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As some states challenge the Affordable Care Act in court, others are pushing implementation of regulations under the federal reform law. The healthcare industry in 2011 is a fragmented and fascinating place. Here are 40 people who have been instrumental in shaping healthcare policy, trends and debate over the last year.
Mark T. Bertolini. Mark Bertolini is chairman, CEO and president of Aetna, a health insurance company with more than $34 billion in 2010 revenue, a workforce of more than 34,000 and operations in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. A member of the company's board of directors, Mr. Bertolini assumed the role of CEO in Nov. 2010 and the role of chairman in April 2011. Mr. Bertolini recently described his company as "an evolving technology services company with a big insurance vehicle" in an interview with Healthcare IT News. Aetna has been investing in research and development in the last decade, and its recent $6 billion health IT acquisitions and development of new applications are part of a strategy simplify system use. Aetna has made headlines lately because of disputes between the insurer and hospital chain HCA, which has pushed for rates that Aetna says are "significantly higher than other area hospitals," according to a Palm Beach Post report. About 36,000 Aetna clients hang in the balance between HCA's East Florida affiliate and Aetna in the negotiation.
Donald Berwick, MD. Don Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, oversees Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs — three programs that collectively provide care to nearly one-third of Americans. Before assuming leadership of CMS, Dr. Berwick was president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a non-profit organization that aims to reduce readmissions, infections and other patient safety issues around the world. Dr. Berwick strongly believes in the need to redistribute healthcare resources from the rich to the poor and has been criticized for his favorable statements about the British healthcare system. Dr. Berwick has been quoted as saying that "sick people tend to be poorer and … poor people tend to be sicker and … any healthcare funding program that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and less fortunate." Dr. Berwick celebrated his 65th birthday in Sept. 2011, making him eligible for the Medicare program he oversees.
John Bluford III. John Bluford was named chair-elect of the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association in July 2010 and assumed the chairmanship in 2011. As chair of the board of the AHA, Mr. Bluford is the top elected official of the national organization that represents the country's hospitals and health systems. Mr. Bluford has served as CEO and executive director of Truman Medical Centers, a non-profit hospital system comprised of two hospitals, a health department and a behavioral health network, since 1999. He has said that a "special area of focus" during his chairmanship for the AHA will be to create a culture of wellness among healthcare employees that will hopefully extend into the communities they serve.
Richard M. Bracken. Richard Bracken, chairman and CEO of Hospital Corporation of America, began his career with the company in 1981 and has since held various executive positions within HCA. He was appointed president of HCA's Pacific Division in 1997, COO in July 2011 and president and COO in Jan. 2002. He was then elected to the HCA Board of Directors in Nov. 2002 and became CEO in Jan. 2009. HCA recently announced the company will pay Bank of America $1.5 billion to buy back more than one-sixth of the hospital operator's outstanding shares, which have reportedly been battered by a slowdown at operating rooms and worries about Medicare cuts. Mr. Bracken said he views the repurchasing of the common stuck as an accretive investment in the company and an opportunity to enhance stockholder value.
Angela F. Braly. Angela Braly is the chair of the board of directors, president and CEO of WellPoint, the nation's largest health benefits company in terms of membership, with approximately 34 million Americans covered through its affiliated health plans. In 2010, WellPoint generated operating revenue in excess of $57.8 billion and employed around 37,500 associates. Ms. Braly was named president and CEO in June 2007 and assumed the role of the chair of the board in March 2010. Under her leadership, the company's commitment to its mission has been strengthened by diversifying its business portfolio to offer more comprehensive health solutions. Ms. Braly has led the company in the divestiture of WellPoint's prescription benefits management business to Express Scripts, increased transparency through the Anthem Care Comparison tool to provide cost information to consumers and the measurement of progress made in improving quality of care through a proprietary Member Health Index.
William F. Carpenter. William Carpenter serves as the chairman of the board, president and CEO for LifePoint Hospitals, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn. He has served as CEO since June 2006, prior to which he served as executive vice president and chief development officer. Having led the company's acquisition activities as chief development officer, Mr. Carpenter understands the importance of ensuring a smooth transition between acquiring and owning a hospital. Under Mr. Carpenter's leadership, the company started a transitional services division that is present at the creation of a deal to work side-by-side with the development team from the moment a deal is struck. LifePoint formed a joint venture with Duke University Health System in Jan. 2011, creating an entity designed to improve healthcare delivery by creating flexible affiliation options for community hospitals. Duke/LifePoint is one of the first joint ventures between an academic health system and a hospital operations company.
