City & State Pennsylvania 071921

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Pennsylvania’s plan for telemedicine

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Contents | JULY 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

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JAN-WILLEM KUNNEN/SHUTTERSTOCK

TALKING TELEHEALTH It may be the future, but it’s not for everybody EDITOR’S NOTE … 4

Returning to a workout routine feels like heavy lifting

FITNESS TIPS & TRICKS … 7

Nine Pennsylvania politicians share their secrets for healthy living

PA PREEMPTION … 10 We offer an explainer

BUDGET BREAKDOWN … 12

Everything you need to know about PA’s 2021-22 budget

ASK THE EXPERTS … 18

HEALTH CARE POWER 100 … 31

ED GAINEY … 22

WINNERS & LOSERS … 58

We weigh what Voter ID may mean for Pennsylvanians Does he have the momentum to make it to the mayor’s office?

Names to know in Pennsylvania health care

Who was up and who was down last month

CityAndStatePA .com

July 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE

JENNY DEHUFF Editor-in-chief

AT THE BEGINNING of the pandemic, my husband looked optimistically into the future and said to me: “We will make the best use of this time.” So, he bought a NordicTrack exercise bike, despite my doubts that either of us would ever use it. Nevertheless, within a few weeks, it was delivered to our door, and the assembly of our S22i Studio Cycle, and subsequently, our home “gym,” was underway.

Days, weeks and months went by, and we fell into a routine of watching morning COVID-19 news briefings broadcast by Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and his team, followed by Gov. Tom Wolf and then-Health Secretary Rachel Levine. Later, in the evenings, we broke out wine. Motivation waned.

What my husband essentially purchased in late March 2020 was a $2,000 T-shirt hanger, which does a fine job collecting dust and other laundry in our bedroom.

Fast forward to today, and I still lack any drive to get on the NordicTrack. This is because, for more than a decade, I got from points A to B in Philadelphia via my actual bike, a 1974 Raleigh Sprite fixed-gear (with no kickstand.) So, for me, I never saw the purpose or appeal in riding a bike going nowhere. I’d rather do Pilates.

That’s where the hard part comes in. Many people love the way they feel after working out – refreshed, fulfilled, energized (or exhausted) and that awesome sore muscle ache the next day. In my case, afterward, I sleep like a baby.

But getting back into that regimen, and finding the time and motivation to do it, is not easy. So, what’s the solution?

In City & State’s July issue, we took the bold step of asking some of our Pennsylvania legislators to give us some health and wellness advice. These people, many who sit on the Health and Human Services Committee, and/or the Committee on Aging and Youth, don’t profess to be workout experts, fitness gurus or the perfect picture of health, but they were good sports for this survey (no pun intended).

Those who did agree to answer our questions for this feature offer an interesting perspective during a time when many of us need a little encouragement to get back into our bathing suits. I hope you enjoy.

JARED GRUENWALD

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C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S TO T H E

PENNSYLVANIA HEALTHCARE POWER 100 Penn Medicine proudly congratulates our team for being recognized in

CITY & STATE PENNSYLVANIA’S “HEALTHCARE POWER 100.”

Their dedicated leadership and relentless commitment to advancing medicine and education are truly powerful gifts.

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City & State Pennsylvania

With the pandemic behind us, we polled some Pa. politicos on their best practices for prepping for summer.

L

AST YEAR, when all of Pennsylvania was on lockdown, those who followed stay-athome orders found it was easy to fall into bad habits. Daily routines changed. Many of us became couch potatoes thanks to the advent of shows like “Tiger King” and “The Queen’s Gambit.” We turned to comfort foods and panic ate out of fear of a deadly virus – or over-ate out of sheer boredom. Over the long-term, this took a mental and physical toll on our minds and bodies, and for many people, the “Quarantine 15” was more than just a metaphor.

Yes, we’ve all been stressed, but exercise, in almost any form, is usually a good way to relieve some of that.

Now that summer is here, some of us might not yet be feeling quite confident to slip into our swimsuits. After more than a year holed up in our homes wearing sweatpants, the idea of going out in public in not much more than our underwear can be pretty scary.

But fret not, for we, at City & State, have got some great advice for you. This is the kind you can’t find anywhere else – and that’s because it’s from a bunch of non-experts.

Sure, you can always ask the internet how to get in shape, or even hire your own personal trainer, but what’s the fun in that? We decided to query a handful of state politicians – seeking their secrets, best practices and tips and tricks for getting their summer slimdown started...

And here’s what they came up with.

FIT TO LEAD

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July 2021

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PA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; OFFICE OF RYAN BIZZARRO; OFFICE OF SEN. SHARIF STREET; PA HOUSE REPUBLICAN PHOTO DEPT.; JAMES ROBINSON; CHRIS GUERRISI; JAMES ROBINSON; PA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS

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July 2021

What is Pennsylvania’s pesky preemption law?

By Harrison Cann

A Q&A with National League of Cities’

BROOKS RAINWATER

T

HERE’S AN ONGOING battle in Pennsylvania politics between the state and local governments.

The state legislature has made numerous efforts to control local municipalities’ ability to make their own rules regarding gun laws, single-use plastics and more.

These statewide preemptions have angered local officials who say they’re trying to do what’s best for their communities.

The issue came to the forefront recently when the General Assembly decided not to renew the preemption on single-use plastic bag bans, prompting cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to begin approving and enforcing new bans.

City & State reached out to Brooks Rainwater, senior executive and director of the Center for City Solutions at the National League of Cities, a nonpartisan advocacy group that supports local governments. Rainwater offered a breakdown of statewide preemptions and what they mean for Pennsylvania cities. These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

From a policy standpoint, what is preemption and how prevalent is it becoming?

Preemption is a legal doctrine, aligning with the American federal system, that allows upper levels of government to restrict or prevent lower levels

of government from self-directed determination of laws and public policy implementation. Preemptive measures instituted by statelevel government taking away authority from local government has grown enormously in recent years as the discordant partisan politics that we see at the national level has seeped down to the state level. Furthermore, we see more preemption in places where political party differences between state and local policymakers are high.

What are the most common issues states use preemption to address?

The most common issues preempted by state governments are minimum wage and paid sick leave laws, firearms policy, short-term rentals and ride-hailing regulations, municipal broadband policy, local tax limitations and restrictions on rent control and other local housing policy tools.

During COVID-19, this list decidedly grew as a host of states sought to prevent public health measures from being enforced via local mask mandates and closure orders. Preemption has gotten so bad in some states to the point where state

legislators have sought to preempt highly local issues like city tree removal policies. And, in some states local officials can be held personally liable with fines and potential removal from office if they pass laws in opposition to those preempted at the state level.

How does Pennsylvania compare to other states in terms of its preemption use?

In NLC’s 2018 analysis where we tested for seven key preemption policy areas, Pennsylvania ranked as number 11 for states that preempted their cities. In reviewing more recent preemption measures, Pennsylvania has been in line with a number of states that have sought to preempt localities on gun control measures, personal delivery devices, and other key issues.

How do preemptions on laws related to plastic bag bans and gun control affect local municipalities?

Preemptive measures take authority away from local officials representing the people in their communities. Mayors and council members are closest to the people that they govern, and as such, are more directly responsive to people’s wants and needs. When local laws are passed on plastic bag bans, gun control, or labor regulations, these policies are meant to support people. The goals are to create a more sustainable environment, protect public safety, or improve workers’ lives. These efforts should be applauded, not stymied by disconnected politicians at the state house seeking to push a partisan agenda protecting special interests.

How do you see preemption conflicts being decided between state and local governments?

State-level politicians are actively working to overturn the will of people in cities through preemption. As a result, the work of city leaders and the mandate of the people is undermined.

Taking stock of the last few years, it is abundantly clear that the overall uptick in preemption laws and the general antagonism toward local control by disconnected state lawmakers must stop.

Local control should be a shared value for Republicans and Democrats and the best interest of the public will be best served if state and local politicians of both parties work together in the interest of the people.

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July 2021

Everything you know about PA’

The plan includes money for public schools, a sweet college athlete deal and savings stored away for later.

*but were too afraid to ask

July 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

ever wanted to A’s new budget*

G

OV. TOM WOLF signed Pennsylvania’s new $39.8 billion state budget into law on June 30 and it was historic on many fronts. It came as the state transitioned out of the COVID-19 pandemic and was the first full-year budget approved by lawmakers since 2019. Lawmakers had a trove of federal funds to work with, thanks to a massive infusion of cash from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which delivered nearly $7.3 billion in state aid to the Commonwealth.

The budget includes significant investments in education funding; it stashed away billions for future budget budget cycles and it divvied out a portion of federal COVID-19 funds. But it has been both praised and criticized for what it contains and what it leaves out.

So, what exactly is in the 2021-22 state budget? Here’s everything you need to know.

JAMES STEID/SHUTTERSTOCK

EDUCATION Perhaps no subject has gotten more attention this budget cycle than education. Wolf, in his annual, albeit unconventional, budget address, called for massive

The $1.1 billion from the American Rescue Plan will go toward the following:

funding increases in education, underwritten by an increase in the state’s personal income tax rate. Wolf wanted to run that funding – $1.15 billion – through the so-called Fair Funding Formula, which distributes new education money through a weighted, needbased system.

But even with an influx of federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan, Wolf did not get the $1.15 billion ask that he sought.

Still, this year’s budget includes record levels of new investment in public schools. Here’s a breakdown: $300 million for basic education; $30 million for early childhood education; and $50 million for special education.

“This budget includes the largest education funding increase in the history of this Commonwealth,” Wolf said.

“That is a $416 million increase in our investment in high-quality education in every community across the Commonwealth. It shows every student that we care about their education and we care about their future.”

The budget also allocates $100 million to a new “Level Up” initiative that will direct resources to 100 of the state’s poorest school districts. The provision was authored by Allentown-area

state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a Democrat, who said the Level Up program will move the state one step closer to equitably funding public school districts.

