First female MGMA CEO

The new CEO of the Medical Group Management Association will be the first woman and the second physician to lead the organization and its credentialing and standards-setting body, the American College of Medical Practice Executives.

Dr. Susan Turney, CEO and executive vice president of the Wisconsin Medical Society, was named as the successor to Dr. William Jessee, who retires in September.

Jessee, who Modern Healthcare and Modern Physician readers named six times to the list of the 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives (most recently No. 33 in 2010), has led the MGMA for 12 years and announced in March 2010 that he would retire on Sept. 25 of this year.

Turney, whose age was not provided, served as the MGMA’s 2005-06 board chairwoman and has led the WMS since 2004. She was the first physician and first woman hired as the Wisconsin organization’s CEO.

“Certainly, her previous service with MGMA as its board chair made her a familiar face, and she’s also a significant force within the healthcare community,” said Alan Winkler, ACMPE board chairman and vice president of clinic operations for the St. Vincent Health System, Little Rock, Ark.

“She’s familiar with (healthcare industry) stakeholders; she’s familiar with our priorities.”

Previously, Turney was the medical director for patient financial services at Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic, where she practiced as an internist for 22 years. She also co-founded the Wisconsin Health Information Organization.

The MGMA’s current chairwoman, Shena Scott, executive director of Brevard Anesthesia Services, Melbourne, Fla., said being a physician was not a requirement for the MGMA CEO post, but Turney’s internal medicine background was “a plus.”

Scott also called Turney’s information technology background “another strength that will be helpful.” Winkler echoed the sentiment.

“What she created in Wisconsin is really visionary,” Winkler said, adding that Turney helped create an environment where data, which was once viewed as proprietary, is now shared in the interest of improving quality.

The MGMA, based in Englewood, Colo., and founded in 1926, has 22,500 members who lead 13,700 medical organizations where approximately 275,000 physicians practice. Its first executive leader, with the title of executive director, was hired in 1961.