Olsten Health Services, a division of Olsten Corp., said earlier this month that President Robert Fusco, 49, will leave his post by year-end. Fusco, who is also executive vice president of the Melville, N.Y.-based company, was slated to become president of the home health division when it becomes a separate publicly traded company by year-end. Chief Executive Officer Edward Blechschmidt, 46, will assume Fusco's duties at the new company, and no replacement will be recruited.
Baxter International, Deerfield, Ill., said its president and chief executive officer, Harry Kraemer Jr., 44, will add the title of company chairman on Dec. 31. Kraemer will succeed Vernon Loucks Jr., 65, who is retiring. Separately, Baxter's board has approved a $500 million stock repurchase program.
PacifiCare Health Systems' President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Folick has left those posts. Folick became an executive vice president on Nov. 4 and continues to oversee the specialty services division of the Santa Ana, Calif.-based HMO. Chief Executive Officer Alan Hoops will assume the president's title and relinquish his chairmanship. Also, PacifiCare authorized a repurchase of up to 12 million shares of its common stock between early November and February 2001. Based on current prices, the buyback would be valued at just under $600 million.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's second-largest public purchaser of health benefits after the federal government, has named Allen Feezor as its health benefits administrator. The appointment takes effect Jan. 1. Feezor, 51, will oversee benefits purchasing for more than 1 million California public employees, retirees and their dependents. He had been vice president of planning, marketing, network development and managed care for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, a Greenville, N.C.-based affiliate of the East Carolina University School of Medicine. Feezor replaces Margaret Stanley, who resigned in May to become executive director of RegenceCare, a managed-care subsidiary of Seattle-based Regence Blue Shield.
Thomas Reitinger, 55, has been named president and chief executive officer of 409-bed Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, Joliet, Ill. Reitinger, who assumes his new post in December, is currently president and CEO of Mercy Health Network, a Des Moines, Iowa-based joint venture between Mercy Health Services, Farmington Hills, Mich., and Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives.
Howard Peters III, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, has been named senior vice president and director of government relations at the Illinois Hospital and Health Systems Association. Peters, 53, replaces David Harris, who left the IHHSA earlier this year to become director of the Illinois Department of Military Affairs.