“A fundamental tenet of any educational system should be that a student can get a world class education regardless of where they live. We have historically

“This budget includes the largest education funding increase in the history of this Commonwealth.”

– Gov. Tom Wolf

failed to meet that challenge,” Schlossberg said. “Our Fair Funding Formula does remarkable work in alleviating those differences.”

The budget for this fiscal year also expands the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program, which allows

businesses to receive tax credits of up to $750,000 per year if they provide financial contributions to fund scholarships for public and private schools. Under budget-enacting legislation passed by lawmakers, the annual tax credit cap for the program has been increased from $185 million to $225 million, which proponents say will increase the number of school choice scholarships students can use to attend private schools.

Charles Mitchell, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank, said in a statement that the budget includes “the biggest expansion since the inception of the program two decades ago.”

“With a historic $40 million increase in the cap on donations, the EITC has nearly tripled in size under the Wolf administration, despite his resistance, growing from $60 million at the beginning of his administration in 2015 to $175 million today,” Mitchell said.

Expansion of the program came despite efforts from Senate Republicans to increase its funding from $185 million to $300 million.

That legislation, Senate Bill 1, would have also expanded the cap on the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) Program from $55 million to $100 million. That

$377 $282 $279 $50 $50 MILLION for pandemic response efforts

MILLION for long-term living programs

MILLION for infrastructure improvements

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MILLION for higher education

MILLION for affordable housing

CityAndStatePA .com

measure has not advanced out of the state Senate.

SAVE IT FOR A ‘RAINY DAY’ The largest question looming over budget negotiations this year was how the state’s latest round of federal COVID-19 aid would be used. Since the bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, there have been plenty of ideas floated for how to use the $7.3 billion the state received from the American Rescue Plan.

Democrats in the state House wanted to use $4 billion of the federal funds for direct assistance to businesses, infrastructure investments and property tax relief, while Senate Democrats similarly wanted to use $6 billion to aid struggling businesses, increase access to childcare and remediate school buildings.

But while Democrats had a laundry list of possible uses for the federal dollars, only $1.1 billion was allocated through this year’s budget – with the rest being stashed away for future needs. The budget also directs the entirety of the state’s budget surplus – $2.52 billion – into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

With more than $5 billion in ARP funds being pushed into the future, the Republicans’ fiscal restraint angered many Democrats who felt the budget surplus should have been used to help Pennsylvanians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Where is the help? I thought folks in this place wanted to lower property taxes. I thought folks in this place wanted to keep small businesses and restaurants thriving. But here we are on budget evening and we have not held up our responsibility,” House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton said during budget debates in June.

McClinton urged her colleagues to address issues such as school funding, raising the minimum wage and access to broadband when lawmakers return in the fall.

But Republican leaders who

July 2021

negotiated the budget with Wolf said their reluctance to use the federal aid all in one year was a result of wanting to avoid mistakes made in past budget cycles.

Pat Browne, the state Senate Appropriations Committee chair, said conservative use of the federal funds is necessary to avoid budget deficits that occurred after the 2008 financial crisis.

“We do not want to empty the piggy bank and place the financial security of the Commonwealth in jeopardy when federal support is no longer available to us several

“We do not want to empty the piggy bank and place the ...

Commonwealth in jeopardy.”

– State Sen. Pat Browne

years from now, as it was for us 2008 through 2010,” he said.

“We saw significant financial challenges when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ended in 2011, which left the Commonwealth facing deficits for nearly a decade.”

“If we do not plan accordingly to manage long-term fiscal imbalance and use a larger percentage of the federal pandemic funding, we will experience the same financial problems we saw 10 years ago.”

With $1.1 billion in ARP dollars being distributed in this year’s budget, lawmakers will have more than $5 billion to use in the coming years – a sum that could make budgeting easier, though it’s also likely to stoke further debate over the best ways to allocate the funds in the year ahead.

ELECTION AUDIT FUNDING? NOT SO FAST. Pennsylvania’s election laws have been under a national spotlight ever since the 2020 presidential election. Results trickled in late, and counties struggled to count and process mail-in ballots. The state was a constant target of former President Donald Trump and his allies, who challenged election procedures in court and made unsubstantiated claims about the election being fraudulent.

Ever since, Republican lawmakers have made re-writing the state’s election laws a top priority of this legislative session. Wolf, however, has stood in the way of GOP plans to reform the state’s Election Code. In June, he vetoed a bill that would have mandated voters show ID each time they go to the polls and require county election voters to verify the authenticity of signatures on mail and absentee ballots.

But even as that GOP attempt to overhaul the state’s election laws faced an uphill climb to get Wolf’s signature, Republican lawmakers nearly scored a victory when they placed money for election audits in this year’s budget. The state spending plan originally included an additional $3.1 million for Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor’s office, which was to be used for the creation of a Bureau of Election Audits.

House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican who sponsored separate legislation to create the bureau, told City & State in June that the proposal would have tasked an independent office with conducting audits, rather than having the Department of State continue to conduct audits of the elections it oversees.

“The idea that you’ve got the executive branch, who runs the election, also auditing the election, I don’t think that that’s necessarily a true check and balance,” Cutler said. “I think the best way to do it is to move it outside to the auditor general, like we do with every

other governmental program.”

While the budget package included additional funding for the auditor general’s office to create the Bureau of Election Audits, it did not include Cutler’s language to set parameters for how the bureau operates.

A spokesperson for Cutler told City & State that the speaker’s office did not believe language was needed to authorize the auditor general to conduct election audits. “The Auditor General has the authority to perform his duties as he sees fit. He certainly has the authority to audit our election processes and systems, just as the previous occupant of his office did,” Mike Straub, a Cutler spokesman, said.

Wolf used his line-item veto power to reject the funding increase, fearing it would be used to “relitigate” the 2020 presidential election amid calls from Trump and other Republicans to audit the results.

Although Wolf quashed the funding set aside for election audits, Pennsylvania Republicans are still weighing whether or not to commence a retroactive audit of the 2020 election. According to an AP report, Senate Republicans met for a private briefing on the possibility of investigating last year’s election, led by state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump ally.

CODE BILL CHANGES The state budget is never just line items and funding allocations – it also includes a raft of policy changes that are stuffed into so-called “code bills,” which serve as legislative guidelines for how various funds should be used.

Included in this year’s Public School Code bill was a provision that now allows college athletes in Pennsylvania to make money off of activities that utilize their name, image, or likeness. That change means that student athletes can cash in on the use of their name or other identifying factors on sports jerseys, in video games

KEN JANCEF

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July 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

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Villanova’s Collin Gillespie is one of many college athletes cashing in on their name, image or likeness.

or on trading cards.

State Sen. Scott Martin, chair of the Senate Education Committee, said the provision will put Pennsylvania schools on a level playing field when it comes to recruiting. “This is critical for collegiate athletic programs in Pennsylvania so they will not be put at a competitive recruiting disadvantage after July 1, as many states will be implementing enabling rules,” he said.

This year’s code bills included a number of other major policy changes, including the repeal of a major regulation that would have expanded overtime eligibility for Pennsylvania workers.

The overtime expansion was sought by the Wolf administration, which said last year that the regulation would have resulted in new overtime eligibility for more than 80,000 workers. Wolf nearly traded the overtime rule for a minimum wage increase in 2019, but the bill died in the House and the governor continued to move the overtime expansion through the regulatory process.

According to an AP report, repealing the overtime rule was part of a trade to secure the $100 million needed for the “Level Up” initiative that will drive out funds to the state’s poorest schools.

Multiple new tax breaks were also created under this year’s budget, including breaks for flight simulators and a sales and use tax exemption for the purchase of computer equipment to be used at a state-certified computer data center.

Additionally, the state’s Independent Fiscal Office will now be required to conduct dynamic scoring of all proposed legislation that will have an impact on taxpayers of $50 million or greater. Under the provision, the IFO will be required to provide analyses that take into account the behavioral responses of taxpayers and other potential impacts from the legislation.

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CityAndStatePA .com

July 2021

A holistic approach to health

nearly 4% in the same period.

Serving older adults goes beyond just health care, and with people living longer, more active lives, the demand for services is only going to increase. Homebound seniors may need assistance with getting food and medication, accessing home care and social services, and learning how to use technology and avoid isolation.

Others may need help paying rent or utilities, or need additional

capacity; improving services for older adults; enhancing efforts to supply a sense of community for older adults; emphasizing a citizen-first, diverse culture; and advocating for the rights and protecting older adults from abuse and exploitation.

As need grows, so does the demand for more resources. Torres said regardless of future funding, the state has to use technology and evidence-based programming to

mental or physical therapy in a post-pandemic world.

The state’s Department of Aging, led by Secretary Robert Torres, must develop a State Plan on Aging to provide a vision for the next few years. The department’s most recent plan outlines five goals Commonwealth agencies will pursue. They include strengthening the aging network’s

increase efficiency and capacity.

“Whether we get more support or not, we must continue to improve data collection and analytics in order to be more efficient and build our capacity,” Torres told City & State. “(The population’s) also becoming more diverse, so one of my priorities is to make sure that we’re being effective in our outreach to diverse communities, meaning there’s not

After COVID-19, Pennsylvania has to better serve its growing elderly population.

By Harrison Cann

P

ENNSYLVANIA IS getting older quickly.

By 2030, when baby boomers will be 65 or older, seniors will outnumber children 18 and under for the first time in history.

It’s no secret the state struggled during the pandemic to control COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Issues like staffing shortages and a lack of resources, which existed before the pandemic, were exacerbated by the grim conditions.

The question is: with services failing to meet the current population’s needs, and the population only getting older, how can the state prepare for what’s ahead?

“The reality is that society tends to treat older adults as an afterthought,” Adam Marles, president and CEO of the trade association LeadingAge PA, told City & State. “I think (the pandemic) shined a light on how much work there is to do to make sure that older adults have what they need to not be isolated, and to make sure that they are still thought of as contributing critical components of our communities.”

