County Managed-Care Agency Gets New Chief
The founding chief executive and president of the California Wellness Foundation has been appointed to head L.A. Care, the nation’s largest public managed-care program, officials announced Tuesday.
Howard Khan, 45, a former Cigna Healthcare senior executive, will take the helm in December at the Los Angeles County managed-care organization for the poor, said Robert Tranquada, chairman of the board of governors for L.A. Care.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Nov. 10, 2001 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Saturday November 10, 2001 Home Edition Part A Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Managed care executive--A story in the California section Wednesday about an appointment to L.A. Care, a public managed care program, spelled the new chief executive’s name two ways. The correct spelling is Howard Kahn.
“I’m particularly inspired by the position because the program has been an important base for the most medically needy people in California for a long time,” Khan said. “When you’re the most vulnerable, when you’re sick, you need to be able to get medical care.”
Khan replaces Anthony Rodgers, 52, who resigned in February after the board placed him on leave for failing to disclose his marriage to a Blue Cross employee, which it considered a conflict of interest.
Blue Cross is one of eight health plans that serve as subcontractors to L.A. Care.
Kahn has served as senior vice president at Cigna for Latin America, where he was in charge of businesses and health care strategies in six Latin American countries. He also spent time in charge of health care strategies in Europe and Asia.
Before joining Cigna, he was vice president of Aetna’s global health care business. In 1991, he became founding chief executive and president of the California Wellness Foundation, a $1-billion foundation with a mission of helping underserved communities in California gain access to public health care. “He brought a really fine combination of experience, and he is a native of California,” Tranquada said.
L.A. Care oversees managed-care plans that serve more than 700,000 recipients of Medi-Cal, CaliforniaKids and Healthy Families in Los Angeles County.
