Grabbing the attention of investors, customers and competition is the talent and expertise that companies take onboard with them. During the rough weathers of COVID-19 and amidst challenging and competitive market scenarios, health payers with extraordinary talent at the top made a difference to its stakeholders as well as for the larger community and society with strategic and business decisions. DistilINFO analyzes some prominent and significant C-level moves and appointments at the American health payers during 2021.
1. Sir Andrew Witty in CEO’s chair at UnitedHealth Group
Early in 2021, the largest US health insurer UnitedHealth Group named Sir Andrew Witty as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Group. The decision drew attention from all segments of the business communities and stakeholders. The former chancellor of the University of Nottingham, England, Witty served on the Singapore Prime Minister’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council and brings with him over two decades of experience of being at the top of the large pharmaceutical corporations. His expertise on healthcare took him to become a Special Envoy at the World Health Organization to co-lead the efforts on accelerated COVID-19 response. No less than a treasure in the UnitedHealth Group’s kitty!
2. Dirk McMohan as President, COO, UnitedHealth Group
Next is yet another significant appointment at the UnitedHealth Group. Once the head of airport operations worldwide for Northwest Airlines, McMohan made a smooth take-off from being a CEO for OptumRx in the UnitedHealth Group in 2003 to assuming a high chair of President and COO in February 2021. With almost two decades in the Group, McMohan is one of the globally known faces of UnitedHealth Group.
3. Dr Margaret-Mary Wilson now Chief Medical Officer at UnitedHealth Group
In Nigeria a child would dream of becoming a physician someday. Growing up, the aspiring young doctor would climb up the ladder and occupy one of the top offices at America’s largest health payer. Dr Margaret-Mary Wilson on December 5, was made the Chief Medical Officer – one more high-profile appointment at the UnitedHealth Group. The development set an example for many African-Americans to dream big and toil hard to realize them. Ranked among the top 100 most influential African Americans in Business, by the National Diversity Council, Wilson is truly a woman a notch-above the mass.
4. Oscar brings Sameer Amin M.D. as Chief Medical Officer
With an aim to implement its clinical capabilities and enhance the quality of care and outcomes for its members, Oscar Insurance roped-in Sameer Amin, M.D., as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Sameer brings with him a rich experience as Chief Medical Officer in the payers space. He has held multiple national roles for the Anthem subsidiary, including National Director of Specialty Medicine, and was a clinical leader at HealthCare Partners.
5. Nwando Olayiwola, MD, is Humana’s senior vice president and first chief health equity officer.
Aiming to make healthcare work better for everyone, Humana earlier in 2021, named Nwando Olayiwola, M.D., as Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer – making her the first one to assume the role, which she took over in April 2021. Dr Olayiwola is given the responsibility to set the direction and establish strategy to promote health equity across all Humana lines of business. The appointment sets another landmark in the US health insurance space where the field of health equity is growing and maturing. While announcing the appointment, Humana had said, “The move comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the prevalence and damaging effects of health disparities in the U.S. healthcare system.”
6. Opella Ernest, M.D., made Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Health Care Service Corp.
A board-certified family physician, Opella Ernest, M.D., has a big task. Ensure foundational infrastructure that provides members access to high quality, affordable care in their communities. Dr Ernest leads Information Technology, Customer Service, Health Care Management and Data Analytics at HCSC. Her earlier roles were full of rich experiences in the insurance domain, she led HCSC’s clinical strategy and operation. Also, She served as Chief Medical Officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.
7. Laurie Havanec is the chief people officer at CVS Health
Managing human resources is a challenging and skillful task. CVS Health, in order to handle this crucial pillar of the company’s foundation, appointed Laurie Havanec. She leads the Human Resources for one of America’s top workforces of 300,000 diverse groups of employees. In her 25 years of professional life, Laurie has gained experience from a varied sector with her last most recent engagement with Otis Worldwide Co – one of the world’s top elevator and escalator companies.
8. Arun Prasad as senior vice president and chief strategy officer at HCSC.
An expert hand at executing mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and other equity and debt transactions, Arun Prasad has been assigned the responsibility of chief strategy officer at HCSC. Prior to joining HCSC, Prasad held the office of managing director at Moelis & Company. A former investment banker at Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank, Prasad leads the long-term planning, business and corporate development, strategic investments and enterprise risk management and subsidiary oversight at HCSC. Clearly, he is a right fit in the role at the organization, which looks for strategic growth initiatives amidst challenging competition.
9. James Reid CEO of Versant Health – a vision care arm of MetLife.
In January 2021, MetLife announced the completion of the Versant Health acquisition strengthening its position in the health insurance vertical. Immediately it named James Reid as the CEO of the arm, replacing Kirk Rothrock, who held the post since March 2013. A Harvard Business School alumnus, Reid is from the MetLife family, as he previously held roles of Executive Vice President of MetLife’s Global Relationship Management. His responsibilities include integration of Versant Health’s vision benefit plans into MetLife’s overall product portfolio, while maintaining and elevating Versant Health’s go-to-market strategy.
10. Liz Horgan, ex-Aetna C-level exec joins Summus Global
With over 20 years of experience in the healthcare marketing space, Liz has joined a virtual specialist platform, Summus Global as the Chief Marketing Officer. Liz looks to strengthen the company’s efforts to help families get immediate access to the highest quality physicians. Formerly with Aetna, a CVS Health Company and Silverlink Communications (now Welltok), Liz has a proven expertise in the consumer, clinical marketing solutions. Her healthcare experience also includes senior positions at Health Dialog, Cigna, Mercer and the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of Northern California. With such diverse and extensive experience in the healthcare space, Liz has also been made a member of the executive leadership team at the company.
Summary:
While largest among the health payers made top-level appointments, relatively newer and smaller players have made a mark by roping in veterans in the respective fields to take the reins for a focused and planned growth. The year 2021 further amplified the need for the expert hand at the top to stay relevant as well as competitive.
