Experienced Health Care Executive Selected to Lead Organization
WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) today announced that its board of directors
has elected Joseph Swedish as the company's new chief executive officer,
effective March 25, 2013. Swedish, 61, who most recently served as
President and Chief Executive Officer for Trinity Health Corporation,
succeeds interim chief executive officer John Cannon. Cannon will remain
with WellPoint, and in addition to his role as Executive Vice President
of Legal & Public Affairs he will help guide the transition, providing
continuity and operational leadership.
Joseph Swedish has been named Chief Executive Officer for WellPoint, Inc., effective March 25, 2013 (Photo: Business Wire)
“Joe embodies the leadership and visionary qualities we value in our
chief executive, and the board is confident that under his leadership we
will achieve our full potential for future growth and success,” said
Jackie M. Ward, chair of the WellPoint Board of Directors. “He brings to
WellPoint an extensive track record leading large, complex health care
organizations through diverse challenges in difficult market and
regulatory environments, and his experience will be invaluable to
WellPoint as we continue to find innovative ways to collaborate with
providers in an effort to improve quality outcomes and reduce the cost
of care. Joe’s background, in concert with our management’s insurance
market expertise, creates a team uniquely qualified to manage all facets
of our evolving health care system.
“In 24 years as a CEO, he has had tremendous success growing and
advancing health care systems by improving core operations, initiating
financial restructurings, and expertly integrating strategic mergers and
acquisitions,” Ward said. “He is an agile leader at a time when major
transformations are requiring health benefit companies to examine new
ways to better serve our stakeholders.”
Ward concluded, “I’d like to thank John Cannon for his extraordinary
contributions to WellPoint throughout his tenure as interim CEO. John
took important steps over the past five and a half months to improve
WellPoint’s execution, increase shareholder value, refine the company’s
strategy and reorganize our core operations to better support our
strategic growth opportunities. This has created a strong, positive
momentum in our operations that Joe will build on in the months and
years to come.”
“I am honored to be chosen to lead WellPoint,” said Swedish. “Having
spent my entire career in health care, I have a strong sense of the
market in which the company operates and I am energized by the dynamic
changes currently taking place in the industry. I’m committed to
ensuring that WellPoint remains a market leader, and I look forward to
working with my new colleagues to profitably grow and enhance this
organization in a changing market environment.”
Swedish has 40 years’ experience in health care, holding senior
executive positions at multi-institutional health care systems,
university- and community-based academic medical centers, integrated
delivery systems and regional rural referral hospitals. He most recently
served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Health
Corporation, a multi-state integrated health care delivery system which
operates 47 hospitals in 10 states, since December 2004.
While at Trinity, he accelerated financial and operational performance,
growing revenue from less than $6 billion in 2005 to approximately $9
billion in 2012 and doubling operating margins. He vastly streamlined
Trinity’s health care delivery by improving clinical and business
processes and integrating IT platforms hard wired in evidence-based best
practices. He also spearheaded the “Lead the Way and Find a Way” health
care reform campaign that advocated for systematic health care delivery
changes based on principles of advancing health care reform. In this
role, he has worked closely with multiple bipartisan congressional
delegations to actively influence health reform discussions. In 2011, he
engineered a successful acquisition of Loyola University Health System –
Chicago, and recently signed the definitive agreement for a merger with
Catholic Health East, which will make the new organization the
fifth-largest U.S.-based health system, serving 21 states with $13
billion in revenues.
Prior to joining Trinity Health, Swedish was President and CEO of
Centura Health, the largest health care provider in Colorado. He has
also served as President of the East Florida and Central Florida
Divisions for the Hospital Corporation of America from 1994 through
1998. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte and his master’s degree in health administration
from Duke University.
Swedish has served on the boards of three publicly-traded corporations:
Coventry Health Care, Inc. from 2010 to 2013; Cross Country Health care,
Inc. from 2002 to 2005; and RehabCare Group, Inc., from 2003 to 2005. He
is Chairman-elect of the 2013 Health Care Systems Governing Council of
the American Hospital Association as well as past chairman of the
Medicare Wage Index Task Force and a member of the Equity of Care
Council. In addition, he is Chairman of the Catholic Health Association
and Director of Loyola University Chicago, the National Quality Forum
and the Health Care Education Trust.
About WellPoint, Inc.
At WellPoint, we believe there is an important connection between our
members’ health and well-being—and the value we bring our customers and
shareholders. So each day we work to improve the health of our members
and their communities. And, we can make a real difference since we have
more than 36 million people in our affiliated health plans, and nearly
67 million people served through our subsidiaries. As an independent
licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves
members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and
Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana,
Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City
area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield
licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and
as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate
counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs
of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service
areas, WellPoint’s plans do business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue
Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Empire
Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in the New York service
areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as
UniCare and in certain markets through our Amerigroup and CareMore
subsidiaries. Our 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc. subsidiary offers customers
online sales of contact lenses, eyeglasses and other ocular products.
Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.
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health benefits and managed care operations, including, but not limited
to, the impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010; trends in health
care costs and utilization rates; our ability to secure sufficient
premium rates including regulatory approval for and implementation of
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or other risks related to health care services provided by our
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inability to meet customer demands, and sanctions imposed by
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events that may negatively affect our licenses with the Blue Cross and
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intangible assets if future results do not adequately support goodwill
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regulations that may negatively affect our investment portfolios and
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subsidiaries and increases in required minimum levels of capital and the
potential negative effect from our substantial amount of outstanding
indebtedness; general risks associated with mergers and acquisitions;
various laws and provisions in our governing documents that may prevent
or discourage takeovers and business combinations; future public health
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