CEO and Plan President, Humana Healthy Horizons Texas

Calder has spent nearly two decades in health care with significant public and private sector leadership experience. Today, he is the CEO and Plan President for Humana Healthy Horizons in Texas, an upcoming STAR & CHIP Medicaid health plan. Most recently, he oversaw strategy, business development, state initiatives, and performance oversight for a leading non-profit health plan and provider organization focused on complex populations and people with significant needs.

From 2017-2021, he was a senior policy official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he was also appointed as the nation’s top executive and federal policy official over the Medicaid and CHIP programs. There, he led an agency of over 600 employees responsible for over $600 billion in annual spending while acting as the chief federal liaison to the 56 state and territorial Medicaid programs. He oversaw the negotiation and approval of innovative state reform and financing programs. He led the development of critical new policy and regulations, including a revamp of Medicaid managed care rules, guidance for states on innovative payment reform, and new frameworks for effectively addressing social determinants of health. He also led the agency’s early Medicaid COVID-19 federal response, which enabled rapid approval of over 500 emergency actions to support state efforts to ease telehealth access, streamline eligibility processes, and sustain community-based long-term services and supports.

Before his federal service, Calder spent nearly 10 years leading state healthcare programs. As the Nebraska state Medicaid director from 2015-2017, he led the development and successful implementation of the Heritage Health managed care program. He was recognized as an effective and transparent leader among legislators, providers, and advocates, as well as his peers, who elected him to the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) board.

Calder began his career in his home state of Louisiana, where he quickly grew into leadership roles as the agency’s policy director and Chief of Staff, overseeing significant reform efforts such as the integration of Medicaid pharmacy and behavioral health benefits and serving as a chief spokesperson for the agency to members of the media and the legislature. Born and raised outside New Orleans, Calder earned his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University and his master’s in health administration from the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). He resides in Bryan, Texas, with his wife and their energetic yellow labrador.