups, the Chair of two surgical departments, Surgeon-in-Chief at an academic medical center, and President of two national professional medical societies.

Marion, a head and neck surgeon, received her medical degree from Rush Medical College. Her residency was at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her Masters in Business Administration degree is from the Duke University Fuqua Business School. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Duke University School of Medicine.

She lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with her husband, Ed. They have twins who are recent college graduates.