Broward Health has named Robert K. Martin as CFO. For the past 10 years, Martin, a CPA, served as system vice president of finance with the Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, OH. He also held positions in finance at Easton Hospital in Easton, PA; Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in St. Mary's, PA; and Arthur Andersen & Company in Pittsburgh.
John Popovich Jr., MD, a nationally respected pulmonary disease and internal medicine specialist and an expert in healthcare policy, has been appointed president/CEO of Henry Ford Hospital. Popovich, 60, who started at Henry Ford Hospital in 1975 as a medical intern, will oversee the entire clinical and financial operations of the 802-bed hospital, the medical, educational, and research flagship of Henry Ford Health System. He will assume his new position July 15.
Margaret "Denny" DeNarvaez has been named president/CEO of Wellmont Health System, effective Aug. 1. She succeeds interim CEO Bob Burgin. She was the unanimous selection of the Wellmont board of directors following a national search process. DeNarvaez, 54, has more than 27 years experience in healthcare leadership. She presently serves as CEO of St. John's Mercy Health Care, which includes hospitals in both St. Louis and Washington, MO.
Healthcare economists and other experts say retirements by doctors and nurses over the next 10 to 15 years will greatly weaken the healthcare workforce and leave many Americans who are newly insured under the new reform legislation without much hope of finding a doctor or nurse. Nearly 40% of doctors are 55 or older, according to the Center for Workforce Studies of the Association of American Medical Colleges. About a third of the much larger nursing workforce is 50 or older, and about 55% expressed an intention to retire in the next 10 years, according to a Nursing Management Aging Workforce Survey by the Bernard Hodes Group.
Draft regulations being developed by the Obama administration say more than half of employer healthcare plans may lose their grandfathered status and be required to comply with the health overhaul bill approved March 23. Obama promised as part of his health overhaul that Americans who liked their insurance coverage could keep it. The regulations govern so-called grandfathered status, which allowed employers to keep offering a plan even if it doesn't meet all the bill's requirements, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The government began handing out $25 million in grants aimed at reducing medical malpractice lawsuits, part of a compromise offered by President Barack Obama last year in response to calls for an overhaul of the malpractice system. In his joint address to Congress last September, Obama asked the Department of Health and Human Services to take action, separate from the broader legislation, to reduce malpractice costs. The result is a slate of demonstration programs aimed at reducing preventable injuries, improving communication betweens doctors and patients, ensuring patients are compensated more quickly, and reducing liability insurance premiums, the Wall Street Journal reports.