2022 Power Players in Health Care

Alan J. Murray is president and CEO of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. Alan is recognized for his leadership, deep industry expertise, and determination to enhance the health care system with innovation that benefits consumers, customers, and provider partners. In New York, he rallies his team around the mission to materially and measurably improve the health of all New Yorkers, and in June 2022 he began leading a national team working to improve the health of diverse populations such as students and labor groups with custom-built innovative health plans.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in health care?
People deserve great health care, and I recognized the system we currently have focuses on helping people get better when they are sick. While it is important to take care of people when they are sick, what if we reimagined how we care for people and build a system that supports them to live their best lives through whole health? That’s the opportunity I see and why I am so committed to driving change in health care.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing New York’s health care system?
When I see the word challenge, I reframe the conversation around opportunity. New York is a destination for innovation, and we have an opportunity to improve how people interact with the system through data integration. Data points tell the story of a person’s health, and today, these data points are not connected. If we modernize how data flows through the system, we can collaborate to make informed decisions about a person’s care journey.

How can New York State ensure access to affordable health care?
At Empire, we are on a mission to materially and measurably improve the health of all New Yorkers. We have a responsibility to ensure people in our communities have access to affordable, high-quality health care. Moreover, we believe that supporting whole health is the true path to making health care more affordable. This involves considering factors that influence health, including physical, behavioral, and social drivers. The more people are healthy, the more they can enjoy their lives.

What does the future of health care look like?
New York is already home to many of the best health care offerings in the world. Quite frankly, it is a destination. The future is about inspiring the talent we have here to optimize the system. Data is the key that can unlock the optimizations needed, which will ultimately enable a system that anticipates and delivers care for New Yorkers when they need it most, and more importantly, empowers them to strive for whole health.

Mercedes Narcisse represents District 46 in the New York City Council, where she chairs the Council’s Committee on Hospitals. Councilmember Narcisse is a registered nurse, working mother, proud immigrant, and community advocate who is dedicated to improving the lives of constituents in her district. She was elected to City Council in November 2021 and serves on the Committees on Health, Education, Parks and Recreation, Transportation and Infrastructure, Criminal Justice, and on the Subcommittee on COVID Recovery and Resiliency.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in health care?
Without good health, we have nothing. Health is truly wealth, and I pursued a career in nursing because I wanted to dedicate my life to helping individuals be healthy and happy. It is truly the most rewarding profession, and I have no regrets.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing New York’s health care system?
I believe the biggest challenge is the vast health care inequities we see depending on which part of the city you reside in, or how much money you make, or what color your skin is. My goal is to ensure that, no matter the color or economic status of a patient, they receive equitable care and are never pushed to the side.

How can New York State ensure access to affordable health care?
We need fair reimbursement from the state level and support from our partners on all levels of government. We need to increase the reimbursement process. We also need to reassess the process to encourage New Yorkers to access preventive care, and not wait until they are seriously ill to visit an ER for primary care.

What does the future of health care look like?
If we don’t reinvent the way we approach health care, it could be bleak. However, I am confident that New York State will continue to pursue equity in health care and invest in communities that have been traditionally underserved by our health care system.

George Nashak joined Care For the Homeless as president and CEO in 2017. He came to CFH from HELP USA, where he served as executive vice president, overseeing that organization’s portfolio of housing and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness. Before joining HELP, George spent eight years at the New York City Department of Homeless Services, including serving as deputy commissioner for adult services, a role in which he oversaw the single adult shelter system, the street homeless service portfolio, and the re-housing of homeless single adults.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in health care?
Having worked for years to improve systems serving people experiencing homelessness, it was clear that one area where significant additional work was needed was low-barrier, accessible, and high-quality health care. I saw Care For the Homeless as an organization that had the potential to make a significant contribution towards this goal. We need to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have access to the same quality of care that you and I receive — or better.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing New York’s health care system?
In the small part of the health care system where we work — i.e., health care for individuals and families who are homeless or unstably housed — the main challenge is creating access to services where people are respected and receive care of the highest quality. The mainstream health care system too often doesn’t work for our patients. So we work everywhere our patients are: on the streets, in shelters, in drop-in centers.

How can New York State ensure access to affordable health care?
New York State is generous when it comes to people eligible for public health insurance. This is something we should be proud of. But we can do a better job increasing access to quality care for people who lack insurance, for example as a result of documentation status. We also need to understand that patients like those we serve at Care For the Homeless need outreach and engagement just to make it in the door.

What does the future of health care look like?
I’m concerned that the future of health care for the patients served by Care For the Homeless will be very challenging. We know that we spend too much money in the United States on health care and that we deliver poor overall outcomes. But we can’t save money on patients who’ve never received adequate services in the first place. We must provide accessible, respectful, and quality health care to low-income and homeless people.

Since founding Health People as a women’s AIDS peer education program in 1990, Chris Norwood has developed its powerful peer model into a groundbreaking organization where effective health education, support, and disease prevention are entirely delivered by low-income people themselves impacted by chronic disease and AIDS. Health People is also at the forefront of the city’s devastating diabetes epidemic. In 2005, Chris was selected for a special Nobel Peace Prize nomination honoring 1,000 women worldwide for their local work.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in health care?
I pursued a career in health rather late. As a journalist, I did some health reporting and happened to write the first national article on women and AIDS. These women were so isolated and shattered, I started a peer program, training them to provide community prevention. This was so important and effective that I kept working in the South Bronx to develop other peer programs people wanted, including for asthma and diabetes self-care.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing New York’s health care system?
The biggest challenge is that it is NOT a “health” system; it is a medical industry that will not provide recognized prevention and education to slash the impact of chronic disease — the disease of our time. More people with HIV today die of diabetes than AIDS, yet neither

Medicaid or Medicare — nor the New York State or City Departments of Health — provide funds to deliver self-care education, proven to reduce blood sugar and complications, to the highest need populations.

How can New York State ensure access to affordable health care?
It is more important to assure access to affordable self-care and wellness education — saving lives even as it saves billions, money that can then be used to fund care for those illnesses which are not actually preventable.

What does the future of health care look like?
The future looks quite dreadful — with emergency rooms and hospitals overloaded with sicker and sicker people — unless the state takes real self-care education for diabetes and other chronic diseases, as well as proven community wellness strategies, seriously.

Dr. Ozuah is the President and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, the umbrella organization for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Montefiore Health System’s 10 member hospitals, 300 ambulatory sites, and 7.5 million patient encounters per year. A nationally recognized physician, leader, executive, researcher, teacher and author, Dr. Ozuah leads an organization with 10,000 physicians and 53,000 employees serving a diverse group of patients. He previously served as Professor and University Chairman of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. 

Mario J. Paredes was appointed chief executive officer of SOMOS Community Care in 2015. Mario is a founder and chairman of the Board for the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders and is today its chairman emeritus. Previously, Mario joined Merrill Lynch as vice president of business development in April 2001 and was appointed director of the U.S. Hispanic Market for the Multicultural & Diversified Business Development Group in 2002. Mr. Paredes earned his master of philosophy at the Catholic University of Argentina, a master’s degree in Religious Education at Loyola University Chicago, and conducted postgraduate studies at Georgetown University.

Joe Pecora is the president of the Home Healthcare Workers of America, a union representing nearly 40,000 of New York’s home health care professionals, mainly comprising underrepresented immigrant women of color who care for society’s most vulnerable members. Mr. Pecora, who was named president in May 2022 and was union vice president since 2018, has helped HHWA navigate through the difficulties of the COVID pandemic. Pecora aggressively advocated the interests of his members, submitting testimony to two Congressional Committee hearings and directing efforts to guarantee early vaccine access for members. The effort led to 95 percent of HHWA’s membership getting vaccinated, ensuring the health and protection of the workforce serving countless lives on the medical front lines.

Throughout his tenure with HHWA, Mr. Pecora has played a key role in the union’s lobbying efforts, testifying before legislative committees, and advocating for and negotiating improved wages and better working conditions. He also led countless membership recruitment campaigns across New York.

Vincent Pitta is the founding and managing member of Pitta Bishop & Del Giorno LLC, which provides advice, counsel, and related services in government relations, lobbying and legislative representation, strategic planning, private and public sector business expansion, community relations, crisis management, fire safety, disaster preparedness and response matters, as well as internal/external communication, media and public relations services and counsel. In this capacity, he represents several clients in the health care space, including Brighton Health Plan Solutions, AHRC NYC, EmblemHealth, Public Health Solutions, and Care for the Homeless, among others.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in health care?
I’m proud to represent so many clients in the health care sphere for the simple fact that I believe that adequate health care should be provided to every individual regardless of their station in life. From our health insurance providers such as EmblemHealth and Anthem, Inc., to our nonprofit clients such as Public Health Solutions and the Richmond University Medical Center, it is vital that no stone is left unturned in the delivery of widespread health care.

What is the biggest challenge currently facing New York’s health care system?
I believe that the biggest challenge facing New York’s health care system is the affordability of quality health care.

How can New York State ensure access to affordable health care?
New York State can ensure access to affordable health care by ensuring that the health care system isn’t monopolized by for-profit insurance companies. We must also recognize, bolster, and celebrate the incredible contributions of nonprofit providers in the provision of positive health outcomes.

What does the future of health care look like?
The ideal future of health care is quality care being provided at an affordable level in posterity.

Dr. Frank Proscia leads the country’s largest union for doctors, representing physicians across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. He has advocated for paid sick leave legislation as well as protections to ensure that immigrants receive quality care. After growing up in New York City, Dr. Proscia pursued psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine before ascending the ladder of the Doctors Council SEIU. He was elected union president in 2014.

As president and chief executive officer of the Greater New York Hospital Association, Kenneth Raske represents over 250 hospitals and care facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Mr. Raske leads GNYHA in its ongoing efforts to protect sources of health care funding, to oppose Medicare cutbacks, and to expand health insurance coverage for low-income communities and the underinsured. Mr. Raske also fought attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in 2017.