[NYAPRS Enews] Daines, Ritter Named Health, OMRDD Commissioners; Morahan Resumes Senate MH Committee Chair

Thu Jan 18 12:47:00 EST 2007

Richard Daines To Be State's Health Chief

by JACOB GERSHMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun January 18, 2007

Governor Spitzer has tapped the chief executive of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Richard Daines, to be his health commissioner, filling a crucial spot in his administration, sources said.

In Dr. Daines, Mr. Spitzer has chosen a veteran hospital administrator who entered medicine after serving as a missionary in Bolivia for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1970s. Dr. Daines, 55, has served as president and CEO of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center since 2002, and was a senior vice president at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx in the 1990s.

At St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, a not-for-profit tertiary care teaching hospital run by Continuum Health Partners, Dr. Daines is in charge of two full-service facilities - one next to Columbia University and the other near Columbus Circle in Manhattan - with a total of just more than 1,000 certified beds.

Dr. Daines will play a crucial role in the Spitzer administration, being placed in charge of carrying out Mr. Spitzer's sweeping health care agenda. Mr. Spitzer has vowed to cut costs in health care and extend health coverage to hundreds of thousands more children. He has called for putting more focus on managing chronic diseases and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

Most important, the commissioner will be responsible for executing the recommendations made by the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, which called for the closure of five city hospitals and four upstate hospitals and proposed plans for mergers and conversions of

48 hospitals.

It's a complicated task that is sure to attract criticism from industry opponents of the commission's plan. The recommendations became law on January 1 and are required to be implemented within 18 months.

Dr. Daines will also be the gatekeeper for capital project submissions and license changes requested by hospitals. He will be the one deciding whether to push projects through the pipeline or sit on them.

http://www.nysun.com/article/46963

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Hospital Executive Is Said to Be Choice for State Health Chief 

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA   New York Times    January 18, 2007

Gov. Eliot Spitzer will name Dr. Richard F. Daines, the chief executive of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, to be the new state health commissioner, according to several executives in the hospital industry.

The appointment, which the executives said could be announced today, would designate the person to carry out a painful, politically charged downsizing plan that will close nine hospitals around the state and merge or shrink dozens of others.

The commissioner also heads a sprawling department that runs the Medicaid program, which consumes about 40 percent of the state budget.

The governor's office declined to comment, and calls to officials at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center were not returned.

But several industry officials, who were granted anonymity because they did not want to risk angering the governor by disclosing the appointment before the official announcement, said that they had talked with the governor's advisers and that Dr. Daines was the choice. 

Dr. Daines would bring to the job an intimate knowledge of New York's health care economy and the way decisions in Albany reverberate for providers and patients.

By contrast, previous commissioners have had backgrounds primarily in public health policy or administration in other states. Hospital officials said that the Spitzer team had seriously considered several people with practical experience in the state's health care industry.

There was some carping among hospital officials at the selection of Dr. Daines, because he is associated with Continuum Health Partners, the parent company of St. Luke's-Roosevelt, which was viewed as having survived well in the statewide hospital downsizing plan - the same plan the new commissioner will carry out.

Governor Spitzer has already rearranged the major policymaking positions on his health care team in ways that health care experts say could limit the power of the new commissioner.

Dennis P. Whalen, who will work in the governor's office as Mr. Spitzer's chief health care adviser, carries more knowledge and authority into that position than any recent predecessor. He is currently the longtime executive deputy commissioner of the Health Department. And Governor Spitzer has already created a new position of deputy health commissioner in charge of health insurance programs, and appointed Debra Bachrach to it.

Dr. Daines, who has a reputation as an able, low-key administrator, joined St. Luke's-Roosevelt in 2000 as medical director, and became president and chief executive in 2002. Before that, he worked for a dozen years at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, as medical director and later as senior vice president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18health.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

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Governor Eliot Spitzer And Lieutenant Governor David Paterson Today Announced Nominations For Two Senior Administration Officials

Richard F. Daines, M.D. is being nominated to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Health. Dr. Daines is President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City. Prior to becoming President, he served as Senior Vice President for Professional Affairs and as Medical Director. Dr. Daines served in a series of clinical and

administrative positions at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, including Director of Critical Care, Director of Medical Education, Medical Director and Vice President for Professional Affairs, and Senior Vice President for Professional Affairs. He was also a founding member of the board of Partners in Health at St. Barnabas Hospital. He chaired the Health, Education and Human Services Task Force for Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer from 1998 to 1999 and served as Medical Director at Lincoln

Medical and Mental Health Center. Dr. Daines received his B.A. from Utah State University, and his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College; he did his residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital.

Dr. Daines will earn a salary of $136,000.

Diana Jones Ritter is being nominated to serve as Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Ms. Ritter has served as the Executive Deputy Comptroller in the New York State Office of the State Comptroller since 2003. While there, she served in a number of capacities, including Deputy Comptroller in the Division of Administration

from 2001 to 2002, Assistant Deputy Comptroller in the Division of Management Audit and State Financial Services from 1995 to 2001 and as Executive Deputy Director in the Office of Public Health from 1993 to 1995. Previously, Ms. Ritter was the Associate Commissioner of Administration and Quality Executive in the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities from 1990 to 1993. She received her B.S. from Morgan State University.

Ms. Ritter will earn a salary of $136,000.

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In announcing Senate appointments and re-appointments for the coming year, the following were named to the Senate Mental Health committee:

Majority (Republicans)

Thomas Morahan, Chair

Frank Padavan

Dale Volker

Carl Marcellino

Cathy Young

Vacancy

Minority (Democrats)

Reuben Diaz, ranking

Velmanette Montgomery

Eric Schneiderman

Shirley Huntley

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