John Bardis, chairman and CEO of MedAssets, has resigned from the company, effective immediately, for “personal reasons” related to family health issues, MedAssets said Tuesday.
Bardis, who founded the publicly traded group purchasing and revenue-cycle management company in 1999, will stay on as a consultant. He will work about 15 hours a week and earn $650,000 per year in the new consulting role, according to an employment agreement.
Bardis made almost $3 million in 2013.
Halsey Wise, a MedAssets board member since March 2014, has been named chairman and CEO in Bardis' stead. Wise previously was CEO of Lime Barrel Advisors, a private investment firm he founded in 2010. Wise entered into a three-year contract as CEO, in which he will earn a $700,000 base salary and up to $7.8 million in stock and equity awards.
Bardis built Alpharetta, Ga.-based MedAssets into one of the largest healthcare group purchasing organizations and oversaw the company's diversification into other areas, like revenue-cycle services, for its hospital and health system clients.
“I am grateful to have spent the last 15 years with this great company and am honored to have had the opportunity to lead a team of outstanding individuals,” Bardis said in a statement. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together at MedAssets, and look forward to actively supporting the company's business endeavors during this time of rapid change in the healthcare marketplace.”
Bardis was present at this year's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, but he did not speak during the company's presentation to investors, instead deferring to President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Nolte.
MedAssets faces some immediate challenges. The company lost $20.4 million in 2014 despite the fact that revenue rose 5.9% to $720.2 million, executives said Tuesday. MedAssets said that stemmed from a $52.5 million impairment charge related to its revenue-cycle business. The company is also losing $28 million in revenue because Barnabas Health, a $2.6 billion hospital system based in West Orange, N.J., decided to bring its billing and collections businesses back in-house, starting in January.
In 2012, Bardis was the first winner of Modern Healthcare's Community Leadership Award.
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