Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
NAACOS
National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) President and CEO Clif Gaus is retiring in the fall. The organization will look for a new CEO with a search committee.
Gaus founded NAACOS in 2012 as the first and only national org to serve ACOs. Since then, the number of ACOs in the country have grown from 100 to 600, and 70% of those groups are NAACOS members. Under his leadership, NAACOs helped establish the Institute for Accountable Care and oversaw rehauls of the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
“Clif has been an instrumental leader in the ACO movement, back to the passing of the Affordable Care Act,” said Emily DuHamel Brower, NAACOS board president, in a statement. “To this day, he is a stalwart supporter of health care transformation that is driven by providers taking accountability for total cost of care and outcomes to achieve better, more accessible, affordable and equitable care for patients, families and communities. We wish him all the best as he turns the page on this chapter of his career.”
Before NAACOs, Gaus was president of Health Professor for 12 years, executive vice president at WellPoint and senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente.
VillageMD
Jim Murray, a former Humana, Centene and Magellan executive, has been appointed as president and chief operating officer for VillageMD.
He will lead Village Medical, Summit Health and CityMD in the position.
“Jim is a consummate operations leader, one whose expertise will help all of our businesses reach their potential and continue to establish VillageMD as a critical part of the care delivery system in our markets,” said Tim Barry, CEO and chair of VillageMD, in a statement. “We have laid important groundwork to become one of the nation’s leading care platforms by providing high-quality, compassionate care with our patients’ best interests at the center. Jim will help advance us to next level of clinical, financial and operational performance.
Parsley Health
Digital health company Parsley Health has named Chris Ricaurte as co-CEO with founder Robin Berzin, M.D to help Parsley lower costs for patients using root cause medicine.
Ricaurte, the former CFO for VillageMD, served in various financial position with R1 RCM, Applied Materials and GE. He is credited with increasing VillageMD’s revenue from $300 million to $3 billion, according to a news release.
Berzin worked as a physician at Mount Sinai Medical Center before joining Health 2.0 and eventually founding Parsley in January 2016.
> Banner Health, a nonprofit health system in western states, has announced CEO Peter Fine will retire June 30, with President Amy Perry stepping into the role, Fierce Healthcare reported.
> Define Ventures, an early-stage VC firm for digital health companies, has announced Frank Williams as new venture partner.
> Florida Blue, the state’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan, has promoted Phillip Lee as market president for West Florida.
> The Joint Commission, a national accreditation and certification organization, has named Lisa Steininger as executive vice president and CFO, Kathryn Petrovic as vice president for accreditation and certification product development, Andrew Rosen as vice president of International and Elizabeth Mort, M.D., as vice president and chief medical officer.
> Maryland Physicians Care has named Meritus Health President and CEO Maulik Joshi as chair of its board.
> Kaiser Permanente of Hawaii has tapped Edmund Chan as market president, replacing Greg Christian, who is retiring May 1.
> Franciscan Health Olympia Fields, a hospital in Illinois, has added Fulton Porter, M.D., as vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer and Michael Randall as vice president of strategy and business development.
> MedQuest, an outpatient imaging partner, has selected Aalpen Patel, M.D., as chief clinical and innovation officer.
> Tegria, a healthcare consulting and tech services company, has named Jay Sultan as its first chief data and analytics officer.
> Intermountain Health has appointed Andrea Burch as president of Lutheran Medical Center in Colorado, after serving as interim president.
> Talkdesk, an AI-powered contact center company, has tapped Munil Shah as chief technology officer.
> Frier Levitt, a national healthcare law firm, has selected Alex Keoskey and Matthew Kupferberg as partners.
> Vivante Health, a gut health startup, has named Dena Bravata, M.D., to its clinical advisory board.
> Crowe LLP, an accounting, consulting and technology firm, has named David Reitzel as healthcare consulting leader.
> Array Behavioral Care, a virtual psychiatry and therapy practice, has expanded its C-suite to include Christy Kisner as chief operating officer and Patrick Williamson as chief information officer.
> Campbell County Health, a health system in Wyoming, has named John Houk as chief medical officer.
> Ballad Health, an integrated healthcare system in the southeast, announced Lynn Krutak is retiring from her position as CFO. Steve Hilton will replace her.
> Memorial Medical Center, a hospital in Port Lavaca, Texas, announced Roshanda Thomas has resigned as CEO.
> The Illinois Department of Insurance will be led by Democratic state senator Ann Gillespie.
> HealthQuest Capital, a private asset firm for healthcare companies, has named Ashley McEvoy to its advisory board.
> Sutter Health, a nonprofit health system in California, has tapped Craig Miller as its first system-level service line president.
> I-PASS, a patient safety institute in Boston, Massachusetts, has named Patricia McGaffigan to its board of directors.
> Aledade, a network of independent primary care, has announced Helena Day Christianson as chief people officer.
> The Biden administration has appointed Francisco Ruiz as director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.