Carolyn M. Clancy, MD. Carolyn Clancy was appointed Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Feb. 2003, just after the entity was established, and was reappointed in Oct. 2009. As director of AHRQ, her primary focus has been on reducing medical mistakes, improving consistency of healthcare across disciplines and calculating the financial toll of healthcare decisions. AHRQ has recently funded several successful research projects that promote patient safety, including an initiative to reduce hospital-acquired infections in Michigan. Ms. Clancy told The Hill in Sept. 2011 that researchers saw "dramatic" results by using a basic checklist combined with a different approach from hospital leadership and a system that asked employees to "check and balance" one another. AHRQ is now working with other stakeholders to expand the experiment to other conditions and regions.
Richard L. Clarke, DHA, FHFMA. Richard Clarke, president and CEO of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, has led his organization to significant growth in membership, scope and influence since assuming the post in 1986. He announced his retirement, effective July 31, 2012, early this year. During Mr. Clarke's tenure, HFMA has grown 40 percent, and operating revenue has grown 408 percent. Mr. Clarke has long supported the viewpoint that the U.S. healthcare system is economically unsustainable, and this conviction led HFMA to launch an examination into the principles and components of a new healthcare system. This examination has taken shape in public and private demonstration projects, as well as in the 2010 healthcare reform law. Mr. Clarke spearheaded HFMA's Value Project, which gathered the support of 17 leading hospitals and health systems to identify how hospitals can "bend the cost curve" while improving quality. The first Value Project report was released in June 2011.
David Cordani. David Cordani, CEO of Cigna, recently led the Bloomfield, Conn.-based company in rebranding itself for the first time in a generation. The company recently adjusted its brand to market to individuals as well as employers, spending $25 million on a rebranding effort that includes television and print advertising, a new social media presence and a softer, less corporate logo. The company has also dropped the all-capital CIGNA spelling of its name. Mr. Cordani said personalization is important to contemporary consumers, and Cigna wanted to connect better with its customers. Mr. Cordani became president and CEO of the company in Dec. 2009, after serving as president and COO since June 2008. He has held numerous other executive Cigna positions and, prior to Cigna, worked with Coopers & Lybrand in Washington, D.C.
Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, MD. As president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove presides over a $5 billion healthcare system that includes the Cleveland Clinic, nine community hospitals, 15 family health and ambulatory surgery centers and locations in Florida, Toronto and Abu Dhabi. His leadership at Cleveland Clinic has emphasized patient care and patient experience, including the re-organization of clinical services into patient-entered, organ and disease-based institutes. Dr. Cosgrove and his health system have made headlines in recent months after the CEO criticized proposed rules for accountable care organizations, saying they create "significant barriers" that would discourage hospitals from adopting the new model. Cleveland Clinic is one of several prominent national health systems that has declined participation in the "pioneer" ACO program, a blow to the Obama administration considering that the program was designed for systems exactly like Cleveland Clinic.
Nancy-Ann DeParle. Nancy-Ann DeParle is the deputy chief of staff for policy in the administration of President Obama, a position she came to after serving as the director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Ms. DeParle was named as one of the new White House chief of staff's deputies during a major shakeup in White House staffing in early 2011. Ms. DeParle came to the Obama administration with first-hand knowledge of the push for health reform, having served as the director of the Health Care Financing Administration from 1997-2000. She is an expert on Medicare and Medicaid and has helped the Obama administration expand those programs in the push for universal coverage.
Thomas C. Dolan, PhD, FACHE, CAE. Thomas Dolan is president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives, an international professional society of more than 35,000 healthcare executives. The organization has comprehensive programs in credentialing, education, career counseling, publications and research and serves as one of the healthcare industry's top professional associations, influencing executive opinion on matters such as acquisitions and mergers, quality and patient safety, CEO performance expectations and board certification. As of Jan. 2011, the organization had 24,184 members. Prior to his appointment as president and CEO of ACHE, Dr. Dolan served as the organization's executive vice president. Before joining the College, he held a variety of teaching, research and administrative positions at St. Louis University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of Washington and the University of Iowa.
