Before they became influential themselves, Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare were influenced by others.
No. 71 on the list, Ben Breier, the new CEO of Kindred Healthcare, a Louisville, Ky.-based post-acute care provider with 103,000 employees, cited his company's frontline caregivers as the biggest influence on him.
Similarly, Joseph Swedish, CEO of Indianapolis-based Anthem and former healthcare system executive, said he has been most inspired by patients.
“It has been a privilege to be able to help these patients at times in their lives that are sometimes tragic and always inspiring,” said Swedish, who placed No. 11 on the roster. “They have helped me to better understand the very personal side of healthcare and the critical importance of evolving our delivery system to better meet their needs.”
Several people on the list downplayed their influence.
“I'm always totally astonished to be on the list,” said Drew Altman, CEO of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kaiser Family Foundation, who ranked No. 39. He is also one of five people to make Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential list in all 14 years of its existence.
Making his first appearance was Dr. David Torchiana, CEO of Partners HealthCare, Boston, at No. 61. Torchiana also downplayed any personal influence he may have, but added that any list of influential people in healthcare would naturally include the CEO of any organization with the size, scope and reputation of Partners.
“I don't see any unique accomplishment of mine,” said Torchiana, who is known as “Torch” to his colleagues. “Hopefully, I'll achieve something that makes me more deserving as the years go by.”
Torchiana said being a physician gives him influence in some circles. But, he admits, “That fades a little every year as my distance from clinical practice grows.”
Torchiana became CEO after the retirement of Dr. Gary Gottlieb, who made the Most Influential list eight times. He cited as a major influence Gottlieb's predecessor, the late Dr. James Mongan, who was CEO of Partners in 2006 when Massachusetts implemented healthcare reform measures that served as model for the rest of the U.S.
“His lifetime cause was getting coverage to the uninsured,” Torchiana said. He described how Mongan led by boiling down a long list of challenges into two or three priorities.
“I found him to be uncluttered in what he was trying to accomplish,” Torchiana said. Mongan, who died May 3, 2011 at age 69, made Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders lists four times each.
Anne Filipic, president of the healthcare-coverage advocacy group Enroll America, made the list for the first time at No. 59. She said someone who died earlier this year had been a major influence on her: Andy Hyman, who worked at HHS under President Bill Clinton before becoming the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's health coverage program director in 2006. He was 51 when he died Feb. 25.
“We owe a great deal to his commitment and vision,” Filipic said.
Altman counts as a major influence someone who died in 2008: Hale Champion, a former journalist who became California Gov. Pat Brown's press secretary and later undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Carter administration.
“He was a big name in public administration,” Altman said. “He's now forgotten, but he was indispensable to me in shaping my way of thinking.”
