I. Leticia (Letty) Ramirez, formerly chief marketing and communications officer for Carondelet Health Network, has accepted a new position as vice president, advocacy, government, and community relations for the Network.
Christopher Cornue resigned as CEO of McKee Medical Center after serving in that role for just more than a year. The final day for Cornue, who started at the Loveland hospital Sept. 15, 2008, was Oct. 23. Cornue said he plans to return to his home in the Chicago area in response to family concerns. He originally had planned to relocate his family within the year after arriving at McKee. Cornue previously served as vice president of Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago. Jim Ferando, president of Banner Health's Western Region, said he plans to fill Cornue's position as soon as possible.
Brigham and Women's/Faulkner Hospitals named Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, as its next president after a unanimous vote by the board of trustees. Nabel, who will assume her position Jan. 1, will succeed Gary Gottlieb, MD, who becomes CEO and president of Partners HealthCare when James Mongan, MD, retires at the beginning of the new year. Nabel is currently the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage. Senate leaders plan to submit the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate as soon as October 26, and make the legislation public as soon as a day later, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The bill is expected to expand health coverage to tens of millions of Americans by giving low- and middle-income Americans subsidies to offset the cost of insurance, and expanding the Medicaid federal-state insurance program to cover a broader swath of the poor.
With a growing sense that Democrats may have the votes to pass healthcare reform, many participants are now attempting to shape the components of landmark legislation rather than to defeat it, the Washington Post reports. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) is expected to request a cost estimate on the bill he has worked out behind closed doors, and lawmakers, industry executives, and lobbyists told the Post that this is the moment to exert maximum influence on legislation aimed at refashioning the $2.4 trillion healthcare sector.
The $467 million, 14-story Smilow Cancer Hospital is set to open October 26 in New Haven, CT. The facility is the culmination of a multiyear expansion effort at Yale-New Haven Hospital and part of a larger campaign to raise the hospital's profile in the treatment of cancer. The hospital is in the midst of a recruitment drive that could lead to more than 60 additional physicians specializing in cancer, officials said.