Trevor Fetter. Trevor Fetter is president and CEO of Tenet Healthcare, a position he assumed in Sept. 2003. He originally joined Tenet in 1995, serving as executive vice president, CFO and a member of the office of the president. Tenet made headlines in 2011 over its relationship with Community Health Systems, first for suing the hospital operator for wrongfully billing insurers and second for rebuking CHS' offer to buy Tenet for $7.25 a share. Mr. Fetter said at the time that Tenet's business strategy would "deliver greater value than Community Health's inadequate proposal," an interesting position considering the pressure on hospital systems to be acquired by larger competitors. In April 2011,Tenet sued CHS for billing insurers for unnecessary patient stays, alleging the hospital operator made between $280 million and $377 million through improperly admitting Medicare patients between 2006 and 2007.
Teri G. Fontenot, FACHE. Teri Fontenot is the president and CEO of Woman's Hospital, a 356-bed Level III regional referral hospital that serves as the largest birthing and neonatal intensive care facility in Louisiana. The hospital is also the largest freestanding, non-profit woman's hospital in the country. Ms. Fontenot has led the hospital in the development of a $400 replacement campus, which will open in summer 2012 with increased capacity for current services and new growth opportunities. In addition to her work as head of Woman's Hospital, Ms. Fontenot will serve as chairman of the American Hospital Association starting in 2012, becoming the top elected official of the organization that represents America's hospitals and health systems. Ms. Fontenot serves on the American Hospital Association Long Range Policy Committee and chairs the AHA Health Forum board. She also chairs the CEO Committee of the American College of Healthcare Executives and has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health for the National Institutes of Health and chair of the board of the Louisiana Hospital Association.
George C. Halvorson. George Halvorson is chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, headquartered in Oakland, Calif. Kaiser Permanente is the nation's largest non-profit health plan and hospital system, serving approximately 8.8 million members and generating $42 billion in annual revenue. Mr. Halvorson serves on committees and boards of several industry-leading associations, including the board of America's Health Insurance Plans, the American Hospital Association's advisory committee on health reform and the Institute of Medicine roundtable on value and science-driven healthcare. Kaiser has made $5.7 billion since 2009, and Mr. Halvorson was paid $8 million in total compensation in 2009 alone — a fact that has recently brought the health system under fire as 21,000 employees held a strike against the hospital chain for higher wages. Kaiser officials responded by saying they were "disappointed" by the strike by National Union of Healthcare Workers at such an early stage in contract negotiations.
Stephen J. Hemsley. Stephen Hemsley has been CEO of Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, since 2006. Before joining UnitedHealth Group, he worked for Arthur Andersen as a managing partner and chief financial officer. Mr. Tersigni is also the immediate past chair of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. UnitedHealth Group is the nation's largest insurance company based on revenue, pulling in $87.4 billion in revenues in 2010 and benefitting around 70 million Americans. In Sept. 2011, UnitedHealthcare of Florida signed a contract with the state of Florida, agreeing to provide HMO services in 18 counties. The announcement came after the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected parts of a legal challenge filed by United and declined to issue a stay. The other 49 Florida counties were divided among five HMOs that reached agreements with the state separately.
Charles "Chip" Kahn III. Chip Kahn served as the driving force behind the ad campaign that dismantled Bill Clinton's 1993 healthcare reform plan, and he has played a significant role in the debate over President Obama's reform efforts as well. The head of the Federation of American Hospitals, Mr. Kahn acts as an influential lobbyist within the healthcare industry and served on the late Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee to hash out healthcare reform before drafting legislation. The Federation of American Hospitals has pushed for universal coverage, including the mandate that individuals carry health insurance. In early Sept. 2011, the FAH issued a news release that commended President Obama for focusing on job growth but expressed concerns about the impact of future federal policies on America's hospitals. Mr. Kahn said in the release that the 2 percent Medicare cuts embedded in the Budget Control Act would lead by nearly 50,000 hospital job losses and $30 billion in lost wages by 2021. He said deeper Medicare and Medicaid cuts would dramatically escalate these losses.
