HealthSouth taps HCA executive as new COO

HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Ala., again drew from HCA's pool of top executives for its new management team, naming Mike Snow, president of HCA's $2 billion Gulf Coast Division, as its new chief operating officer, effective June 30. Snow, 49, joins HCA's former Eastern Group president, newly appointed HealthSouth Chief Executive Officer Jay Grinney, in attempting to repair the company's finances and reputation, both damaged by massive accounting fraud. In his 24-year healthcare career, Snow also has served as CEO of a Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospital in Louisiana and has held positions at Universal Health Services and Humana. He was 2002-03 chairman of the Texas Hospital Association. In a HealthSouth news release, Snow said he hopes to build on HealthSouth's strength as an entrepreneur in the marketplace and to continue exploring with physicians new alternatives to patient-care delivery. HealthSouth is expected to name a new board chairman shortly, another step in building a new management team. -- by Julie Piotrowski