Health insurer Aetna has hired Gary Loveman, former CEO of the failing casino empire Caesars Entertainment Corp., to become the president of Healthagen, Aetna's health services and consulting arm.
Aetna also tapped Rick Jelinek, a former UnitedHealth Group executive, to oversee the integration of Aetna's $37 billion acquisition of Humana, the Hartford, Conn.-based company said Wednesday. Loveman and Jelinek will both report to CEO Mark Bertolini.
The addition of Loveman to Aetna's executive team marks another step in Aetna's pursuit to expand its Healthagen brand. Healthagen works with doctors, hospitals, health systems and other insurers to change how they are paid and how they deliver care. The company offers population health technology, including data analytics to help providers find and treat the highest-risk patients, as well as consulting services for accountable-care contracts and ways to launch new health plans. Healthagen also includes its consumer-facing products, like iTriage.
In many ways, Healthagen is similar to Optum, which is part of Aetna's competitor, UnitedHealth Group. Aetna has said that the Humana transaction will allow the company to build out Healthagen and other subsidiaries into its own version of Optum. Health insurance companies are looking for ways to diversify beyond their traditional health plan products.
Loveman, 55, an economist by training and a former Harvard University professor, had been the CEO of Caesars for 12 years before resigning this past July. He built Caesars into one of the largest casino conglomerates in the world, in large part by making acquisitions and developing the Total Rewards program. Total Rewards was the gambling industry's first loyalty program, providing diehard gamblers with free meals and other incentives to keep them coming back to the tables and machines.
But since the financial crisis of 2008, Caesars hemorrhaged billions of dollars in losses under Loveman's watch. In 2014, the company lost $2.8 billion on $8.5 billion of revenue. Caesars lost $8.8 billion over the past five years. Its largest subsidiary also filed for bankruptcy this year.
Loveman earned $33 million in 2014 and $53 million over the past three years. He will join Aetna on Oct. 26.
Jelinek, 49, most recently was a partner at private-equity firm Advent International. Jelinek also worked at UnitedHealth Group for 19 years, most recently as the CEO of OptumHealth, one of Optum's many divisions. He will start at Aetna on Nov. 2.