Currently, one in four Pennsylvanians is over 60. That number is expected to reach 4 million, about

one-third of the state’s population, by 2030. Those 85 and older are expected to grow steadily, as well.

According to the Independent Fiscal Office’s five-year outlook, Pennsylvania’s retiree cohort grew by 3.3% over the last five years, and is expected to grow by 2.6% in the next five years. The elderly cohort, including those 80 years and older, is expected to grow by

July 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

a one-size-fits-all method.”

Torres and advocates agreed that a person-centered approach to health care is required going forward. Being proactive and pushing preventative medicine now can prevent emergencies and other problems in the future, he said.

The pandemic revealed the urgency for a holistic approach to health, and that socioeconomic status and lifestyle choices play a major role in health outcomes.

SAUNDERS HOUSE/SEIU HEALTHCARE PA

Workers in nursing homes want higher wages and a people-centered approach to health care.

But just to start, advocates and workers in the industry say they need to be provided the most basic necessities to properly serve their communities.

“Everything that we went through during the pandemic has always been there. COVID exposed the ugly truth and the monster that was already in the closet,” Tisheia Frazier, certified nursing assistant

(CNA) at the Saunders House outside Philadelphia, told City & State. “Nursing homes were like the Titanic. In the movie, when the boat was sinking, they told the band to keep playing while people were out there dying.”

The Saunders House is one of 12 nursing homes that voted in June to authorize strikes. Frazier said current contract negotiations with the facility have been focused on not only improving wages, but also providing better health care and other benefits like tuition reimbursement. Those are two important factors in both attracting and retaining a quality workforce. As it stands now, she said, the options given to workers are nowhere near where they need to be.

“It’s the most dangerous work in the country right now,” Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, told City & State. “A workforce that is largely impoverished – this chronic, low wage-high turnover workforce – is ultimately bad for care.”

According to Yarnell, there are more than 234,000 direct care workers in the state. The existing shortage, which he blames on low wages, minimum training and high emotional and physical demands, creates obstacles for access to quality services and the continuity of care necessary to improve health outcomes.

SEIU, which represents workers at more than 100 of the Commonwealth’s 700 nursing homes, was requesting a $250 million investment to the bedside, what Yarnell called a “down payment toward equality.”

Marles and LeadingAge PA, which represents more than 380 senior service providers across the state, was looking for $450 million, including $396 million for nursing homes. He said nursing homes receive funding through medical assistance, Medicare and Medicaid, and private and long-term care insurance. While Medicare pays these properties enough to continue operating effectively and generate some margin, medical assistance underfunds homes by about $45 per person per day. With resources lacking in numerous areas, resources will have to be allocated toward specific purposes to ensure workers are paid well and homes are properly reimbursed.

Roughly $282 million of this

year’s budget will use American Rescue Plan dollars for nursing homes and long-term care support, with about $250 million toward staffing and bedside care.

Yarnell said the investment was a long-time coming, but that it doesn’t go far enough to address both short-term and long-term staffing needs.

The $282 million allocation in the state budget also includes $30 million for personal care homes and assisted living facilities and $5 million for grants to develop indoor air management practices,

“Nursing homes were like the Titanic. In the movie, when the boat was sinking, they told the band to keep playing while people were out there dying.”

– Tisheia Frazier, a certified nursing assistant at the Saunders House outside Philadelphia

as well as funding to provide home and community-based services to 501 more seniors.

Yarnell said increased funding could get CNA minimum wages up to $17 an hour, and licensed practical nurse wages up to $25 an hour. With one worker caring for up to 20 residents during the day, and up to 40 residents overnight, he said a lot more must be done to get homes to “humane staffing levels.”

“If you’re taking care of someone who’s completely dependent and needs care for toileting, bathing, mobility and eating – you name it – that is totally not the appropriate level of care we ought to be giving Pennsylvania seniors,” he said.

Yarnell says the new investments don’t necessarily mean workers at those 12 homes won’t take matters into their own hands. Contract negotiations are continuing with the relief funds in mind, and a

17

potential strike is among the last things workers want to do to get what they want.

“We’re not being greedy … we’re just asking for the basic fundamentals every health care worker should have,” Frazier said.

The state has a long way to go if it wants to fully address the issues older adults are facing, and will continue to face. Agencies and advocates may disagree on what exactly should be done, but they can agree that breaking down silos between providers will be crucial in treating people as a whole.

“We need to make sure that the attention and collaborative spirit on lawmakers’ behalf continues, but we’re moving in the right direction,” Marles said.

Torres stressed that improving efficiency and capacity is a necessary step, but that creating partnerships and working collaboratively will help the state, as well.

“There are a lot of things, whether it’s affordable housing, prescriptions and food, or mental health and addressing trauma, that we need to make sure we’re providing for older adults and keeping them healthy with good, evidence-based programs,” Torres said. “I want to make sure that we’re being very effective in our reach to diverse communities, to LGBT older adults and that we’re being responsive and working with trusted partners.”

One of the first decisions made by the state Department of Aging will be how it will spend the $59.3 million it received from the American Rescue Plan. Although the department has three years to allocate the funds, Torres said much of it will go to area agencies on aging (AAAs) to help them develop individualized plans.

Across the board, he said, their focus moving forward is to align services across all industries to focus on the population’s growing list of needs.

“I want to tell the story, at the end of the three years, that this money helped achieve these outcomes, and that the demand for services is only going to increase,” Torres said.

The pandemic deepened what was already a massive hole in the area of nursing and long-term care. Coming out of all this, it’s up to the state to dig itself out before it’s buried.

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July 2021

Seeing through the push for voter ID legislation Three analysts weigh in on potential impacts of voter ID in Pennsylvania

July 2021

SUBMITTED; DANI FRESH/ACLU-PA; SUBMITTED

S

TATE LAWMAKERS in Pennsylvania have already made one attempt this summer to strengthen the state’s voter ID laws.

Both chambers of the General Assembly approved legislation that, among other things, would have required all voters to show ID each time they go to the polls. That bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf, but the push comes as some conservative states, such as Florida and Georgia, have overhauled their own voting laws following the 2020 presidential election cycle.

House Bill 1300, which was sponsored by House State Government Committee Chair Seth Grove, would have brought in-person early voting to Pennsylvania in 2025, allowed curbside voting for those who are disabled and established voter ID requirements for everyone statewide.

Wolf vetoed the proposal, saying it was based on “fringe conspiracy theories.” “I think the people of Pennsylvania do not want to see voter suppression,” Wolf told reporters. “We don’t want to be Arizona or Texas or any Florida … We believe our democracy is important. We want people to be able to vote. So, I don’t think the people of Pennsylvania want HB 1300, which is why I vetoed it.”

Still, the prospects of stricter voter ID requirements loom over Harrisburg. After HB 1300 was vetoed, Grove promised to hold a committee vote on legislation that would establish voter ID requirements in the state constitution – a proposal that would not need Wolf’s signature to take effect.

Grove said the measure will circumvent Wolf’s desk and ultimately let Pennsylvania voters decide on how to move forward with voter ID. “This will take election reform directly to the people, the majority of whom support the measure, and bypass the executive branch,” he said.

City & State reached out to several experts about the potential impacts of a voter ID requirement: Salewa Ogunmefun, executive director of Pennsylvania Voice; Andy Hoover, a

City & State Pennsylvania

spokesperson for the ACLU of Pennsylvania; and Kadida Kenner, executive director of The New Pennsylvania Project. The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have expressed interest in implementing a voter ID requirement. What impacts would this have on voter access?

I think it’s important to make clear that after all the hours of testimony we have heard in all of these hearings, none of the election directors and election officials who work in Pennsylvania said, “We need a voter ID requirement.”

The biggest area of consensus among voters, election officials, and other experts was the need for pre-canvassing and e-poll

Salewa Ogunmefun

Andy Hoover

books, not voter ID. We all care about the integrity of our elections, but the keys to improving that system include enhancing our vote-by-mail process, modernizing the Election Code and adequately funding elections.

To clarify, some Republican lawmakers are interested in voter ID. The last time they tried this, we showed in court how hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians would lose their right to vote with a burdensome ID requirement. The fact is that these politicians cannot produce any evidence of a need for voter ID. In the court case in 2012, the Commonwealth had to admit that it had no evidence of in-person voter impersonation. Politicians might get away with lying on the floor of the House and Senate.

They cannot lie in a court of law.

We’ve seen this in Harrisburg before, when elected officials attempt to implement restrictive voter ID laws for their own political gains. It puts our democracy at risk. Less than 10 years ago, Speaker Mike Turzai made it very clear how he viewed restrictive voter ID laws, and exactly who those laws would impact. Turzai said the quiet parts out loud in 2012 as he boasted that voter ID laws would give the 2012 election to Mitt Romney.

Today, Republican lawmakers are again repeating Turzai’s sentiments. We have lawmakers who will not accept defeat and the accurate results of our elections … Pennsylvania already has a voter ID requirement. Voters in the Commonwealth need to have an ID to register to vote, request a mail-in ballot, and cast their ballots when voting for the first time. Proposed changes, disguised as “election integrity” are simply a retaliation against voters for casting their votes and accessing their ballots.

How would a voter ID law impact minority communities and communities of color?

Kadida Kenner

Republican, Democratic and Independent voters expect that the people making changes to election rules aren’t trying to rig the game, but

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instead protect our democracy by ensuring our election laws are nonpartisan and make voting safer, more convenient and more accessible to all. Most BIPOC voters are going to see a voter ID bill as yet another attempt to keep Black and brown people in this state from voting.

And, to add insult to injury, a voter ID law would make their taxes go up. The associated cost and implementation burdens with voter ID alone are huge. For example, Texas spent $2 million on voter education when it implemented voter ID and Indiana spent more than $10 million over three years on free IDs. That’s funding that legislators could allocate to address other issues in the state. Voting is a fundamental right, and we should be working to remove barriers to participation with the goal of increasing accessibility and voter participation.

