More change at the top for Aetna

Chief medical officer is fifth former U.S. Healthcare executive to leave since corporate restructuring.

By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. Oct. 16, 2000.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare's chief medical officer, Arthur N. Leibowitz, MD, left the company in early October, the fifth former U.S. Healthcare executive to exit Aetna this year.

His departure came one month after John Rowe, MD, was named CEO of Aetna U.S. Healthcare, and three months after the company reorganized its corporate structure so that the regional medical directors reported to the regional business managers rather than to Dr. Leibowitz.

Aetna spokeswoman Joyce Oberdorf said Dr. Leibowitz's departure was voluntary and planned well before the switch in the reporting structure. "Dr. Leibowitz indicated a desire a while ago to go on to the next stage of his life, but he agreed to stay until a new CEO was hired," Oberdorf said.

She said she did not know what Dr. Leibowitz, a pediatrician, planned to do next. He was not available for comment.

Dr. Leibowitz joined U.S. Healthcare in 1987 and was appointed the company's corporate medical officer in 1992, a position he retained when Aetna and U.S. Healthcare merged in 1996.

Aetna's medical director for the mid-Atlantic region, Jay Krakovitz, MD, another former U.S. Healthcare executive, is interim chief medical officer.

Aetna will conduct an internal and external search for a permanent chief medical officer. Oberdorf did not know whether the responsibilities of the chief medical officer will be changed.

Irving Ratner, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and past president of the Medical Society of New Jersey, which has met frequently with Dr. Krakovitz, said he was "very favorably impressed" with him. "He has a keen regard for maintaining quality of care and reducing the hassle factor. I'm very optimistic he'll be an asset to Aetna and physicians in general," Dr. Ratner said.