MGMA names year's top execs

Adam Singer, M.D., CEO, chief medical officer and founder of IPC-the Hospitalist Co., was named the Medical Group Management Association's Physician Executive of the Year, while C. Ross Berry, CEO of Solaris Heart & Vascular, was named the MGMA's Medical Practice Executive of 2010.

Other individuals recognized by the Englewood, Colo.-based organization are: Thomas Stearns, vice president of medical practices services at State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Co., Brentwood, Tenn., receiving the Harry J. Harwick Lifetime Achievement Award; Cordell Mack and Craig Pederson, partners with Health Care Futures, Edina, Minn., receiving the Edward B. Stevens Article of the Year Award for a report on professional services agreements they wrote for the August 2009 edition of the MGMA's Connexion journal; and Diane Bristol, administrator of the Midland (Mich.) Ob-Gyn Associates practice, receiving the Legislative Liaison of the Year Award. The Fred Graham Award for Innovation in Improving Community Health went to the Mercy Health System in Janesville, Wis.

The physician executive award, won by Singer, is presented to a medical group leader who has "exhibited outstanding leadership to achieve exceptional medical group performance." In 2008, Singer was similarly recognized, receiving Modern Physician's first Physician Entrepreneur of the Year award. He was also named one of Modern Healthcare's Up & Comers in 1998 after raising $40 million from investors for building the North Hollywood, Calif.-based company he founded in 1995.

Berry was recognized for demonstrating noteworthy achievement, exceptional leadership and management proficiency that enhanced the strategic and operational effectiveness of his Marietta, Ga.-based organization's delivery of healthcare services.

The MGMA has about 21,500 members who lead 13,700 medical practices in which 275,000 physicians practice.