Research shows that there are particular communities that would be disproportionately impacted by a strict voter ID requirement, including Black Pennsylvanians. Other voters who would be harmed include people with disabilities, senior citizens, transgender folks, people living in poverty, college students and urban residents who rely on public transportation.

Perhaps Harrisburg Republicans want to make it harder for these citizens to vote. The ACLU of Pennsylvania believes that barriers to voting should be minimal while maintaining security. Under our current system, the counties have the capability to verify a voter’s eligibility.

Another barrier, like a voter ID requirement, is unnecessary.

These communities have seen elected officials attempt to put up barriers to silence them and their votes before. Record numbers of young voters and voters of color made their voices heard in 2020. Any current attempts to overhaul our election code will further risk disenfranchising marginalized communities. Whenever electoral strides are made in communities of color or other minority communities, such as the people

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Supporters of voter ID laws claim that by requiring ID at the polls, it prevents voter fraud.

With lawmakers so focused on election security, are there any alternatives to voter ID that you would suggest they consider to build confidence in Pennsylvania’s election systems?

SALEWA OGUNMEFUN: Voter ID is about trying to exclude some voters. Modernizing Pennsylvania’s election in a holistic way is the right way to make our process more secure and more accessible.

Instead of making it hard to vote, Pennsylvania should allow early, in-person voting, same-day voter registration and the establishment of vote centers, and guarantee paid postage for every voter who utilizes mail-in voting. Small change is better than no change at all, so lawmakers really need to act on issues where there is wide agreement and broad bipartisan consensus: • Funding electronic poll books.

• Increasing poll worker pay and providing more resources, in general, for county election operations.

• Allowing counties to start processing mail-in ballots two weeks before Election Day, so that voters have a chance to correct any simple mistakes and so that we can know who won the election hours – or days – not weeks, after the election is over.

ANDY HOOVER: Voter ID is a solution without a problem.

The 2020 election was safe and secure, and the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security admitted as much.

Donald Trump and the Republicans had every opportunity to prove their case in court, and they failed miserably. Court after court turned them away, including by judges appointed

by Trump and other Republican presidents. The only reason this question comes up is because politicians in Harrisburg are feeding the “Big Lie,” which creates hysteria among their supporters, which they then use to justify more burdens to

“Most BIPOC voters are going to see a voter ID bill as yet another attempt to keep Black and brown people in this state from voting.”

– Salewa Ogunmefun

voting. It’s a twisted cycle, and it’s undemocratic. ACLU-PA and our allies will continue to defend democracy, even if, and especially if, some cynical politicians won’t.

For the ACLU-PA, building confidence in Pennsylvania’s election system would include legislation that provides for same-day registration, vote centers, early, in-person voting, language access and increased state funding for chronically

underfunded county election offices. Each of these changes would modernize our election system and expand access to the ballot to ensure that every eligible voter can participate in our electoral process with no significant differences based on age, race, party or physical limitations.

KADIDA KENNER: First and foremost, several lawmakers in Harrisburg need to stop perpetuating the “Big Lie” and undermining the confidence and faith some Pennsylvanians have in our elections so that we can restore the public’s trust. Any lack of confidence felt by some Pennsylvanians is likely due to former President Trump and his sycophants in elected office in the Commonwealth intentionally undermining the confidence of voters in our elections, and the safeguards, already in place, that have resulted in people being caught when trying to vote illegally. The current system works. We need to make it easier for voters to cast their ballots. We don’t need to modernize our elections in order for the system to work with our current safeguards.

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BEN VON KLEMPERER/SHUTTERSTOCK

in the disability community or LBGTQ communities, attempts by the right-wing elite to suppress votes and disenfranchise voters soon and strategically follow.

No matter our race, background or ZIP code, most of us believe that democracy works best when it works for everyone. Unfortunately, we have a handful of politicians who want to set targeted communities back and make it harder for them to vote, especially Black, young and new Americans. The impact restrictive voter ID laws have on our daily lives is even greater for marginalized communities already struggling coming out of a global pandemic and needing their lawmakers to deliver economic support, restore our infrastructure, and deliver healthcare for all. Communities of color need leaders who will govern in their interests and make the promise of our democracy real for everyone.

IMPOSSIBLE IS JUST AN OPINION

Pushing health care into the future takes fearlessness, imagination, and a vision to change the status quo.

We’re revolutionizing the system to make a better tomorrow by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible today.

We’re uncommon to the core.

UPMC.com

Election odds are in Ed Gainey’s favor come this fall.

M A K GAINS N G Poised to make history, Ed Gainey hopes to usher in a more equitable Pittsburgh.

By Justin Sweitzer

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build the relationship between Pittsburgh residents and the city’s police force, which he says starts with an overhaul of how police and the community interact.

“My first 100 days in office, I’m gonna be focused on police-community relations,” Gainey told the Black Political Millennials podcast in April. “We have to find a way to begin to build trust and get rid of that culture where we got police officers that feel comfortable to have a private Facebook chat (or) chat group where they can talk about people like me and the LGBTQIA community like we’re deplorable. Those are things that have to be dealt with immediately.”

Gainey’s police reform platform centers around demilitarizing police equipment and training, redirecting those resources toward community policing efforts and creating alternative response options for nonviolent emergencies. Reforming use of force policies and banning no-knock warrants are also among his goals.

Gainey has also stressed a desire to create a citywide public health plan to address root causes of crime and violence in

Pittsburgh. Specifically, he said law enforcement, spiritual leaders and health professionals all need to weigh in on how to better address crime.

“We need a plan that’s going to address some of the systemic roots of what’s causing this violence,” Gainey told Marty Griffin, a KDKA NewsRadio host, in June.

“We also need to start focusing on, from a community standpoint, what is causing the violence. What is going on internally that makes you want to get up and kill somebody? No public safety, no law enforcement is gonna be able to solve that equation. That equation can only be solved when we talk about dealing with it from a public health and mental health perspective.”

Gainey’s mayoral campaign has also centered around an issue near and dear to his heart – community development. During his appearance on Black Political Millennials, Gainey said he was first introduced to politics after learning how public policy can directly impact neighborhoods. He’s expressed support for inclusionary zoning policies, which either encourage or require

GAINEY FOR MAYOR CAMPAIGN ; SANDIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY

EMOCRATIC STATE REP. Ed Gainey is one general election victory away from becoming Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor.

After an eight-year stint in Harrisburg as a state legislator, Gainey is preparing to return to local government in the Steel City, where he previously worked as an aide for two different mayors. Many view the general election contest as a formality, as Gainey already knocked off incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto by 4,000 votes in the Democratic primary back in May. And while Gainey will face Democrat-turned-Republican challenger Tony Moreno in November, Gainey has already outlined issues that will be a top priority in his first 100 days in office. Many of the issues he is hoping to address center around equity, opportunity and safety for Pittsburgh residents, particularly those in Black and brown communities.

At the top of his list are policing reforms.

No, he doesn’t want to defund the police – a stance he’s made clear in multiple interviews and media appearances. However, the Democratic nominee does want to re-

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Ed Gainey hopes to change the way police interact with the community.

– Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic consultant

developers to provide a percentage of housing units at below-market prices. He said this practice could help fend off the negative impacts of gentrification in various neighborhoods around the city.

“We have to be 100% focused on affordable housing. We have to pass inclusionary zoning so that we can make sure that the city is zoned so that we’re not being pushed out. Zoning is what helps keep us here and that’s one way of keeping us here,” he said.

Proper use of federal funds coming to

Pittsburgh could help increase affordable housing opportunities for city residents, according to Gainey. He also stressed the importance of establishing community benefit agreements, which are contracts between community groups and developers that outline certain terms agreed to by both parties. His platform calls for using the city’s planning process to request community benefit agreements, which he says could help limit gentrification and require greater diversity within a project’s workforce. “When you do that, what you do is you give a community an identity,” he said on Black Political Millennials. “An identity means that they don’t feel like they’ve been left behind or that they’ve been run over.”

And Gainey’s focus on building a grassroots coalition of Pittsburghers may have been what helped him emerge victorious over Peduto, who was seeking his third term in office. Gainey said in a separate KDKA interview that he believed his message “resonated with this city” – a comment that has been echoed by Democratic strategists.

“It’s clear in these off-year elections, when turnout is lower, that to win a primary election, you are going to need a strong, grassroots organization,” Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic consultant, told City & State. “Gainey relied on that in Pittsburgh, and it propelled him to victory.”

Gainey will face off against Moreno in November, an Army veteran and retired Pittsburgh police officer who claimed the GOP nomination after running against Gainey and Peduto in the Democratic primary. And while Gainey is expected to be the victor due to the prevalence of Democrats in the city, he pledged in a recent appearance on KDKA to represent all Pittsburgh residents if he does go on to win the general election.

“What you’re going to get from me as a person that goes to work every day, that’s going to work as hard as I can to serve the people of this city,” he said. “I look forward to that and I thank you for the opportunity to serve, and we can’t wait to go to work. I can’t wait to go to work.”

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Calling in sick The popularity of telemedicine rose rapidly during the pandemic. It might be here to stay.

MACROVECTOR/SHUTTERSTOCK

By Justin Sweitzer

YEAR AND A HALF into the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania still has no law on the books to authorize, regulate or prohibit the use of telemedicine. It’s an issue that lawmakers have been aching to address over the last several years in order to structure how telemedicine services can and can’t be used in the state.

Currently, access to telemedicine can vary by health care system and by insurance provider, and coverage is not guaranteed for appointments the same way they are for in-person visits.

The onset of the health crisis, however, brought a renewed focus to telemedicine, with patients forced to utilize phone calls, video visits and other means to access health care services. The rules around telemedicine – or lack thereof – were also temporarily addressed, thanks to a series of regulatory waivers from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration that offered flexibility to medical providers.

But those waivers are planned to end at the end of September, likely prompting a renewed conversation on how to address telemedi-

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I

NTEREST IN TELEMEDICINE services has also appeared to increase despite a dropoff in COVID-19 cases.

