CEO, Pinnacol Assurance

Philip Kalin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacol Assurance, the country’s 19th largest worker’s compensation insurer.  He is recognized for his expertise in digital transformation, having most recently created a new digital insurance platform, Cake Insure Inc. which is being spun off from Pinnacol. Cake has won two national awards for innovation and Mr. Kalin is very active in the Insurtech sector.  

Mr. Kalin has served as the chief executive of organizations in both public and privately backed companies including large hospital systems as well as healthcare data and technology start-ups. He has been active nationally on boards, organizations and with federal programs focused on healthcare technology innovation, health data analytics and health policy. He has developed strong ties with the national investment community through Pinnacol’s diversified investment of its $2.5 billion in assets.

Under his leadership, Pinnacol Assurance has achieved its best ever financial and business performance.  Mr. Kalin has led the company through strategic repositioning, digital transformation and building a Lean performance improvement culture.  Prior to Pinnacol, Mr. Kalin served as CEO of the Center for Improving Value in Healthcare (CIVHC). The company received national attention for its work in developing databases and analytic tools designed to bring market forces into healthcare by lowering costs through comparative transparency of price, cost and utilization amongst healthcare providers. During this time he also served on two national boards established to scale best practices in the healthcare cost reduction and to expand access to healthcare data for purposes of technology innovation.

Following a 20 year career operating hospitals, Mr. Kalin co-founded and was Chairman/CEO of privately funded CustomMed Solutions, a healthcare technology company focused on automating the authorization and referral process between insurance companies and providers. The system automated over 80% of requests that had previously been handled by nurses. He led the company through a successful exit with a sale to Phycom Corporation.

As a hospital executive, Mr. Kalin served as President and CEO of Rose Medical Center in Denver, transitioning it from a private non-profit to one of publically held HCA’s best performing hospitals. He also held senior executive positions at the Henry Ford Healthcare system in Detroit and the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Cleveland gaining experience in developing large integrated healthcare systems, managing a large HMO and leading a successful turnaround effort of a large inner-city hospital system.  

Mr. Kalin received his BS in General Science from the University of Iowa and a MHSA in the

Department of Hospital Administration from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Kalin has been active on numerous for-profit and non-profit boards. Current and past board roles include:

Current Boards:

American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds – Chair elect

Cake Insure, Inc.- Board Chair

CareerWise Colorado (education) – Board Member Colorado Concern (business advocacy) - Board Member Colorado Succeeds (education) - Board Member

Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce- Board Member

Governor’s Commission on Workforce Development – Board Member

Past Boards:

Anti-Defamation League of Denver - Board Member

CustomMed Solutions, Inc. – Board Chair

Health to Health, Inc. - Board Member

National Health Data Consortium - Advisory Board Member

National Network for Healthcare Improvement – Board Member (Executive Committee) Premier Insurance Company - Board Member

Shalom Park Home for the Aged - Board Member

Mr. Kalin is also a proud father/grandfather and a very active road and mountain biker.

If you could live in a different era, which one would it be and why?  Living in the Middle East from 200 BCE to the time of Jesus would give a view of Greece’s fall from glory to the ascendancy of Rome as well as very pivotal events throughout the Middle East region and Europe.   

What is your favorite piece of advice?  
From my parents…make a positive difference in the world (they would frame it in our Jewish tradition of Tikun Olam…literally to “repair the world”)

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?  
Bicycling and traveling

Describe your profession in one word.
Future

What was your first job and one thing you learned from it?
Working in my family’s Five and Dime Store from age 7…learned that “the customer is always right”.

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