Sister Carol Keehan, DC. Sister Carol Keehan is the ninth president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, having assumed her duties in Oct. 2005. She is responsible for all association operations and leads CHA's staff at offices in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. She has worked in administrative and governance positions in healthcare for more than 35 years, most recently as board chair of Ascension Health's Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Fla., and prior to that as president and CEO of Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. Sister Keehan publicly supported the Affordable Care Act but has criticized Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' narrow religious exemptions for the provision of contraception. On Aug. 1, 2011, HHS announced that only certain religious institutions could opt out of providing contraception, a move that Sister Keehan said would not "protect our Catholic health providers."
Jeremy Lazarus, MD. Dr. Jeremy Lazarus, a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice in Denver, was elected president-elect of the American Medical Association in June 2011. Prior to his election, Dr. Lazarus served as speaker of the AMA House of Delegates from 2007-2011 and vice speaker from 2003-2007. He is also a past president of the Colorado Medical Society. He has chaired several AMA task forces on a wide variety of topics, including health system reform. Representing the AMA on the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured, Dr. Lazarus has been one of the organization's chief spokespersons on issues involving the uninsured. He is only the second psychiatrist to be president of the AMA.
H. Stephen Lieber, CAE. Since 2000, Stephen Lieber has served as the president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the largest U.S. cause-based, non-profit healthcare association focused on the optimal use of IT in healthcare. He serves not only on the board of directors of HIMSS and its related corporations, but also on the board of the Certification Commission for HIT and the Health Information Technology Standards Panel, which he co-founded. In his role as leader of HIMSS, Mr. Lieber has established the Society as a global leader on technology standards, IT adoption, IT certification, electronic health records and interoperability. In a Feb. 2011 interview with Mobi Health News, Mr. Lieber said healthcare is on the cusp of a "mobile era," and the presence of mobile content at the HIMSS conference demonstrates that transition.
Steven H. Lipstein. As president and CEO of BJC Healthcare in St. Louis, Steven Lipstein oversees one of the nation's largest healthcare organizations, with annual net revenues of $3.5 billion and more than 26,000 employees. During his tenure with BJC, Mr. Lipstein has positioned the healthcare system for the future through the creation of the Center for Advanced Medicine and Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. The Center for Advanced Medicine, a cooperative effort between Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, houses a wide range of outpatient services and consolidates more than 30 locations where services were offered previously. Mr. Lipstein is also one of 21 board members to lead the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a federal non-profit organization established by the healthcare reform law in 2010. PCORI conducts comparative effectiveness research to provide quality, evidence-based findings on how diseases and health conditions can be effectively prevented, diagnosed, treated and managed appropriately.
Kevin E. Lofton. Kevin Lofton is the president and CEO of Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives, the third-largest Catholic healthcare system in the nation with $9 billion in annual revenue and 73 hospitals. According to Mr. Lofton, CHI is developing accountable care organization pilots in four markets and will invest $1.5 billion in EHRs and other IT systems from 2010-2015 to enhance quality of care. The hospital system is in the midst of a potential merger that would put Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's Healthcare and University Hospital in Louisville under the control of Catholic Health Initiatives by merging the hospitals with St. Joseph Health System of Lexington. The merger has met with controversy because the hospitals have agreed to follow Catholic healthcare directives, including not providing sterilization and birth control. The company also recently acquired therapy services from Applied Medical, a large independent physical and occupational practice in North Dakota.
Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM. Farzad Mostashari serves as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS. Dr. Mostashari joined ONC in July 2009 and was appointed National Coordinator on April 8, 2011, succeeding David Blumenthal, MD. Dr. Mostashari recently said he supports a delay of stage 2 of meaningful use, per the suggestions of the Health IT Policy Committee. He said delaying stage 2 of meaningful use to 2014 may encourage providers to attest to meaningful use this year, but those who have already attested should still be rewarded. The Office of the National Coordinator plans to release proposed rules for meaningful use of EHRs by the end of 2011 or early 2012 and will complete the rules in the summer of 2012.
