Columbia-Cornell Care Announces New Executive
Leading Physician and Healthcare Executive Bruce Spivey takes the helm of premiere New York physician organization
NEW YORK - August 13, 1997 - Columbia-Cornell Care, LLC announced today that Bruce Spivey, M.D. will become president and chief executive officer effective October 1, 1997. Dr. Spivey currently serves as president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Healthcare Network in Chicago, Illinois. Columbia-Cornell Care is a new company that combines the clinical faculties of Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and Cornell University Medical College, along with their community physician partners. This partnership will provide managed care contracting, practice management, medical management and a full array of support services for its membership. Dr. Spivey, a CEO with an extensive background in healthcare administration, was selected based on his vast experience, which includes establishing and directing one of the largest not-for profit healthcare systems in the United States.
George Rupp, President of Columbia University, praised the incoming CEO saying, "Dr. Bruce Spivey is eminently qualified, and joins us as this important new physician partnership prepares for the next century of medical leadership." Hunter Rawlings III, President of Cornell University, stressed that Dr. Spivey' leadership of Columbia-Cornell Care "will link the clinical strengths of superb physician groups in a unique way and make them more competitive in a changing healthcare environment."
The partnership between Columbia and Cornell universities formally began Nov. 27, 1996, when officials at both universities agreed to align their medical faculties to contract for managed care. The partnership is designed to increase market competitiveness for physicians by joining two leading clinical faculties and their community physician partners. Different from typical physician organizations, Columbia-Cornell Care will have "single signature authority" on behalf of its physicians to contract with managed care payors. The medical schools at both universities will remain independent. To date, approximately 1,500 physicians from Columbia and Cornell have joined Columbia-Cornell Care LLC.
The primary teaching hospitals of the two medical schools, Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia) and The New York Hospital (Cornell) are merging as The New York and Presbyterian Hospitals, Inc. The New York and Presbyterian Hospitals, Inc. and its community hospital partners will be a contracting partner with Columbia-Cornell Care.
According to Herbert Pardes, M.D., vice president for health sciences and dean of the faculty of medicine at Columbia University, "Bruce Spivey s expertise in conceptualizing and overseeing the development of a physician-governed organization, as well as his leadership in several successful mergers between hospitals and physicians associations, made him our first choice to lead Columbia-Cornell Care. Managed care continues to penetrate the New York area, and we are confident that Dr. Spivey will successfully lead us in furthering a powerful alliance in the healthcare marketplace." Columbia-Cornell Care
Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., M.D., Provost for Medical Affairs at Cornell University and the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Cornell University Medical College, agrees: "Bruce Spivey is superbly qualified to be CEO of Columbia-Cornell Care, based on his experience and background at Northwestern Healthcare in Chicago, in managed care in Columbia-Cornell Care -- Page 3
California, and with the American Academy of Ophthalmology. We are pleased to announce Dr. Spivey s appointment, especially in view of the very exuberant endorsement he receives from physicians who have worked with him."
A board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Spivey was the first CEO of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is the former president of the American Board of Medical Specialties and the California Healthcare System in San Francisco. "I look forward to the challenges - and opportunities - the new healthcare environment presents in New York. I am confident that Columbia-Cornell Care has the capacity, building on the superb care its outstanding physicians provide, to be the market leader in this region." Dr. Spivey is a member of the Society of Medical Administrators, the International Council of Ophthalmology, founder of the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company, and a mentor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.