Dr. Romilla Batra has joined Mountlake Terrace-based Premera as its new chief medical officer and senior vice president.

In this role, Batra has accountability for the company’s clinical strategy, focused on making health care work better for Premera members and improving the provider experience, Premera said in a press release. She has oversight of teams focused on population health, quality, health care performance, clinical programs, utilization management and medical policy.

Prior to joining Premera, Batra spent more than 12 years at SCAN Health Plan, a national not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plan based in California. She served as the organization’s chief medical officer for nearly nine years and was accountable for SCAN’s overall clinical strategy and operations.

Previously,  Batra ran primary care clinics at University of California Irvine and Indiana University. She is an internist by training and continues to volunteer and teach in the medical and business schools at University of California Irvine. She holds a doctor of medicine degree from UCLA and a master of business administration from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine.