Just a few weeks after announcing $126 million in financial losses for the first financial quarter of 2022, ProMedica has made major changes to its leadership lineup.
Arturo Polizzi, for one, has been promoted to serve as president for the company, a title previously held by CEO Randy Oostra. Polizzi will take on the new role while maintaining duties as COO for the Toledo, Ohio-based not-for-profit health system; Oostra will continue serving as CEO.
Polizzi currently oversees operations for ProMedica’s senior care and health plan divisions, acute, ambulatory and provider care. Between 1998 and 2018, he served in different leadership roles at ProMedica before moving to Cincinnati-based Christ Hospital Health Network as president and CEO from 2018 to 2021.
The company first announced the staffing changes late Wednesday.
“ProMedica has made changes in our executive leadership team to better align our changing organization,” Tausha Moore, ProMedica’s public relations director, said in an email. “Like many other health care organizations, we have been negatively impacted by the rising costs of labor and supplies, along with other economic factors.”
The company is “intensely focused” on new initiatives that will promote a stable and sustainable business moving forward, Moore added. Oostra and Polizzi seek to address financial challenges faced by all health systems at this point in the pandemic.
Louis E. Robichaux IV has additionally been appointed interim CFO for the company effective May 25. Steve Cavanaugh, who was placed in the CFO role in June 2019, is no longer listed on the company’s website.
Cavanaugh was reportedly ousted from the role, according to the Toledo Blade, but a media release on the CFO change made no mention of Cavanaugh. Moore was unable to confirm anything beyond what was included in the media release, “out of respect and privacy for any individual(s) affected by recent organizational changes.”
Robichaux has more than 30 years experience in the health care industry, previously serving as senior managing director at Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Ankura, according to a statement issued by ProMedica.
Prior to Ankura, Robichaux was a principal in Deloitte’s financial advisory services practice and worked as a senior financial and operational analyst for Kaiser Permanente.
Cavanaugh took on the role following ProMedica’s roughly $1.4 billion HCR ManorCare acquisition in 2018; he served in several executive roles for HCR ManorCare prior to the acquisition, including president and CEO.
ProMedica has reportedly replaced two other executive positions – Debi Brobst replaces Murry Mercier as interim chief information officer, and Justin Skiver replaces Matt Kang as chief financial strategy officer for the senior care division, the Blade reported.
ProMedica chief philanthropy officer Gary Cates will have added responsibilities as part of the leadership update, the Blade report continued, overseeing government relations, social determinants of health and community relations.
ProMedica reported a $275.3 million operating loss for its senior care division in 2021, compared to $40.9 million in operating income for the previous year. This year isn’t looking much better for the senior care division, with a $124.3 million operating loss in Q1 alone.
The senior care division houses ProMedica’s skilled nursing operations and makes up about 40% of the company’s overall revenue, followed by provider care at 31% and its insurance arm at 29%.
Coupled with its senior care operating losses, the company’s insurance arm Paramount Advantage lost a major Medicaid contract worth $50 million during Q1 2022 as well, laying off 200 employees as a result.
ProMedica operates 335-plus facilities across the post-acute care continuum as part of its senior care division; between its multiple business lines, the health system has more than 43,000 staff across 28 states.
Companies featured in this article:
Ankura, Christ Hospital health Network, Deloitte, HCR ManorCare, Kaiser Permanente, ProMedica
