Becker's Hospital Review

29 CFO / FINANCE Meet the CFOs of US News' top 10 hospitals By Marissa Plescia B ecoming a CFO of a top health system takes years of experience in the healthcare finance industry. Below are brief biographies of the CFOs at the hospitals that took the top 10 spots in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 best hospital rankings. 1. Dennis Dahlen, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) Mr. Dahlen has been with Mayo Clinic since 2017. He previously worked at Phoenix-based Banner Health for more than 33 years and served as the senior vice pres- ident and CFO. He earned his Master of Business Administration and management at Minnesota State University Moorhead and his bachelor's in accounting and finance from the University of North Dakota. 2. Steven Glass, Cleveland Clinic. Mr. Glass joined Cleveland Clinic in 2002 originally as controller and chief accounting officer, a role he held until 2005. Before joining Cleveland Clinic, he was vice president of finance at Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health. He earned his bachelor's in accounting at Towson (Md.) University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Accountants and the Ohio So- ciety of Certified Public Accountants. He is also on the board of the Ohio Hospital Association. 3. Tammy Wallace, UCLA Hospital System (Los Angeles). Ms. Wallace joined the system in 2019 and oversees the finances of the $3.1 billion hospital system. Prior to coming to UCLA, she worked at UCSF Medical Center as CFO and vice president of finance. She earned her bachelor's in business administration and accounting and her master's in accounting at the University of Texas at Arlington. 4. Daniel Smith, Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore). Mr. Smith is vice president of finance and CFO at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the senior vice president of finance for the Johns Hopkins Health System. He started working at Johns Hopkins in the 1980s as a healthcare con- sultant and became a staff member in 1983. He also served as the CEO and CFO of Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, which gained Home- Care Elite status under his leadership. 5. Niyum Gandhi, Mass General Brigham (Boston). Mr. Gandhi is also the treasurer for the system. He previously served as executive vice president, CFO and chief population health officer at New York City-based Mount Sinai. He helped build Mount Sinai Health Part- ners, a clinically integrated network that combines clinical and eco- nomic ideas. He earned a bachelor's in economics and finance from Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University. 6. Michael Breslin, NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City). Mr. Breslin is also the health system's senior vice president and treasurer. He oversees financial reporting, financial planning, revenue cycle and budget for NewYork-Presbyterian. He previously served as the sys- tem's senior vice president of finance. He came to NewYork-Presby- terian in 2015. 7. David Wrigley, Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles). Mr. Wrigley came to Cedars-Sinai in 2014 as vice president of finance. He also serves as senior vice president of finance. He is in charge of accounting, inter- nal and external reporting, and revenue cycle. He previously served in leadership positions at Presence Health and was manager of health- care practice at KPMG, an accounting firm. 8. Daniel Widawsky, NYU Langone (New York City). Mr. Widawsky is also the executive vice president and vice dean of the health system. He is in charge of the hospital and medical school finance departments. He joined the organization in 2018. He has experience in tax law, city govern- ment and investment management. He previously worked as the director of investment and management at EFO Capital Management. 9. Raju Iyer, UCSF Health Medical Center (San Francisco). Mr. Iyer is also the senior vice president and is in charge of financial strategies at the health system, which has an annual revenue of more than $5 billion. He has more than 18 years of experience in healthcare finance and came to UCSF in 2018. Before his current position, he was region- al CFO for Renton, Wash.-based Providence. 10. John Orsini, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (Chicago). Mr. Orsini is also senior vice president of the health system and has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare finance. He took over as CFO aer the system's merger with Cadence Health, of which he was executive vice president and CFO. Before Cadence, he was CFO of Presence Health in Chicago. n Kaiser sees net income top $8B in 2021, operating income fall sharply By Alia Paavola D riven by strong investment gains, Oakland, Ca- lif.-based Kaiser Permanente recorded a net in- come of $8.1 billion in 2021, an increase of $1.7 billion from 2020, according to its financial results re- leased Feb. 11. However, its operating income fell sharply. For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, the integrated health- care provider with 39 hospitals recorded an operating revenue of $93.1 billion, up from $88.7 billion recorded last year. Additionally, Kaiser saw its expenses rise 6.9 percent to $92.5 billion in 2021. In 2021, Kaiser saw its operating income fall to $611 mil- lion, an operating margin of 0.7 percent. This compares to a $2.2 billion operating income in 2020 and an oper- ating margin of 2.5 percent. Kaiser attributed the sharp decrease in operating in- come to an increase in care delivery expenses due to COVID-19 surges. Total other income and expenses, which includes invest- ment income, reached $7.5 billion in 2021. In 2020, Kai- ser saw a gain of $4.1 billion. "Our financial performance underscores the strength of our integrated model, which allows us to weather unex- pected challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to serve our members," said Kathy Lancaster, Kaiser Permanente executive vice president and CFO. In 2021, Kaiser also said its health plan membership grew by 185,000 members. It now has more than 12.5 million members. n

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