David Fletcher, Geisinger Health System’s associate vice president for telehealth, said that before the pandemic, Geisinger offered telemedicine services for about 20 different medical specialties, largely confined to hospitals and clinics due to certain regulations and payment rules that precluded Geisinger from offering at-home telehealth services.

The relaxed telemedicine regulations that came with COVID allowed Geisinger to increase the specialities for which access to e-doctors were made available.

“We expanded enormously,” Fletcher said. “We have over 60 specialties now that use telemedicine regularly, both in the home and in hospitals and clinics. We’ve had very high satisfaction rates from our patients who have used it. It’s been very popular. We use it for everything from regular kinds of primary care-type services, specialties like pulmonology, behavioral health – a very high percentage of our visits are done via telemedicine in space.”

The state-based waivers implemented

by Wolf were made under his COVID-19 emergency declaration, which was terminated by the Republican-led General As-

Dr. Michael DellaVecchia is a proponent of telemedicine.

sembly in June. But lawmakers decided to extend the regulatory waivers and suspensions until Sept. 30 – a date that will likely force them to reckon with the state’s lack of a telemedicine law.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which issued the waivers, told City & State that because Pennsylvania does not have a law authorizing or prohibiting telemedicine, that health care providers would still be able to treat people this way even after the waivers expire.

However, telemedicine services from out-of-state providers, currently allowed under the state’s regulatory suspensions, would have to stop. “There is nothing in the law that allows for telemedicine for out of state providers at this time,” Laura Humphrey, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email.

Fletcher added that health care providers are also keeping an eye on the status of regulatory waivers made at the federal level that deal with Medicare.

“Once that public health emergency ends at the federal level, then all those rules go back into place unless some sort of legislation happens. Now, the good news is there [are] very strong signals,” he said.

“We’re optimistic that something is going

to be put in place.”

For years, state lawmakers have attempted to approve legislation that would set parameters for telemedicine. State Sen. Elder Vogel, a Republican from western Pennsylvania, has repeatedly introduced bills to regulate telemedicine. His proposal would require state licensure boards to establish regulations for the use of telemedicine within their respective fields and set guidelines for health care providers to follow.

The legislation – Senate Bill 705 – would also require insurers cover “medically necessary” services received from an in-network provider and prohibit health insurance policies from excluding a service just because it’s conducted through a telemedicine appointment. And insurers would not be required to cover services from out-of-network providers.

Vogel has routinely introduced the same proposal in multiple legislative sessions and come close to getting his bill signed into law, but a controversial abortion-related amendment caused Wolf to veto it last year.

The amendment would have blocked health care providers from prescribing drugs that show up on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Approved Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies

ANTONIO GUILLEM/SHUTTERSTOCK

cine policy in Pennsylvania.

Under the COVID-19 regulatory suspensions, a lengthy list of medical professionals licensed by the state were able to utilize telehealth technologies to care for patients. That meant traditional doctors, nurses, chiropractors, optometrists, pharmacists, psychologists, therapists, speech pathologists and even veterinarians were able to take advantage of new rules surrounding telemedicine.

The waivers even allowed practitioners who were licensed in another state to treat patients in Pennsylvania.

Many view the expanded use of telemedicine as one of the few silver linings in a devastating pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of more than 27,000 Pennsylvanians. The regulatory suspensions for it have been so well received that lawmakers even voted to continue the waivers despite terminating Wolf’s COVID-19 emergency declaration.

And it hasn’t just been embraced by patients – medical providers have also found that telehealth tools can supplement traditional forms of coverage.

“With the advent of COVID, it was becoming a real necessity, and it was a real impetus for telemedicine,” said Dr. Michael DellaVecchia, an ophthalmologist who serves as the president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. “It was slowly evolving, no doubt about it, but the pandemic was the booster shot for telemedicine.”

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City & State Pennsylvania

“It was slowly evolving, no doubt about it, but the pandemic was the booster shot for telemedicine.”

– Dr. Michael DellaVecchia

(REMS) list, including one that induces non-surgical abortions.

Throughout his two terms in office, Wolf has established himself as a defender of abortion access and vetoed the bill, believing it would restrict a woman’s right to choose.

“I supported a prior printer’s number of the bill, but as amended in the House of Representatives, this legislation arbitrarily restricts the use of telemedicine for certain doctor-patient interactions. As amended, this bill interferes with women’s health care and the crucial decision-making between patients and their physicians.”

Vogel, speaking to City & State, said he does not believe any abortion-related language should be added to his bill. “That legislation needs to stand alone on it’s own,” Vogel said. “It has no business being in my telemedicine bill.”

Vogel said he waded into the issue of telemedicine policy years ago after hosting a senior expo in his district. He said he was approached by one woman who experienced difficulties getting from Lawrence County to Pittsburgh for her doctor visits.

In addition to convenience, Vogel said increased access to telemedicine also has the potential to drive down costs for patients who might be able to forego trans-

portation worries or mounting health care costs due to better, earlier access to care.

“Hopefully, they’ll be able to feel more comfortable to contact a doctor via telemedicine,” he said.

As lawmakers continue to assess how telemedicine should be regulated in the Commonwealth, health care professionals say they must stay abreast of improvements in technology, which may warrant updates to laws and regulations surrounding the service.

DellaVecchia told City & State that the continued development of telemedicine offerings will not only help patients with limited access to health care receive more services, but also allow health care practitioners to better assess patient needs.

“They give us the opportunity to expand our scope of practice,” he said of telehealth technologies. “Telemedicine, we hope, will allow us to care for those patients, but also act as a form of triage.”

DellaVecchia added that lawmakers need to take a forward-looking approach as they craft legislation to regulate telehealth.

“With legislation, it tends to lag behind the reality, whether it’s technology, medicine or even banking or stock transfers,” he said. “They have to look into the future and say, ‘How are we going to use this technology to take better care of people? How are we going to write the rules to see that this is done properly and not profiteered?’”

Fletcher said that advancements in medical technologies have the opportunity to expand what telemedicine can be used for in the years to come. He said health care providers will have an extensive amount of data coming out of the pandemic to determine how to improve telemedicine treatment and telemedicine tools. At-home stethoscopes and cameras, he predicted, would become increasingly more common.

“I think that’s probably years out that

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you’ll start to see that more commonly, but I think it’s definitely on the horizon,” he said.

But while technology is improving and conversations at the state level continue to take place, barriers still exist that prevent access to telehealth technologies – namely, access to broadband internet.

Natalie C. Benda, in an editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health, writes that broadband internet access, or BIA, must be treated as a social determinant of health.

“Reduced BIA, particularly during this pandemic, has the potential to exacerbate this country’s existing health disparities because it dis-proportionately affects those who are already vulnerable,” Benda writes.

“Indeed, those who are older, are racial/ ethnic minorities, have lower incomes, are less educated, or live in rural areas may experience worse health outcomes under normal circumstances and are even less able to access health-enhancing resources during social-distancing orders.”

A 2021 report from AARP Pennsylvania and Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions found that hispanic and Black Pennsylvanians were much more likely to express concerns over paying for high-speed internet and cell phone coverage during the pandemic, with 54% of hispanic respondents and 36% of Black respondents worried about broadband costs, compared to 21% of white broadband users.

The same held true for cell phone expenses, with 56% of hispanic respondents and 39% of Black respondents concerned about the cost, as opposed to 22% of white respondents.

More than half of respondents that were deemed low-income (those making below $30,000 a year) also worried about the costs of broadband and cell phone use.

The report outlines a series of recommendations to improve access to telehealth services, including improving access for those who are medically underserved, creating regulatory flexibility within the telehealth space and using telehealth in primary care settings to reduce redundancies in care.

As members of the General Assembly continue efforts to regulate telemedicine, they do so with a slate of recommendations and resources at their disposal. The questions that remain surround what components will be in the legislation that eventually gets sent to the governor’s desk, and when that legislation will be approved.

“We don’t expect any bills, especially at this embryo stage, to be all inclusive and all exclusive, but we appreciate the legislators trying to take a step in the right direction,” DellaVecchia said. “And we hope that they consult with us to the ability we’re able to help them.”

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EXCEPTIONAL HEALTH CARE. GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH. SUPERIOR MEDICAL EDUCATION. We salute Temple Health’s

Michael A. Young, MHA, FACHE Amy J. Goldberg, MD, FACS Richard I. Fisher, MD Katherine E. Levins, JD, MBA And all honorees on being among Pennsylvania’s Top 100 in Healthcare

Temple Health refers to the health, education and research activities carried out by the affiliates of Temple University Health System (TUHS) and by the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. TUHS neither provides nor controls the provision of health care. All health care is provided by its member organizations or independent health care providers affiliated with TUHS member organizations. Each TUHS member organization is owned and operated pursuant to its governing documents. Non-discrimination notice: It is the policy of Temple University Hospital, Inc. that no one shall be excluded from or denied the benefits of or participation in the delivery of quality medical care on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, disability, age, ancestry, color, national origin, physical ability, level of education, or source of payment.

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THE 2021 HEALTH CARE POWER 100 These people are making breakthroughs in medicine, technology and public policy in Pennsylvania.

T

HERE’S NO QUESTION THAT health care has been the biggest issue over the last year and a half. With the COVID-19 pandemic, an ongoing opioid epidemic, legislative battles over abortion rights and more, access to care and quality of care remain critical components to the industry. The Commonwealth’s lawmakers, health systems, medical professionals and frontline workers stepped up to deal with the unprecedented circumstances put before them. They steered the Keystone State through the crisis and are working to

find solutions to the countless challenges it presented.

After we lost nearly 28,000 Pennsylvanians to COVID-19, the state is on its way to recovery with a new mindset toward health care and equity. City & State Pennsylvania’s Health Care Power 100 – developed by reporters Justin Sweitzer and Harrison Cann – recognizes the public officials, health care executives, innovators, academics, advocates and activists that have played a part in the state’s response and its plan for the future.

