The New Jersey Hospital Association board of trustees named Cathleen Bennett president and CEO of the Princeton-based trade organization. Bennett was commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health. She was slated to begin her new duties Nov. 9 as the sixth president and CEO in the association’s 99-year history. She succeeds Betsy Ryan, who has led the organization since 2008.

Appointments

  • The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association board of trustees named current executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals, Steven Walsh, as the organization’s next president and CEO. Walsh has been the executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals since 2014.
  • Following the nomination by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the NYC Health + Hospitals board of directors voted and approved Mitchell Katz, M.D., as the health system’s next president and CEO. He will begin his new role in the coming months. Katz was director of the Los Angeles County Health Agency, and for five years he was director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second largest public safety net system in the United States.
  • Joseph Zubretsky this month was named president and CEO for insurer Molina Healthcare Inc. Zubretsky replaces Chief Financial Officer Joseph White, who was interim CEO after the company in May fired chief executive J. Mario Molina, M.D., and CFO John Molina, sons of the small health insurer’s founder. Zubretsky was president and CEO of Hanover Insurance Group Inc.
  •  Poplar Springs Hospital, Petersburg, Va., appointed Stephen Reider CEO in September. Reider has been a nurse manager, director of nursing, program director and vice president for nearly 20 years, most recently serving as administrator/CEO of Springbrook Hospital in Brooksville, Fla.
  • Tara McCoy was named CEO for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare’s Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. McCoy was service line administrator for Tenet’s Florida region. She succeeds Mark Nosacka, who will become CEO at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C.
  • Irene Richardson became CEO of Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, Rock Springs, Wyo., in October. Richardson, MHSC’s chief financial officer, has worked for the hospital for 32 years and has been interim CEO since February.
  • Karl Hodges was named vice president of Concord Healthcare Development, and will head a recently-opened office in Orlando, Fla. Hodges served in a variety of roles at Orlando Health over the past twenty-nine years, including time spent as vice president and chief financial officer of the Florida health system.

Retirement

  • J. Knox Singleton, CEO of Inova, Falls Church, Va., northern Virginia’s largest private employer, will retire July 1, completing 35 years of service for a system that serves more than 2 million patients a year. During his tenure, Singleton oversaw the evolution of Inova from a three-hospital, $500 million enterprise with 1,000 employees to a $3.5 billion health care system with five hospitals, a health insurance company, and more than 100 ambulatory service locations and 17,000 employees.

Mergers and Affiliation

  • Hutchinson (Minn.) Health will join HealthPartners. The affiliation will bring together two organizations and expands capabilities to better serve patients and the community. Hutchinson Health will retain its name and remain a distinct, locally-governed entity as part of HealthPartners. The organizations expect to finalize the affiliation next year.
  • The proposed merger between Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System’s Certificate of Public Advantage application was approved by Tennessee officials. Both Mountain States and Wellmont delivered certificates of acceptance to the state after unanimous votes of both systems’ boards of directors. According to the terms of the COPA, the systems have 90 days to complete the merger, a period during which Mountain States and Wellmont will complete the legal work to form Ballad Health. Virginia officials were expected to render their decision on the systems’ cooperative agreement application by the end of October.