Recently named Floridian of the Year 2018 by Florida Trend Magazine, since the early 1980s, Dr. Kiran C. Patel has been taking the entire state of Florida by storm. Dr. Patel is a prominent leader among the Indian community; among the Carrollwood community where he has lived for over 30 years; and among the whole Tampa Bay community.

Kiran Patel was born in Zambia, Africa to Asian-Indian parents. He was educated under the British Educational System in Zambia and then got his diplomas from Cambridge University and The University of London. He then went to study medicine at Gujarat University in India and did his Internship in Africa. Dr. Patel did his residency in Internal Medicine in New Jersey in 1980. He completed a fellowship in the cardiology program affiliated with the Columbia University of New York in 1982.
Dr. Kiran moved to Tampa, Florida in 1982 and began his practice in cardiology. He was very successful and became a distinguished cardiologist in that area. He developed a physician practice management company and expanded throughout the Tampa Bay area, diverging into 14 practices including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Cardiology.

Kiran was also in partnership with many point-of-service locations to form a multi-specialty network. This network helped patients access most medical services conveniently. He has actively engaged himself in managed care contracts and it has expanded considerably, providing care now for more than 80,000 patients. Apart from this, he has developed good associations with several HMOs and hospitals.

His success in managed care contracts led a group of doctors to seek his services to help them with an HMO in New Port Richey, Florida. Dr. Patel took up the project after discussing a predetermined purchase option of the company. It was called the Well Care HMO, Inc. (Well Care). In 1992, Dr. Kiran Patel, along with Rupesh Shah, CEO, and Pradip Patel, President, started a Medicaid managed care company. This company became the largest Medicaid provider in the state of Florida.

Dr. Patel also helped to bring around the struggling HMO, WellCare of New York and Connecticut. He worked with more than 95 hospitals and a few hundred physicians in settling past due medical claims.
Between 1995 and 2002, Dr. Kiran Patel built the business into a billion-dollar company, providing services to more than 450,000 members, employing more than 1,200 employees and operating in Florida, New York and Connecticut.