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Jeffrey Romoff saw his salary rise to almost $10 million last year.

provider, helping to distribute shots to people across the state. UPMC’s work to protect patients from contracting the disease wasn’t just limited to vaccines. Currently, UPMC is also providing new monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19, which uses antibodies to block the virus’ ability to enter cells and slow down the infection.

Those in the health care sector had to step up to respond to the pandemic, and UPMC’s administration of more than half a million COVID-19 vaccines is a testament to the impact the health system has had throughout the pandemic, and is certainly something Romoff can be proud of.

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Holmberg uses his retail industry expertise to focus on customer-centric health care that delivers high quality care at low costs. Responses to the pandemic have led to increased efforts to address racial disparities and reach all areas with equitable services.

Highmark Health has hired a chief clinical diversity, equity and inclusion officer, and implemented programs that provide financial support to people of color seeking medical degrees. Holmberg has pledged to continue developing telehealth services that make the process more convenient for both patients and doctors. The company is also partnering with Google Cloud to develop the Living Health platform, which uses technology to create a more coordinated and personalized service delivery process.

DAVID HOLMBERG PRESIDENT AND CEO HIGHMARK HEALTH

JEFFREY ROMOFF PRESIDENT AND CEO UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH MEDICAL CENTER Not only is UPMC one of the largest health care networks in Pennsylvania, but it’s also Pennsylvania’s largest employer outside of government, with more than 92,000 employees across the Commonwealth.

Under Jeffrey Romoff’s leadership, UPMC increased

Bell started as a pediatric nurse and now oversees more than 16,000 employees.

3 MADELINE BELL PRESIDENT AND CEO CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA Madeline Bell began her career as an overnight pediatric nurse and has worked her way up to the top spot at one of the most prestigious children’s hospitals in the country. In this role, she oversees more than 16,000 employees in the hospital’s $3.2 billion-ayear health system, and has been praised as an innovator in her field. She developed one of the largest pediatric care networks in the U.S. and has been nationally

RIEDER PHOTOGRAPHY; CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA

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its operating revenue in 2020 by $3 billion, while also increasing its operating income by nearly $600 million.

UPMC’s statewide footprint is continuously growing, with 40 hospitals, more than 8,700 licensed beds, 700 outpatient offices and more than 6,300 physicians. The health network also fields an annual 5.5 million outpatient visits, 355,000 inpatient admissions and 900,000 emergency visits.

And like many other health care providers across the nation, Romoff and his $23 billion health care nonprofit had to shift their efforts to battling the pandemic in 2020.

In addition to caring for those who contracted COVID-19, UPMC has been a key vaccine

Since joining Highmark in 2007, David Holmberg has helped lead one of the nation’s largest health organizations through massive growth.

A $18 billion company that includes insurers, regional hospitals and a physician network, Highmark is a Pittsburgh-based health organization with a reach far outside western Pennsylvania.

Under Holmberg’s leadership, the company successfully acquired Allegheny Health Network and turned around its financial position. Holmberg has also overseen Highmark’s expansion to 12 hospitals and its COVID-19 response. With more than 35,000 employees serving millions of customers, Highmark’s influence in Pennsylvania health care cannot be understated.

Despite patient volumes falling last year, Highmark reported an operating gain of $490 million. Highmark Health Plan, which has about 5.6 million members, also reported an operating gain of more than $400 million. As an executive,

We are proud of our Penn State Health leaders who are being honored for their steadfast commitment to improve the health and well-being of the people of Pennsylvania, and beyond.

Thank you for your dedication, leadership and collaboration that enables Penn State Health to provide care that is compassionate, culturally responsive and equitable.

Deborah A. Berini, MHA

President Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Steve Massini

Kevin Black, MD

Interim Dean Penn State College of Medicine

Chief Executive Officer Penn State Health

Sheilah Borne

Vice President Government Relations Penn State Health

Deborah Rice-Johnson

Penn State Health Board Member and President, Highmark Health Plan and Diversified Businesses

HEA-16903-22

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REGINA CUNNINGHAM

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GREGORY DEAVENS

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PENN MEDICINE; INDEPENDENCE BLUE CROSS

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helped the Danville-based health system promote initiatives that meet the needs of patients, with mailorder pharmacies, at-home care programs and seniorfocused primary care health centers. This innovative mindset earned him a spot on Modern Healthcare’s Most Influential Clinical Executives list in 2019. He previously held positions at Humana, the University of Illinois Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and in government at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and as a White House Fellow at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Last month, Ryu was named to the Privia Health Group, Inc. board of directors, bringing his experience in value-based reimbursement and management to the company. He’ll continue following his “one size does not fit all” framework for care delivery to improve access to care and affordability, particularly for Medicare beneficiaries. He also aims to build on Geisinger’s existing programs related to DNA sequencing, nutrition and transportation.

6 STEPHEN KLASKO CEO JEFFERSON HEALTH Dr. Stephen Klasko is both the president of Thomas Jefferson University and CEO of Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. Since taking the reins in 2013, Jefferson Health has grown from three hospitals to 14, and boasts annual revenues upwards of $5 billion. In the Philadelphia region, Klasko is a mainstay when it comes to health care and higher education policy.

He’s known as a reformer and “transformer” of health care, having authored five books on the subject, most recently, “UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance” and “Patient No Longer, Why Healthcare Must Deliver the Care Experience That Consumers Want and Expect.”

Jefferson’s health system has more than 30,000 employees and educates roughly 8,400 students. In 2015 and 2016, Klasko oversaw the integrations of both Abington and Aria health systems, respectively, with Jefferson Health. These mergers marked the start of a new

Heyward Donigan had led major efforts on testing and vaccinating for COVID-19.

era for suburban access to some of Jefferson’s clinicians, scientists, academicians and health care professionals. In 2017, Klasko was instrumental in facilitating the merger of Thomas Jefferson University and Philadelphia University to create a single school that includes curricula ranging from fashion design to the nation’s leading research studies on empathy. Earlier this month, Jefferson helped Tendo Systems – a company that develops digital engagement platforms for patients – to raise $50 million towards its funding goal, according to published reports. And with Klasko at the helm, Jefferson has been able to build the largest and most technologically advanced faculty-based telehealth network in the nation.

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8 HEYWARD DONIGAN

JAEWON RYU

PRESIDENT AND CEO

PRESIDENT AND CEO

RITE AID

GEISINGER

Under the leadership of Heyward Donigan, Rite Aid saw a 3.3% increase in sales, a 2% increase in same store prescription sales and a 3% growth in retail pharmacy revenues in the fourth quarter of 2020. Rite Aid has also been on the front lines of testing and vaccinating Pennsylvanians for COVID-19 and helped administer vaccines as part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, which allowed Rite Aid to supplement state and local vaccination efforts. Donigan has emphasized the need

Dr. Jaewon Ryu started at Geisinger in 2016 as executive vice president and chief medical officer, before taking over as president and CEO in 2018. With more than 550,000 members and nine hospital campuses, he oversees one of the largest health systems in the state. Ryu has focused on using innovation to address complex problems around the social determinants of health, including food security, affordability and quality of care. His leadership has also

JEFFERSON HEALTH; MICHAEL L. MIHALO

Independence Health Group, Deavens spent 10 years at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, first as CFO and later as MassMutal’s corporate controller. He has also held senior financial positions at NY Life, CIGNA and GE Capital.

CAPITAL BLUE CROSS CONGRATULATES

TODD SHAMASH

Capital Blue Cross proudly salutes our president and CEO, Todd Shamash, for being selected as one of City & State’s Top 100 Healthcare People in Pennsylvania. His leadership propels everyone at Capital Blue Cross to go the extra mile in providing innovative products, award-winning customer service, and peace of mind for our members across 21 counties throughout Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley.

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July 2021

to get COVID-19 vaccines and resources to socially vulnerable communities to ensure equity. Before she joined Rite Aid, Donigan was president and CEO of Sapphire Digital, a company charged with developing platforms allowing customers to choose their health care providers over the internet.

She also previously served as executive vice president and CMO at Premera Blue Cross, where she led profitable growth across individual, small group, mid-market and national account businesses.

She was appointed president and CEO of Rite Aid in August 2019 for her achievements in strategic planning and marketing, and her track record of organic growth across the health care industry. She is now one of three women leading the three largest pharmacy chains in the U.S., and is doing so with a focus on targeting female consumers for the industry. Donigan continues

to transform Rite Aid’s digital and retail presence, a much needed change for the previously struggling company.

9 KENNETH FRAZIER EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN MERCK Kenneth Frazier made a name for himself at Merck as general counsel, overseeing the company’s defense against litigation over the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. A Philadelphia native, he graduated high school at age 16 before enrolling at Pennsylvania State University.

Following earning his bachelor’s degree, Frazier received his law degree from Harvard Law School and returned to Philadelphia to

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Network, dating back to 1998. He received his doctor of osteopathic medicine and master of science degrees from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. As the healthcare network’s top executive, Nester oversees more than 18,000 employees, 1,200 providers and eight hospital campuses. It’s flagship facility, the Lehigh Valley Hospital, is consistently named one of the top 100 hospitals in the country, and the system overall had more than $2 billion in revenues in 2020. LVHN recently opened its first newly built hospital in Northampton County, which includes a 35,000-squarefoot Lehigh Valley Cancer Institute. Over the last 15 years, Nester has been a regular guest lecturer at Columbia University, where he received his master’s degree in business administration and often speaks on health care reform and business development at the college’s Graduate School of Business and Mailman School of Public Health. He’s publicly discussed how social determinants of health impact not only patient services but financial services. And as an innovative leader, he has emphasized the need for health analytics to identify vulnerable and at-risk populations in order to improve community health.

