Kay Cox Chosen for BBJ's Top 40 Under 40
Cahaba Medical Care is honored to celebrate Kay Cox who has been recognized as one of Birmingham Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2024.
Each year, the BBJ recognizes talented professionals aged 40 and younger who contribute to economic development, community advancement, and the success of the institution for which they work.
Kay received her B.A. in History from the University of Alabama in 2008, then completed a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in May of 2011 and was admitted to the Alabama State Bar. Kay joined Cahaba in July 2013 as the Chief Operations Officer, functioning as a director of reception, office manager, and workflow manager. In 2016, she transitioned to Chief Compliance Officer, Counsel, and HR Director - a position that was created specifically for her and that she has fit to a tee, using her legal expertise to ensure that Cahaba successfully maintains compliance with regulatory requirements in all aspects of the company without inhibiting the growth of the organization.
As the sole in-house counsel, Kay has been instrumental to the continued success and growth of our organization which has expanded from one site with 11 employees in 2011, to a major healthcare network with 28 locations and more than 600 employees currently, providing high-quality healthcare for 41,000+ patients, creating jobs, training the next generation of primary care physicians, and providing for the future workforce of the state of Alabama.
Kay has helped guide our organization through five mergers and acquisitions in which Cahaba merged with like-minded family medicine practices that were having trouble transitioning and keeping up with ongoing regulatory challenges. Under Kay’s leadership and legal guidance, we were able to keep those clinics open, keep the providers happily employed, and most importantly, provide the existing patients with a better quality experience and better access to affordable care.
In 2018 and again in 2022, Kay was at the compliance helm when the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services came for an operational site visit, a rigorous 3-day compliance audit during which they assessed our policies and current practices to verify compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements in areas such as needs assessment, clinical service and quality, staffing and operations, finances, continuity of care, management and governance. Under Kay’s direction, Cahaba finished both visits successfully and was found to be in full compliance in all 18 regulatory categories with no citations. Additionally, Cahaba received national recognition for two "promising practices" - our Stakeholders' Meetings and our Community Centers.
Additionally, under Kay’s leadership as Chief Compliance Officer, Cahaba Medical Care received Joint Commission Accreditation in 2015 and successfully underwent two “surprise” audits in 2018 and 2021. Since achieving these exceptional results, our Joint Commission Accreditation now applies to all of our locations - a status that is unusual in ambulatory medicine as it is typically reserved for hospitals.
Thank you for your commitment to making a dent in the universe, Kay. We are blessed to have you on our team, and we couldn’t be more proud of you!