After 25 years as an emergency medicine physician and healthcare executive, Brett Cannon, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP added two professional initials to his business title in response to ongoing challenges facing physicians at ApolloMD and throughout the broader U.S. healthcare system. 

Dr. Cannon’s professional resumé includes Juris Doctor (JD), or law degree, and his recently expanded title as ApolloMD’s Chief Legal Officer, accompanied by earlier-career accomplishments as a medical doctor (MD) and holder of a master’s degree in business administration (MBA).  

Why did the busy, dedicated emergency medicine physician, healthcare administrator and married father of three decide to tackle law school in his early 50s?  

His answer is both simple and packed with the realities and challenges of today’s healthcare system:  

“I realized that the lawyers knew more about medicine than the doctors knew about law.  Having a seat at the table when it comes to many of the important issues facing medicine required a rebalancing of that equation,” says Dr. Cannon, whose leadership responsibilities as an ApolloMD Divisional Vice President include oversight of clinical operations within the Emergency Departments at WellStar Health System, the largest healthcare system in Georgia. 

Tackling healthcare’s challenges, changes

Dr. Cannon is immersed in the never-ending challenges confronting U.S. healthcare today, from managed care and medical payments to malpractice, uninsured and underinsured patients, the possibility of looming cuts to care coverage for many Americans, ongoing enactment of the 2021 No Surprises Act, and more. He is the outgoing president of the Georgia College of Emergency Physicians and chairs the Medical Association of Georgia’s Civil Liability Reform Task Force. 

“An important key to getting things done is communication, and I hope to facilitate that when it comes to some of the issues that involve both medical and legal fields,” says Dr. Cannon about his dual medical-legal expertise. Key issues are ongoing lawsuits and legal challenges that serve as a large source of professional frustration and burnout among practicing physicians, he points out.  

“As physicians and clinicians, we need to understand the importance and necessity of having our voices heard and working with legislators to make sure our profession is involved in the decision-making process,” he says.  

Dr. Cannon earned a medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997, followed by a residency in emergency medicine from 1997-2000 at Emory University in Atlanta, an MBA from the University of Georgia in 2009 and a law degree in 2023 from the Syracuse University College of Law.  In 2000 he joined ApolloMD, where his executive role has increasingly involved health care-related legal and legislative issues; he was named Chief Legal Officer in early 2025. 

Key challenges emerge

Dr. Cannon highlights ApolloMD’s unique status as a physician-led provider of emergency medicine throughout 16 states as an important asset at a time when the profession is under increasing stress on numerous fronts: lawsuits, administrative law decisions, disruptive legislative proposals, managed care negotiations, and ongoing threats of cuts to funding for U.S. health care, Medicare, Medicaid and medical research, to name just a few. 

Having a practicing medical doctor in a high-profile legal role “gives our fellow physicians better access to leadership,” he points out. “Having our physician executives working side-by-side in clinical settings with our partners continues to be an important part of ApolloMD’s identity and a differentiator among many other providers. We know it’s important to have a voice and to represent our group and our emergency medicine specialty within the industry, and we’re glad to take on that role.” 

He feels his newly acquired legal expertise will be most critical in key areas: 

• Managed care negotiations with healthcare partners and hospital systems “are always an issue and always a challenge as we work to ensure that we’re getting fair rates and can compensate our physicians and advanced practice clinicians well to ensure continuity of care,” notes Dr. Cannon. “The environment is certainly getting more challenging, and we’re dealing with many insurers pushing us out of network in order to get the lowest rates possible. That takes a lot of effort and resources to negotiate agreements on behalf of our colleagues, our patients and the communities we serve.”  

• Ongoing enforcement of the No Surprises Act, a 2022 law aimed at protecting consumers from unexpected medical bills from their health plan, providers or facilities by giving them access to arbitration and dispute resolution processes. “Many groups and physicians have put in a lot of work over the last several years regarding the No Surprises Act to ensure access to an independent dispute resolution process that keeps patients out of the middle while ensuring a reasonable avenue for practices to pursue third-party arbitration for payment amounts,” he explains. But more work needs to be done as the law is enacted, challenged and implemented in a constantly changing legislative environment to ensure the best results for patients, providers, healthcare professionals and communities.  

• Continued adequate federal funding for healthcare services, research, innovation: “Being a physician-led healthcare provider of emergency medicine has been a central component of our DNA,” he says. “We’re clinicians in leadership roles — physicians and executives who are still actively seeing and caring for patients while also being involved in day-today operations. It’s an important sense of legitimacy that we bring to the rest of our physicians and our advanced practice professionals. It means that we’re not just sitting behind a desk two states away, making decisions about a practice we aren’t involved with. We’re all on the front lines, involved in day-to-day decisions about healthcare.” 

Like emergency medicine, advocacy and engagement are critical

Dr. Cannon’s offers advice to colleagues about their role in a health, business and legal environment that’s constantly in flux. 

“There are so many avenues for getting engaged, and so many opportunities where advocacy tends to be very low,” he notes. “The upside is that there are a lot of mentors, lots of opportunities, and a lot of jobs that need doing, from public and community health to legislative advocacy to health policy, hospital policy and specialties. Regardless of your interests, there’s a place and a need for involvement.  

“To the extent that I know it’s important to have a voice and represent our group and our medical specialty, I’m glad to have that role,” he adds. “The groups and people I work with are the most dedicated and fierce advocates, both of medicine in general and emergency medicine in particular, and also of healthcare delivery, patient access and so much more. Seeing the hard work they put in – day in and day out – is impressive and inspiring.”