Gary D. Newsome. Gary Newsome became president and CEO of Health Management Associates, a hospital operator based in Naples, Fla., in Sept. 2008. From early 1998 until Sept. 2008, Mr. Newsome was employed by Community Health Systems, which he joined as a group vice president and left as division president. Health Management Associates is a for-profit company that mainly operates hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the southern United States. Despite inclusion of several HMA hospitals on a recent Joint Commission list of the 405 "best" hospitals in the country, shares of the hospital operator fell 34 percent between late July and mid-September. Analysts believe stock prices may have fallen over concerns about the weak economy and possibly cuts to Medicare payments, which could come as a result of a deficit-reduction plan.
John H. Noseworthy, MD. Dr. Noseworthy, a neurologist, became president and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Nov. 2009. Dr. Noseworthy joined Mayo in 1990 and has served in various leadership positions, among them chairman of Mayo's Department of Neurology and vice chairman of its Rochester executive board. He also served as editor-in-chief of Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Among other projects, the Mayo Clinic has recently made progress toward the launch of a Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, which will identify the most efficient best practices in the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients by analyzing data and conducting research into new care delivery systems. Mayo Clinic believes this kind of research is essential as state and federal policymakers continue to struggle with the nuances of healthcare reform. Dr. Noseworthy also recently announced Mayo Clinic's involvement in an initiative to create global smoke-free workplaces.
Pres. Barack Obama. President Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office. President Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School and worked as a civil rights attorney and constitutional law professor for the University of Chicago Law School before serving as a United States Senator from Illinois from 2005-2008. President Obama's 2010 passage of healthcare reform continues to make waves in the healthcare community, with some lawmakers pushing implementation of regulations such as health insurance exchanges, and others fighting the Affordable Care Act in court. According to surveys released by Gallup and the National Center for Health Statistics in Sept. 2011, President Obama's healthcare overhaul has proven effective in reducing the number of young adults without health insurance. One survey estimated that the number of uninsured people ages 19-25 dropped from 10 million in 2010 to 9.1 million in the first three months of 2011.
Thomas M. Priselac. Thomas Priselac serves as president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, a position he has held since Jan. 1994. Mr. Priselac has been associated with Cedars-Sinai since 1979, and prior to being named president and CEO, was executive vice president from 1988-1993. The Cedars-Sinai Health system is one of the nation's leading providers of healthcare services, providing physician services through the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, a full-time academic faculty and an active private attending staff. With annual revenues over $1.7 billion, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is the largest private hospital in the western United States. In addition to his work with Cedars-Sinai, Mr. Priselac serves as chairman of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees and is past chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Kenneth E. Raske. Kenneth Raske has been president of the Greater New York Hospital Association since 1984. An expert on healthcare policy and finance, he has played a key role in shaping the New York and national healthcare delivery system and has been instrumental in growing GNYHA to the nearly 250 hospitals that it represents. Over the past several years, GNYHA has played a critical role at the state level, opposing healthcare funding cutbacks and advocating for the passage of legislation that would help protect funding for teaching hospitals and charity care programs. On the federal front, the association has been an advocate in the pushback against deep Medicare and Medicaid cuts, particularly to teaching hospitals. Under Mr. Raske's leadership, GNYHA has developed a portfolio of business subsidiaries called GNYHA Ventures, which includes Nexera, Innovatix and New Business Initiatives. GNYHA's advocacy efforts receive substantial financial support from these businesses, creating a valuable symbiotic relationship.
Ian Read. Ian Read is CEO of Pfizer, the world's largest research-based biopharmaceutical company, which discovers, develops and manufacturers a portfolio that spans the spectrum of human and animal health products. Mr. Read began his career with Pfizer in 1978 as an operational auditor and worked in Latin America through 1995, holding positions in a number of the company's fastest-growing operations, such as Pfizer Mexico and Pfizer Brazil. Pfizer named Mr. Read CEO in Dec. 2010, following the retirement of former CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler. Mr. Read was appointed the company's leader as Pfizer prepared to face generic competition from its top-selling cholesterol treatment Lipitor. Despite deep cuts to the company's $8 billion global research and development operations in Feb. 2011, Pfizer has been expanding operations lately with acquisitions and property development. In Sept. 2011, the company announced it would purchase biotech real estate in Cambridge, Mass., to make room for 400 employees. The company has also considered a sale of its nutrition business, a spin-off of its animal health business and the establishment of a business that sells generic drugs for increased profit.
Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, is a candidate for the 2102 Republican Party presidential nomination. In April 2006, Mr. Romney signed the Massachusetts health reform law, which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to purchase health insurance coverage and has been heralded as the predecessor to federal healthcare reform. The bill also established means-tested state subsidies for those who do not have adequate employer insurance and make below an income threshold. Mr. Romney's involvement in the landmark Massachusetts legislation, which he agreed to after months of negotiations with a Democratic legislature, has been seen by Republicans as a "black mark" on his record, one that could make him unpopular with conservative voters who oppose the federal healthcare reform law. Like every other Republican candidate, Mr. Romney has said he would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has said he would issue an executive order on the first day of his presidency that would grant every state a waiver from its enforcement of "Obamacare."
Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin's first congressional district, a position he has held since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party and serves as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, where he has significant impact on the Republican Party's long-term budget proposal. In April 2011, he introduced a plan titled The Path to Prosperity as a counter to President Barack Obama's budget proposal. The House passed this plan by a vote of 235-193, but the bill died in the Senate later in the month. Among its key features, the plan would have reformed Medicare and Medicaid by ending the current Medicare program starting in 2022 and converting Medicaid payments to block grants starting in 2013. The current Medicare plan would be replaced with a new program — still called Medicare — involving voucher-like "premium support payments" and increasing the age of eligibility. The plan would also make several changes to the healthcare reform law, repealing the requirement that most residents obtain health insurance and repealing tax credits for small employers that offer health insurance.
Kathleen Sebelius. Kathleen Sebelius was sworn in as the 21st secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in April 2009. Since then, she has led efforts to implement reforms through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including policies that focus on wellness and prevention, adoption of electronic medical records, recruitment of more primary health providers and expansion of insurance coverage. In Sept. 2011, Secretary Sebelius reported that the Affordable Care Act has succeeded in expanding healthcare coverage to hundreds of thousands of young adults. One survey, conducted by the CDC's National Center of Health Statistics, found that the number of uninsured Americans ages 19-25 dropped from 10 million in 2010 to 9.1 million in the first three months of 2011. Upon the announcement, Secretary Sebelius also criticized politicians who support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. "It's very disappointing to hear some people in Congress talk about repealing the law and taking away this security, "she said in a statement.
Peter Shumlin (D-Vermont). Peter Shumlin is the 81st and current governor of Vermont, elected during the 2010 election. On May 26, 2011, Gov. Shumlin signed a bill that put Vermont on a path to become the first state in the country to adopt a single-payor health system. The federal healthcare reform law would not allow Vermont to enact a single-payor system until 2017, but the state is asking the administration to grant a waiver so that it can establish a system by 2014. Gov. Shuman has previously criticized the current health insurance system, saying his experience as the owner of a successful travel business lets him "know firsthand that the biggest obstacle to job growth is the 10, 20, 30 percent increases in insurance premiums." Prior to being elected governor, Gov. Shumlin represented the held a Vermont Senate seat for eight terms, from 1992-2002 and from 2006-2011.
Wayne Smith. Mr. Smith has been president and CEO of Community Health Systems since 1997 and has helped the company grow from $742 million to more than $12.1 billion in net revenue. He graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a master's degree in hospital administration. Mr. Smith spent 23 years working for Humana, where he progressed from hospital administration to president and COO. While at Humana, he was tasked with turning around a financial crisis brought about by a flaw in the company's Humana Health Plans, which he successfully accomplished in two years. In 1997, Mr. Smith became president and CEO of CHS, where he focused his attention on purchasing non-urban, non-profit hospitals. CHS merged with Triad Hospitals in 2007 and is currently the second largest acute-care hospital chain in the United States.
Glenn D. Steele Jr., MD, PhD. Glenn Steele is president and CEO of Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System, a role he accepted in 2001 after leaving the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago. Dr. Steele is widely recognized for his investigations into the treatment of primary and metastatic cancer and colorectal survey and serves on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals. Geisinger Health System recently signed a definitive agreement to join with Bloomsburg Health System, two months after the system received final regulatory approval to merge with Shamokin Area Community Hospital. The system is also planning a takeover of Community Medical Center in Scranton, Pa., demonstrating a nationwide trend of increased mergers and acquisitions among large health systems. Geisinger has been praised as a model of low-cost, quality healthcare by President Obama, who in June 2009 encouraged providers nationwide to look to the system and learn from its success.
