Anterior Adds Former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota CEO Craig Samitt, MD, to Advisory Board

NEW YORK — Anterior, the clinician-led artificial intelligence platform for health plans, today announced that Craig Samitt, MD, former President and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, has joined its Advisory Board.

Dr. Samitt brings decades of experience across payer and provider organizations, having led large health plans and health systems through significant shifts in care delivery, operational efficiency, and value-based reimbursement. He previously served in senior leadership roles at Anthem, including Chief Clinical Officer and President of diversified businesses, and has led provider organizations such as HealthCare Partners (DaVita) and Dean Health System.

His appointment comes as health plans face increasing pressure to reduce administrative burden, improve clinical consistency, and modernize core workflows such as prior authorization, care management, and payment integrity.

“Craig has operated at the highest levels of healthcare and understands firsthand the operational and clinical challenges health plans are navigating today,” said Dr. Abdel Mahmoud, Co-Founder and CEO of Anterior. “His experience across both payer and provider environments will be instrumental as we continue to scale a platform that delivers measurable improvements in speed, consistency, and clinical quality.”

Anterior partners with health plans to automate and accelerate high-friction workflows using a clinician-led, AI-powered approach. Its platform has demonstrated measurable impact in production environments, including reducing prior authorization decision times to as little as 155 seconds for certain use cases and achieving 99.24% clinical accuracy as validated by KLAS Research. The company supports organizations covering more than 50 million lives.

“Health plans are under growing pressure—from rising costs to increasing administrative complexity—to deliver better outcomes more efficiently,” said Dr. Samitt. “What differentiates Anterior is its focus on embedding AI directly into clinical workflows, with clinicians actively involved in the decision-making process. That combination is critical to driving both adoption and impact.”

Dr. Samitt joins a distinguished group of advisors with deep expertise across healthcare delivery, policy, and payer operations, including Secretary David Shulkin, the 9th U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Peter Long, former Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Shield of California; and William Golden, former CEO of Employer & Individual at UnitedHealthcare.

The appointment follows Anterior’s recent funding announcement, bringing total capital raised to $64 million, and reflects continued momentum as health plans adopt AI to improve operational efficiency, reduce variability in decision-making, and enhance the overall provider and patient experience.

About Anterior

Anterior is the clinician-led company using responsible AI to automate and accelerate payer workflows. Its platform transforms common payer workflows, generating medical and operational savings for health plans (e.g., prior authorization, payment integrity, risk adjustment). Anterior’s platform is trusted by clinicians and loved by technology teams supporting organizations covering 50M lives. For more information, visit www.anterior.com and follow the company on LinkedIn and X.

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