Health Tech

Healthcare Moves: A Monthly Summary of Hires and Layoffs

Here is a selection of recent executive hires, promotions and layoffs occurring across the healthcare industry.

By Katie Adams on September 28, 2023

This roundup will be published monthly. It is meant to highlight some of healthcare’s recent hiring news and is not intended to be comprehensive. If you have news about an executive appointment, resignation or layoff that you would like to share for this roundup or the MedCity Moves podcast, please reach out to [email protected].

Exits

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan CEO Dan Loepp announced that he will be retiring at the end of 2024. He has been with the insurer for more than two decades. Beginning this December, BCBS Michigan will begin a national search for a new president and CEO.

Amir Dan Rubin said he will resign from his role as CEO of One Medical before the end of the year. He led the membership-based primary care practice for more than six years. Before his tenure at One Medical, Rubin had served as a division CEO within Optum, CEO of Stanford Health Care and COO of UCLA Health.

Rosalind Brewer stepped down from her role as CEO of Walgreens. The company’s press release said she and the board of directors came to this decision mutually. Ginger Graham, who previously served as the lead independent director of Walgreens, has stepped up as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement for Brewer. 

Hires

Bryan Hanson left his role as CEO of orthopedic device maker Zimmer Biomet and became the new CEO of 3M’s healthcare business. 3M has said that it is seeking to spin off this division by the end of this year or nearly next year. 

Aledade, a national network of independent primary care practices, appointed Julie Green Bataille as its new senior vice president of communications. She is a seasoned communications leader, and one of her past roles was director of communications at CMS.

Emory Healthcare welcomed Joe Depa as its first chief data and analytics officer. He came to the Atlanta-based health system from Accenture, where he was the global leader for data and AI.

Health information network Surescripts named Lynne Nowak as first chief data and analytics officer. She has held leadership roles at Lark Health and Cigna/Evernorth/Express Scripts.

Toyosi Okurounmu became national chief medical officer and vice president of medical leadership and clinical performance at UnitedHealthcare’s community and state division, which provides managed Medicaid services in 30 states. Before joining the company, she held clinical leadership roles at Humana.

Promotions

AHIP announced that its general counsel, Julie Simon Miller, will become interim CEO on October 2, after Matt Eyles officially steps down from his role. She has been with the association for more than 18 years.

No longer in an interim role, Chris Allen became the new permanent CFO at Keck Medicine of USC. Some of his previous roles include CFO of Adventist Health and senior director of budget and decision support at UC Irvine Health. 

Mayo Clinic Arizona appointed Bhavik Patel as chief AI officer. He joined Mayo Clinic as a radiologist in 2021. Most recently, he served as the medical director for AI/machine learning innovation and enablement for Mayo Clinic’s Center for Digital Health.

Penn Medicine named Kevin Kline as its first medical director of LGBTQ health. Prior to his new role, he served as an assistant professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Layoffs

Biotech firm 2seventy Bio eliminated 176 positions, which is about 40% of its workforce. The company also said that its CEO, Nick Leschly, will step down and transition to the role of chairman.

Akili is laying off 40% of its workforce. The company, which makes video games to treat behavioral health disorders, said it plans to change its business model by switching to a nonprescription model for its digital therapeutics.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals laid off about a quarter of its employees, which is about 225 people. Along with these job cuts, the company is also scrapping two of its preclinical drug candidates. This reorganizing will help Apellis focus on Syfovre, its recently approved vision loss drug.

CommonSpirit Health laid off about 2,000 full-time workers serving in “ancillary, support and overhead functions.” The news came as the health system posted a $1.4 billion operating loss for the end of the fiscal year.

Ohio-based health system ProMedica laid off about 20 administrative workers. The health system had another round of layoffs in January, which affected 262 employees.

Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, California laid off 96 employees, all of whom worked in women’s and newborn services. 

Unite Us, a technology company focused on connecting healthcare and social service providers, laid off a portion of its workforce. The company did not disclose the number of affected employees, but Fierce Healthcare viewed a Slack channel created by and for those impacted by the layoffs — the publication reported that the channel had more than 120 members as of September 6.

Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut laid off 26 staff members, 17 of whom were in clinical positions. The hospital is one of three that its parent company, Prospect Medical Holdings, is looking to sell to Yale New Haven Health.

The following announcement is presented by MedCity News’ sponsor company, Swift Medical:

Swift Medical, a digital health company that helps nurses identify wounds and provide better care for them, welcomed Neil Sharma as its new chief commercial officer and Joseph Filippoli as its new chief information officer. Most recently, Sharma served as executive vice president at digital physical therapy provider Sword Health. Filippoli most recently served as chief information officer at Tabula Rasa HealthCare, a company that provides pharmacy cost management services.