Sutter Health named longtime Sutter executive Sarah Krevans COO for the Sacramento-based, not-for-profit health care network. The COO role has been vacant since Sutter Health President and CEO Pat Fry left the position in 2005. Krevans, who assumes her new role in January 2012, will oversee the operations of Sutter Health's five Northern California regions and the Sutter Care at Home network of home health and hospice services.
Nine months after purchasing the former Mercy Hospital in Scranton, Community Health Systems Inc. has selected a CEO to run the facility and has reached a tentative agreement with union workers. CHS, a for-profit company that owns or leases more than 133 hospitals in 29 states, bought the former Mercy Hospital and its affiliate hospitals in Tunkhannock and Nanticoke for $150 million in March. Officials with Regional Hospital of Scranton announced that Brooks Turkel will take over as CEO effective Monday, Nov. 21. Since 2006, Turkel has been serving as CEO at Chestnut Hill Hospital, a teaching affiliate of the University of Pennsylvania and a CHS property.
Michael Browder has been named executive vice president/CFO for RegionalCare Hospital Partners. Browder was previously CEO of Nashville-based hospital operator Essent Healthcare, which recently merged into RegionalCare. He replaces John Bakewell, who resigned to pursue other interests. Browder joined Essent in 2001, shortly after Essent purchased its first hospital. Before being named CEO, he was CFO for the company.
America's Health Insurance Plans announced that Eric H. Schultz, president/CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc., has been elected by his colleagues as the new Chair of the Board of Directors. Before joining Harvard Pilgrim in March 2010, Schultz was president/CEO of Fallon Community Health Plan for 10 years. Schultz also held executive positions with CIGNA Healthcare, Prudential Healthcare, and served as Medical Group Administrator for Nashville Healthcare Group.
Thomas E. Jackiewicz, a seasoned health care executive with a track record for innovation, creativity and strategic alignment, will assume USC's newly created position of senior vice president/CEO for USC Health, effective Jan. 1, 2012. Jackiewicz, who currently serves as CEO of the UC San Diego Health System and associate vice chancellor of UC San Diego Health Sciences, will report to USC president C. L. Max Nikias.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Barack Obama's sweeping health care reform law, the court announced Monday. Oral arguments will likely be held in late February or March, with a ruling by June. A key issue to be considered by the high court's nine justices is whether the "individual mandate" section of the law—requiring nearly all Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties—is an improper exercise of federal authority. Various states have argued that if that linchpin provision is found unconstitutional, the entire law will have to be scrapped.