Margaret Kirkegaard, MD, MPH

Principal

Health Management Associates

St. Paul, MN

[javascript protected email address]

(312) 641-5007

Dr. Margaret Kirkegaard has extensive front line experience and an impressive breadth of knowledge about healthcare and its delivery.

A clinician and an educator, Dr. Kirkegaard is uniquely positioned to advise clients on physician engagement in healthcare reform, medical education, population-based healthcare delivery and underserved and vulnerable populations. When it comes to medical care integration and the development and transformation of primary care – especially implementation of the patient-centered medical home model – her guidance is rooted in her own real-world experience.

Since joining Health Management Associates (HMA) in 2013, Dr. Kirkegaard has applied her blend of clinical expertise, population-based healthcare, and delivery system transformation to a number of notable projects. Prioritizing elevating historically marginalized and vulnerable populations, she has worked in multiple diverse delivery systems to improve care. Focusing especially on maternal-child health programs, she has worked both to expand policy and to implement delivery system redesign to improve access to high-quality healthcare and improve health outcomes.

Working toward her personal mission of improving healthcare access, Dr. Kirkegaard has contributed to numerous rural healthcare projects. Her client work ranges from helping small, rural primary care providers adopt patient-centered medical home models and value-based care transitions to large scale initiatives aimed at expanding telehealth options in rural Illinois and Wisconsin.

Prior to joining HMA, Dr. Kirkegaard served as medical director of a state-wide, start-up primary care case management program for 1.8 million Medicaid clients. She was responsible for network development, physician recruitment and practice transformation to the medical home model for 5,700 primary care providers and 2,300 specialist providers. During her tenure, the program developed multiple clinical quality management tools, a pay-for-performance program, and earned broad provider recognition as a beneficial model while client satisfaction ratings reached over 90 percent. This program established the foundation for Illinois’ transition to Medicaid managed care.

Dr. Kirkegaard is an integral member of HMA’s cutting-edge team to expand access to evidence-based behavioral healthcare and Medication for Opioid Use Disorder for individuals during incarceration and thereby ameliorating racial and ethnic disparities.

Dr. Kirkegaard is a board-certified family physician. She received her M.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed her family medicine residency at UChicago AdventHealth Hinsdale Family Medicine Residency. She has a Master of Public Health with a concentration in health policy and focus on quality improvement.

A third-generation family physician with over 30 years of clinical experience, Dr. Kirkegaard continues to teach medical students and residents and provide clinical care to patients at a family medicine residency.  

On the weekends, Margaret likes to get an early start to her days and go bird watching.