The second half of 2026 opens with health system leaders facing a split mandate. Policy-driven financial headwinds like Medicaid cuts, Medicare Advantage payment disputes and federal research funding uncertainty are arriving at the same moment many organizations have committed to…

Casey Guber, incoming CEO of HCA HealthONE Presbyterian St. Luke’s and Rocky Mountain Children’s in Denver, has spent nearly 16 years with Denver-based HCA HealthONE, part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. He joined the system as an unpaid intern, is…

John Bartrum, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ undersecretary for health, shared plans to resign July 6. He was confirmed by the Senate Dec. 18. The VA will make an announcement regarding interim leadership in the coming days, a VA spokesperson…

The summer has already brought a wave of leadership transitions at health systems across the U.S., including retirements at legacy institutions. The shifts come at a time when health system leaders are navigating financial headwinds, workforce pressures, rapid technology adoption…

Dave Smith, MD did not set out to become a rural physician initially. He had planned to pursue an academic career in chemistry on the East Coast from an elite school, but life pulled him back to the Midwest, closer…

The recent contentious and highly publicized removal of BP’s board chair, Albert Mainfold, offers a governance teaching moment on the importance of role clarity in both the boardroom and the executive suite, especially when CEO and board chair duties are…

At children’s hospitals, “mission” tends to be built into the architecture of daily operations: play folded directly into clinical treatment, leaders who treat the whole family, not just the patient, as the unit of care, and a baseline expectation of…

Health system executives face an uncertain financial reality heading into the second half of 2026. Medicaid changes, disruption to the 340B drug discount program and flat federal research funding are reshaping the operating environment for hospitals of every size. Executives…

The University of Missouri in Columbia has eliminated its executive vice chancellor for health affairs role and will replace it with a new executive committee, which includes the CEO of MU Health Care. Richard Barohn, MD, is stepping down from…

A. Brent Eastman, MD, who served as chief medical officer of San Diego-based Scripps Health for nearly two decades and as president of the American College of Surgeons, died June 24.  To those at Scripps, he is remembered as a…