Jeffrey Linde "Jeff" McWaters (born September 6, 1956) is an American businessman and former member of the Senate of Virginia as a Republican.

McWaters is the founder and former CEO of Amerigroup, a managed health care organization launched out of Virginia Beach.

[5] Jeff and Cindy McWaters moved to Virginia Beach where he started Amerigroup, which would become one of the nation's largest healthcare organizations, with revenues exceeding $6 billion (as of 2011).

[6][5][2] Jeff McWaters was inducted into the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics Hall of Fame in 2003.

[10] In 1999, Amerigroup acquired Prudential HealthCare's Medicaid business, and in July of the same year opened an additional location in Dallas, where 34,000 members were added.

[14][10][11] In the spring of 2000, Amerigroup filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with Deutsche Banc Alex Brown as lead underwriter.

In the summer of 2001, with Banc of America Securities and UBS Warburg as the new underwriters, a September date was set for the public offering to take place.

Continuing in the year of 2002, the company saw significant growth in various markets – this included 7,000 new memberships in Maryland, 11,000 in New Jersey, 20,000 in Dallas, 23,000 in Fort Worth, and 39,000 in Houston.

[16] Amerigroup continued to expand through the purchase of Physicians Healthcare Plans, adding an additional 190,000 members in Florida.

The patients in question needed more care than Amerigroup had expected, and the company had updated its computer processing systems which resulted in expenses hitting the books earlier than anticipated.

[14] In 2007, Amerigroup settled a lawsuit brought on by shareholders who claimed to have been defrauded following the company's drop in share price as a result of the money lost in the third quarter of 2005.

[14] Amerigroup formed the National Advisory Board (NAB) in 2007 which focused on healthcare services for seniors and people with disabilities.

[14] On July 9, 2007, a press release was published announcing the transition and change of upper management as founder and CEO Jeff McWaters retired from his role after 13 years.

During a conference call conducted the same day, McWaters and his staff answered questions from analysts regarding the timing of his retirement as well as Amerigroup's future.

McWaters responded with a recap of the company's achievements over the last 13 years, saying "The issue we set out to address at the state level in 1994—access, quality, and cost containment remain the central challenges facing our nation's overall healthcare system.

The time is now for those of us in healthcare to take some lessons we've learned in Medicaid and apply them in a broad, more comprehensive way, ensuring access for all Americans.

[26][11] McWaters ran to replace outgoing Republican and sheriff-elect Ken Stolle in a special election held on January 13, 2010.

[28][29] His campaign focused on issues like ensuring in-state tuition eligibility for enlisted military who had applied for Virginia residency.

[31] Along with ten other legislative members, McWaters served alongside Governor McDonnell's transportation work group.

Healthcare was a focus of McWaters 2010 campaign for senate,[citation needed] during which he pushed for a competitive bidding process for Medicaid.