Partners chief executive Torchiana to retire in April

Dr. David Torchiana, president and CEO of Boston-based Partners HealthCare, will retire at the end of April, the health system announced Tuesday.

Torchiana, who has been the market-leading health system's chief executive since March 2015, previously served as chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. He told the board Monday night that he intended to retire, according to Scott Sperling, chair of the board. It's a move Torchiana had been contemplating for some time.

"I am fortunate to have worked at MGH and Partners for my entire professional life and to have been given the opportunity to lead us forward at the culmination of my career," Torchiana said in prepared remarks. "I look forward to retirement and have full confidence in the future of our organization, which is filled with talented and dedicated people focused on our important mission to make healthcare better and take exceptional care of the patients that have placed their trust in our hands."

Partners has recently nixed two merger proposals. It tabled its merger talks with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the state's second-largest health plan, in November after executives reportedly felt the deal was getting too complicated. Partners recorded an operating loss of $108 million in 2016, mostly stemming from its acquisition of Neighborhood Health Plan, although it rebounded in 2017.

The health system has been looking for an entry point into the Rhode Island market, and added Lifespan early last year into its proposed merger with Care New England. While Lifespan is no longer in the discussion, Partners is still pursing Care New England.

Partners has been criticized for its high prices stemming from higher than average inpatient and academic medical center utilization. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health said that a significant driver behind their merger late last year was to keep Partners in check.

Partners reported operating income of $309.9 million on operating revenue of $13.31 billion in 2018, up from $52.6 million in operating income on $13.37 billion of operating revenue in 2017, according to Modern Healthcare's Health System Financials database.

Of Partners' nearly $517 million fiscal 2018 non-operating gains, $157 million accounts for the impact of Mass Eye & Ear joining Partners on April 1. That acquisition was projected to inflate Massachusetts' healthcare spending by up to $61 million a year, according to the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission.