Care New England cutting three executive positions

PANELISTS AT THE PBN summit on health care reform and the insurance exchange included: Lester Schindel, president and CEO of CharterCare Health Partners; Dr. Gus Manocchia, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of RI; Sandra Coletta, chief operating officer for Care New England; and Dr. Andrew Sussman, president of MinuteClinic and executive vice president/associate chief medical officer for CVS Health. Coletta left her position with CNE on Friday as a cost-savings measure. / PBN PHOTO/RUPER WHITELEY
PANELISTS AT THE PBN summit on health care reform and the insurance exchange included: Lester Schindel, president and CEO of CharterCare Health Partners; Dr. Gus Manocchia, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of RI; Sandra Coletta, chief operating officer for Care New England; and Dr. Andrew Sussman, president of MinuteClinic and executive vice president/associate chief medical officer for CVS Health. Coletta left her position with CNE on Friday as a cost-savings measure. / PBN PHOTO/RUPER WHITELEY

PROVIDENCE – Three executive positions at Care New England are being eliminated as a cost-savings measure due to ongoing fiscal challenges, the president and CEO of the health care system announced in a memo to staff on Friday.

“You are all well aware of the challenges currently facing Care New England. We continue to focus our attention and energy on improving our financial position. We have communicated at great length the struggles we faced last fiscal year and the plans in place now to restore our outlook with a small but positive operating margin for fiscal year 2017,” Dennis D. Keefe, president and CEO, wrote.

Keefe said with one fiscal quarter completed, the system continues to suffer from low patient volumes, and is missing budget targets. As a result, all aspects of cost savings are being reviewed, he said.

He said Sandra Coletta, executive vice president and chief operating officer, recommended to him that her role be eliminated, in an effort to reduce the number of “executive layers” and “streamline the senior management level.”

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“It was Sandy who personally recommended the elimination of her role in the true lead-by-example manner that defines her,” Keefe said in the memo.

Coletta’s last day was Friday. She came to CNE in 2008 as president of Kent Hospital.
Marilyn Walsh, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, and Gail Costa, senior vice president and chief strategy officer, will retire in June and their positions will be eliminated, Keefe wrote.

Walsh has been in the job since 2006, and began her career as a Women & Infants nurse in 1975. Costa has been in her position since 1996.

He said Tish Devaney, vice president, human resources, will oversee the HR department, while Gail Robbins, vice president, strategic financial planning, will oversee day-to-day operations for all planning activities across the system.

Fiscal 2016 revenue figures were not immediately available.

In its 2015 annual report, Care New England showed a 6.5 percent increase in revenue to $1.1 billion. However, its total margin reflected a loss of $27.8 million, compared with $11.1 million in profit in 2014. The operating loss for 2015 was $1.8 million, compared with an operating margin of $8.5 million in 2014.

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