Anthony Tersigni, EdD, FACHE. Anthony Tersigni was appointed president and CEO of St. Louis-based Ascension Health in June 2004, prior to which he served as executive vice president and COO from Jan. 2001-Dec. 2003. He has also held leadership positions at other health systems, including St. John Health in Detroit, Sisters of St. Joseph Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Sisters of Charity Health Care systems in Cincinnati. As president and CEO of Ascension, Mr. Tersigni heads the largest Catholic healthcare system in the nation — even more so after the acquisition of Alexian Brothers Health System in suburban Chicago. ABHS and Ascension announced the signing of a letter of intent in April and said the goal was to complete a definitive agreement and receive necessary state and federal agency approvals by the end of 2011.
Richard Umbdenstock, FACHE. Richard Umbdenstock became president and CEO of the American Hospital Association in Jan. 2007, following a term as the elected AHA board chair in 2006. His career includes experience in hospital administration, health system leadership, association governance and management and HMO governance. Mr. Umbdenstock recently criticized President Obama's recommended Medicare and Medicaid cuts, which could reduce beneficiaries' access to care and eliminate around 200,000 jobs over the next 10 years. He said the president's plan to reduce federal healthcare spending by $320 billion over the next decade "would mean decreased access to care for our nation's seniors and could overload emergency rooms, shut down trauma units and reduce patient access to the latest treatments," according to an AHA statement. Mr. Umbdenstock has also argued in favor of payment extensions for physicians; he testified before a Congressional panel about section 508 wage reclassifications; outpatient hold-harmless payments for rural and sole community hospitals; and reasonable cost-based payment for outpatient clinical lab tests in smaller rural hospitals.
Chris Van Gorder. As president and CEO of San Diego-based Scripps Health since 2000, Chris Van Gorder has led the non-profit health system through a series of financial and culture changes, positioning the system as one of the nation's leading health providers. When Mr. Van Gorder was appointed CEO in 1999, Scripps Health was losing $15 million a year, and the management had recently received a "no-confidence" vote from its medical staff. Mr. Van Gorder responded to the crisis by implementing a physician leadership cabinet, building strategic alliances and pushing a more transparent management style. Through a joint venture with North American Medical Management California, Scripps Health recently formed an integrated delivery network with seven physician groups in San Diego County that is organized to respond to alternative care management agreements. Mr. Van Gorder also serves as chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a professional society of more than 30,000 healthcare executives.
Robert M. Wah, MD. Robert Wah, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and obstetrician/gynecologist, began serving as chair of the American Medical Association Board in June 2011. He practices and teaches at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. A nationally recognized expert in health information technology, Dr. Wah is chief medical officer for Computer Sciences Corporation and works with public agencies using technology to deliver better information for better decision-making. When he assumed his board position in June, Dr. Wah wrote in American Medical News that the AMA is working hard to champion medical ethics, oversee medical education, set standards and improve quality for physicians and medical practice. "One of the central questions to be addressed is: What will the medical profession of the future be?" he wrote. "As we answer this question, we will develop the tools, technology and services that physicians will need in the future."
William C. Weldon. William Weldon is the chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, the sixth chairman in the company's over 100-year history. Mr. Weldon has spent his entire working life at J&J, joining as a sales representative in 1971. As CEO, Mr. Weldon has engineered some of the company's largest acquisitions, including the purchases of Alza and Pfizer's consumer health product line. Mr. Weldon has instigated significant financial successes during his tenure at Johnson & Johnson, including an 80 percent revenue growth since he took over the company in 2002. Under his leadership, Johnson & Johnson has popularized the concept of a "decentralized" corporate environment, meaning responsibility is given to relatively autonomous leaders in local markets. In a 2008 interview with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Weldon said, "... the problem with centralization is if one person makes one mistake, it can cripple the whole organization. This way, you've got wonderful people running businesses."
For more information on this list, please contact Rachel Fields at rachel@beckersasc.com.