(Story updated at 3:15 p.m. ET.)
Gerard van Grinsven has resigned as president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America “to pursue other interests,” the company announced Monday afternoon.
Van Grinsven will be replaced on an interim basis by COO Steve Mackin and Anne Meisner, CEO of the company's facility in Newnan, Ga. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based for-profit company operates five cancer hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
Before joining Cancer Treatment Centers of America in 2013, van Grinsven was president and CEO of Henry Ford West Bloomfield (Mich.) Hospital. He started at Henry Ford in 2006 to oversee the launch of the hospital, which opened in 2009.
Before Henry Ford, van Grinsven worked in the hotel industry, including a stint as VP and area general manager for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.'s properties in Dearborn, Mich., Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
A Modern Healthcare investigation last year found that three of the company's facilities were among the nation's leaders in receiving Medicare supplemental “outlier” payments, which are intended to compensate hospitals for unusually expensive episodes of care. The payments are derived in part from hospitals' retail prices, which typically exceed the actual cost of care.
The company has also been criticized for broadcasting commercials that promote false hope and cherry-picking patients to skew its outcomes. Van Grinsven acknowledged in a Modern Healthcare Q&A that the company's patient population “may not mirror the general population of cancer patients for various reasons.”
“We are committed to providing clarity in how to communicate our treatment results and also to welcome a broader dialogue about how we, as part of the cancer community, can provide greater clarity for communicating treatment results to the public,” he said.
Last year Cancer Treatment Centers of America announced it would move from Schaumburg, Ill., a Chicago suburb, to Boca Raton, Fla. Van Grinsven said at the time that Florida had a “favorable business climate” and would offer more development opportunities for employees.
