BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee named Richard Cassidy, MD, as vice president and CMO for healthcare services. The company also promoted Inga Himelright, MD, to the new role of associate CMO for the division.
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.
According to this editorial from the Washington Post, one issue that could end up bringing down the current health-reform effort is the baby steps that the Senate Finance Committee takes toward addressing the problem surrounding "the unfair and counterproductive effect of the special tax treatment given to employer-sponsored health insurance."
Many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in health insurance premiums they have seen in recent years, the New York Times reports. Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15% for the coming year—double the rate of last year's increases. That would mean an annual premium that was $4,500 per employee in 2008 and $4,800 this year would rise to $5,500 in 2010.