11 RICHARD ANDERSON

BRIAN NESTER

PRESIDENT AND CEO

PRESIDENT AND CEO

ST. LUKE’S UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK

LEHIGH VALLEY HEALTH NETWORK Prior to being named president and CEO in 2014, Dr. Brian Nester served in various administrative roles at the Lehigh Valley Health

Richard Anderson has spent 35 years at the helm of St. Luke’s University Health Network and watched it grow from a single hospital into a regional health care powerhouse. Last year,

MERCK & CO.; LVHN

Kenneth Frazier has helped develop many life-saving drugs over the years.

begin his legal career with Drinker Biddle & Reath. He joined Merck’s public affairs division in 1992 and worked his way up to executive vice president. In 2011, Frazier took over as CEO, becoming the first African American to lead a major pharmaceutical company. He retired from the position of CEO at the end of June, but remained in place as executive chairman during the board of directors’ transition period. During his time as president and CEO, Frazier led Merck through the development of life-saving medicines and vaccines, such as Keytruda and Gardasil. He also made major investments in research and is known for his philanthropic efforts. He cofounded OneTen, a coalition of leading organizations committed to finding Black Americans family-sustaining jobs through upskilling and promotion. Today, more than 12,000 of Merck’s roughly 70,000 employees remain in Pennsylvania. The company had an estimated $48 billion in revenue in 2020 and is ranked 69th on the 2021 Fortune 500.

For more information about APM, please visit our website at apmphila.org

Congratulations

KAREN WOLK FEINSTEIN, PhD President & CEO

Congratulations PACHC President & CEO, Cheri Rinehart and everyone on the city and state PA’s Healthcare Power 100 List!

Jewish Healthcare Foundation Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative Health Careers Futures Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal)

One of Pennsylvania’s Community Health Centers (FQHCs and FQHC Look-Alikes), serve more than 917,000 patients annually at 350-plus sites in underserved rural and urban areas throughout Pennsylvania.

Healthcare

Power 100

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July 2021

Anderson was honored for his three decades of services at St. Luke’s, which now has 12 hospitals and more than 16,000 employees across the state. Under his leadership, St. Luke’s School of Nursing was established, and is currently the longest-operating nursing school in the nation.

department as an executive policy specialist focused on Medicaid and other health-related policy areas, experience that will serve her well leading an agency that provides crucial services to vulnerable populations.

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DENISE JOHNSON

ELIZABETH BALDERSTON

ACTING PHYSICIAN GENERAL

CHAIR

As chair of the Main Line Health Board of Governors, Elizabeth “Betsy” Balderston is charged with overseeing a board made up of health care professionals, business leaders, legal experts and academics. Prior to serving as a trustee for Main Line Health, a nonprofit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its suburbs, she worked at Jefferson Health System and raised money for The Shipley School, a private, coeducational institution in Bryn Mawr.

the addition of one hospital and six health centers. Lynch currently has a total of four acute care hospitals under his purview, all of which have been ranked among the top 10 in Philadelphia and in the top 20 of all acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to U.S. News & World Report.

14 ALISON BEAM ACTING SECRETARY OF HEALTH

13 JOHN LYNCH PRESIDENT AND CEO MAIN LINE HEALTH With nearly two decades as the head of Main Line Health, John Lynch has overseen

Dr. Denise Johnson took over as the state’s acting physician general in 2021, succeeding Dr. Wendy Braund, who also served in an acting capacity.

Johnson most recently worked as the Chief Medical Officer at the Meadville Medical Center. Johnson worked in private practice for more than a decade and is certified in obstetrics and gynecology.

She is a fellow at the American College of Healthcare Executives and also serves on Gov. Tom Wolf’s Commission for Women.

Alison Beam took over for former Health Secretary Rachel Levine.

Alison Beam joined the Pennsylvania Department of Health at a critical time.

Her predecessor had just left for a new appointment in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania was just beginning to roll out its COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Despite experiencing setbacks, under Beam’s leadership, the state has now vaccinated more than 60% of residents and ranks among the top 10 states in the nation in terms of COVID-19 vaccines administered by the percentage of the state’s population.

15 MEG SNEAD ACTING SECRETARY OF HUMAN SERVICES A former Secretary of Policy and Planning to Gov. Tom Wolf, Meg Snead was nominated to lead the state Department of Human Services in March 2021 and comes to the department with a wealth of experience.

She previously worked in the

17 JENNIFER SMITH SECRETARY OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL PROGRAMS Jennifer Smith has been laser-focused on combating the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania since taking over the reins at the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs in 2018. Smith has been a vocal advocate for the use of medication-assisted treatment for those suffering from addiction, and has worked to increase drug take-back

DDAP is developing new, innovative programs targeting opioid addiction.

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MAIN LINE HEALTH

The Pennsylvania Medical Society celebrates our CEO and Executive Vice President Martin P. Raniowski, MA, FCPP, CAE! On behalf of PAMED’s 20,000 members and the patients they serve, we are proud of his leadership and being named as one of City & State PA’s Healthcare Power 100!

PAMED advances quality patient care and the ethical practice of medicine while promoting physician leadership, education, professional satisfaction, practice sustainability, and public health.

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initiatives, as well as expand access to naloxone. She has also worked with the department of health on connecting overdose survivors with addiction treatment.

MATT YARNELL

18

PRESIDENT SEIU HEALTHCARE PENNSYLVANIA

RACHEL LEVINE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

19

Matt Yarnell leads SEIU Healthcare PA, made up of more than 45,000 workers.

states, has more than 26,000 employees and provides athome health care and support services for children and adults.

20 ZACH SHAMBERG

DAVID BAIADA

PRESIDENT AND CEO

CEO

PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION

BAYADA HOME HEALTH CARE David Baiada succeeded his father, Mark Baiada, as CEO of BAYADA Home Health Care in 2017, taking charge of a home health care company that currently provides pediatric and adult care to more than 35,000 people per week. BAYADA operates in 22

Zach Shamberg emerged as one of Pennsylvania’s most vocal advocates for the longterm care community in 2020, as he fought for resources for nursing homes as they were battered by COVID-19 cases. Prior to ascending to president and CEO, Shamberg served as PHCA’s director of advocacy and legislative

Shamberg advocates daily for high-quality, residentcentered long-term care.

affairs, a position he held since 2014, when he left his position as state Rep. Todd Stephens’ chief of staff.

21 ANDY CARTER PRESIDENT AND CEO THE HOSPITAL & HEALTHSYSTEM ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA Since 2012, Andy Carter has served as president and CEO of HAP, where he oversees an association that represents more than 240 hospitals and health care systems in the Commonwealth. Under his leadership, HAP and its members have stood on the front lines against COVID-19 and encouraged the importance of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Prior to joining HAP, Carter was president and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America, and formerly was president of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association.

23 KATALIN KARIKÓ SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT BIONTECH RNA PHARMACEUTICALS Katalin Karikó spent her entire career immersed in the possibilities of using messenger RNA – or mRNA – technology to instruct the body to create its own defenses against disease and illness. And her greatest success couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment.

Karikó’s mRNA research was

AMANDA BERG/SEIU HEALTHCARE PA; PENN MEDICINE

Over the span of a year and a half, Dr. Rachel Levine has went from a little-known figure running the Pennsylvania Department of Health to the first transgender official confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Levine oversaw Pennsylvania’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and did so amid attacks against her gender identity. She was later tapped by President Joe Biden to serve in his administration and her nomination was approved with a 52-48 vote.

Elected president of the Pennsylvania chapter of SEIU Healthcare in 2016, Matt Yarnell heads the state’s largest union of health care workers and nurses, made up of more than 45,000 people in the health care space. At the time he was elected president, Yarnell was the youngest president of a major union in Pennsylvania and highestranking union leader in the state. He also served as SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania’s executive vice president for long term care before his current role.

Nursing Home Caregivers Are Demanding Change.

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CITY AND STATE PA’S HEALTHCARE PO ER

LIST Congratulations to our CEO for making this prestigious list! We appreciate your hard work and all the passion you put into

it!

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July 2021

crucial to the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which has helped save countless lives already.

Healthcare magazine. Dr. Sri Chalikonda is the chief medical operations officer for Allegheny Health Network, overseeing the health system’s physician organization. He has been nationally recognized for his use of advanced surgical procedures to treat stomach cancers.

24 DEBORAH RICE-JOHNSON & MICHAEL WARFEL

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PRESIDENT; VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

STEVE MASSINI

HIGHMARK INC.

CEO PENN STATE HEALTH

CHAIR, PRESIDENT AND CEO AMERISOURCEBERGEN As AmerisourceBergen’s chair, president and CEO, Steven Collis is instrumental in charting the course for the behemoth drug wholesale company, which has worldwide reach.

AmerisourceBergen is currently ranked eighth on the Fortune 500 list, and under Collis’ watch, the company saw a recent 5.7% year-over-year revenue increase, as well as 80% growth in revenue since Collis took command.

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CYNTHIA HUNDORFEAN & SRI CHALIKONDA

DEBORAH BERINI

Deborah Berini oversees the state’s only combined Level 1 trauma center for adults and children.

25 STEVEN COLLIS

background in hospital administration, spending time at Pinnacle Health System in Harrisburg, Lancaster General Hospital & Health System, as well as hospitals in Georgia and New York.

Steve Massini is charged with managing the operations and direction of the health system, which includes Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and a host of other locations that provide care to patients throughout 29 counties in Pennsylvania.

Massini previously worked as executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer for Penn State Health, and spent time at Geisinger Health System in administrative and financial roles.

26 MICHAEL YOUNG PRESIDENT AND CEO TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM In his current role, Michael Young currently oversees both Temple University Hospital and Temple University Health System, which includes four hospitals, seven multispecialty centers and a collection of community offices and urgent care locations. Young came to Temple with an extensive

CEO AND PRESIDENT; CHIEF MEDICAL OPERATIONS OFFICER ALLEGHENY HEALTH NETWORK Cynthia Hundorfean has been nationally recognized for her leadership of Allegheny Health Network, the $3.6 billion Pittsburgh-based health system made up of 12 hospitals and more than 21,000 employees. Hundorfean was named one of the country’s “Top 25 Women Leaders” in 2019 by Modern

PRESIDENT PENN STATE HEALTH MILTON S. HERSHEY MEDICAL CENTER Deborah Berini leads Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, a 628-bed hospital that is the largest in the Penn State health system. It is an academic and research facility and is the only in Pennsylvania that is an accredited Level 1 trauma center for adults and children.

Before joining Penn State Health, Berini spent time at the University of Texas Medical

JASON PLOTKIN; TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM

Responsible for Highmark’s leadership and strategic direction, Deborah RiceJohnson oversees the Pittsburgh-based health insurer, which has more than $18 billion in revenue and serves more than 6 million patients. Michael Warfel is the company’s leader when it comes to public policy. Last year, Highmark had more than $750,000 in lobbying expenditures, with contributions going to lawmakers from both parties in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.

We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say ‘It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond.

I consider those people my heroes.

— Mr. Fred Rogers Congratulations to Greg Deavens and Steve Fera, two selfless leaders who see the need and are responding. Thank you for your commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of our communities, region and nation.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021 WEATHER: Philadelphia: partly sunny, high of 79; Harrisburg: mostly cloudy, high of 78; Pittsburgh: mostly cloudy, high of 76.

FROM CITY & STATE * Republican state Rep. Jim Cox has introduced legislation that would end the unemployment programs provided by the CARES Act while aiming to motivate unemployment claimants to find jobs by offering them a cash bonus for finding work.

NEW THIS MORNING: * Republican leaders of the state House of Representatives threatened last Friday to impeach Philadelphia elections officials if they count undated mail ballots from the May 18 primary, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. * With the state’s wide-open races for governor and U.S. Senate taking shape, Republican candidates with strong ties to Donald Trump are running and considered strong contenders for the party’s nominations, The Associated Press reports. * Democratic state Rep. Amen Brown is crafting legislation to permanently get rid of a $5 copay state prison inmates are required to pay for medical care after prison officials said inmates had avoided COVID-19 tests because of the fee, NBC Philadelphia reports. * People receiving unemployment are concerned about the state’s planned weeklong shutdown of the online unemployment claims system for a full overhaul, Spotlight PA reports. * U.S. Sen. Bob Casey called GOP senators who haven’t supported a January 6 commission, voting rights protections or gun control measures “impediments to change” in an interview with MSNBC. * Philadelphia Magazine profiled state Lt. Gov John Fetterman’s “meteoric rise” from mayor to Senate candidate and writes about whether issues from his past could potentially sink his candidacy.

EDITORIAL PAGES

* The USA Today Pennsylvania Bureau writes via GoErie

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July 2021

Branch Health System, where she was the chief operating officer.

breaking down silos between agencies to improve care holistically.

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32

CHERYL BETTIGOLE

KATHY RAPP

ACTING HEALTH COMMISSIONER

STATE REPRESENTATIVE

PHILADELPHIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH Cheryl Bettigole took over operations at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health earlier this year and is currently leading citywide efforts to transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to becoming acting health commissioner, Bettigole was the Department of Public Health’s director of chronic disease and injury prevention for six years. Bettigole is a certified family physician and previously was president of the National Physicians Alliance.

31 ROBERT TORRES SECRETARY OF AGING The secretary of aging has a big job ahead of him postpandemic: figure out how to make nursing homes safer and provide caregivers more support. Last month, Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation that expands eligibility for the state’s Caregiver Support Program, which supplies caregivers of seniors with extra resources they need.

Robert Torres has emphasized the importance of enhancing network capacity and

Kathy Rapp is majority chair of the state House Health Committee.

As majority chair of the state House Health Committee, state Rep. Kathy Rapp holds a considerable amount of power over what health-related legislation sees movement in Harrisburg. As a pro-life lawmaker, she has routinely prioritized bills that would restrict abortion. Rapp has supported legislation that allows designated caregivers to visit family members in nursing homes, and measures requiring health insurance providers to cover prescribed treatments for Lyme disease and tick-borne illnesses.

33 MICHELE BROOKS STATE SENATOR State Sen. Michele Brooks is chair of the state Senate’s

34 DAN FRANKEL STATE REPRESENTATIVE As minority chair of the House Health Committee, State Rep. Dan Frankel has established himself as the leading voice for abortion access, as well as a major defender of LGBTQ rights. Frankel is sponsoring legislation to prohibit surprise hospital fees, along with a bill to allow Pennsylvanians over the age of 14 to consent to vaccinations. Frankel is supportive of legislation that bars government entities from requiring health care professionals to provide information to patients that isn’t medically accurate.

35 ART HAYWOOD STATE SENATOR State Sen. Art Haywood has held significant clout in the health care space over the course of the last year as both the minority chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee and a member of the governor’s COVID-19 Vaccine Joint Task Force.

Haywood, alongside other members of the task force, has worked to improve vaccine

EMMA LEE/WHYY; COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA; JAMES ROBINSON; PA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS; SENATE OF PENNSYLVANIA; PA HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS; JULIE JORDAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Cheryl Bettigole is acting health commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Health and Human Services Committee, automatically making her key gatekeeper for all relevant legislation in those two fields. Brooks has sponsored bills to keep many of the state’s COVID19-related waivers in place, as well as taken action to utilize local pharmacies for COVID-19 vaccinations. Brooks is integral in shepherding healthrelated measures through the Senate and has focused much of her own legislation on health care.

July 2021

City & State Pennsylvania

distribution throughout the state and has been a strong advocate for measures aimed at reducing gun violence across the Commonwealth.

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as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh and as a faculty provider with the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Primary Care Center in Oakland.

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MEMBERS OF THE COVID-19 VACCINE JOINT TASK FORCE ART HAYWOOD

SCOTT BAKER

STATE SENATOR

VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS OFFICER

RYAN AUMENT

UPMC

STATE SENATOR

Scott Baker’s been involved with Pennsylvania politics for more than two decades.

Previously a part of Gov. Tom Ridge’s cabinet and Gov. Tom Corbett’s transition team, Baker went on to work at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. UPMC then hired him in 2012 to be its chief voice in government lobbying. He continues to use his experience in health care, energy, technology and housing in leading the UPMC team in Harrisburg.

TIM O’NEAL STATE REPRESENTATIVE

BRIDGET MALLOY KOSIEROWSKI STATE REPRESENTATIVE When Gov. Tom Wolf selected state Sens. Art Haywood and Ryan Aument and state Reps.

Tim O’Neal and Bridget Malloy Kosierowski to serve on his COVID-19 Vaccine Joint Task Force, the state’s vaccine rollout was lagging behind that of other states. There was discontent on both sides of the aisle, with Republicans and Democrats both yearning for a new approach to distributing vaccines. Republicans called for more collaboration with the governor, while Democrats sought a centralized statewide database allowing Pennsylvanians to sign up for vaccine appointments. Wolf, however, ended up creating a task force made up of members of his administration, as well as Haywood, Aument, O’Neal and Kosierowski – and the state’s vaccine rollout has been moving in a positive direction ever since, with more than 61% of Pennsylvanians now vaccinated against COVID-19.

The task force has been received positively by both its GOP and Democratic members.

During a press conference last spring, O’Neal, a Republican, said he was pleasantly

Clockwise from top left: Art Haywood, Ryan Aument, Bridget Malloy Kosierowski, Tim O’Neal

surprised by how the task force operated. “I’ll be honest, being the Republican from the House … coming into the task force, I had no clue what to expect,” O’Neal said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be a legitimate task force that actually got some work done – if it was just a window dressing to say we were working together – and to be completely forthcoming, it’s been a wonderful experience for me personally to be involved in this effort to actually come up with solutions for the Commonwealth. So, I’ve been extremely pleased by the progress of the task force.”

Aument, a Republican from the Senate, agreed, noting that even when members of the task force have disagreed, they’ve been able to do so in a respectful manner. “We’re able to disagree well and actually bring ideas and solutions to the table, so I think we work extremely well together.” Kosierowski, a former nurse, said the task force serves as an effective conduit to communicate information between the Wolf administration and the

legislature. “We’ve been able to bring back our caucuses’ concerns and work them out,” she said. “So far, so good.”

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39 ANANTHA SHEKHAR

DEBRA BOGEN

DEAN

DIRECTOR

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

ALLEGHENY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT Dr. Debra Bogen took the reins of Allegheny County’s health department two months early after the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed in March 2020. She has led the county’s response to the pandemic ever since. While director, she has maintained her positions

Dr. Anantha Shekhar serves as both dean of the school of medicine and senior vice chancellor for the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He oversees more than 6,000 faculty and staff, and roughly 5,000 students at one of the country’s top research universities. Shekhar

Anantha Shekhar is bringing on new technologies at the University of Pittsburgh.

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43 CHARLES CAIRNS DEAN DREXEL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE Dr. Charles Cairns is a leader in emergency medicine and critical care research. He came to Drexel from the University of Arizona, where he oversaw the college’s massive growth.

He’s also director of the U.S. Critical Illness and Injury Trials Group, and the founding principal investigator of the National Collaborative for Biopreparedness. With interests in acute infections, asthma and trauma, his research has led to numerous publications and awards.

J. Larry Jameson, left, and Patrick Norton, right

40 J. LARRY JAMESON & PATRICK NORTON EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND DEAN; VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS PERELMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE; PENN MEDICINE Dr. J. Larry Jameson is both executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and the dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. As a Penn Medicine executive, he oversees a $8 billion leader in medical education, biomedical research and patient care. Patrick Norton is Penn Medicine’s leader in government and community relations for the University of Pennsylvania Health System and School of Medicine. He previously served

in policy-related roles in the public and private sectors.

41 KEVIN BLACK & SHEILAH BORNE INTERIM DEAN; ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, GOVERNMENT HEALTH RELATIONS PENN STATE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE As interim dean, Dr. Kevin Black has been leading the College of Medicine and Penn State Health for two years.

He comes from an athletics background, having founded the sports medicine program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Sheilah Borne is involved in government affairs on two fronts, working as the associate vice president of government health relations for Penn State and as the newest mayor of Paxtang Borough in Dauphin County.

She represents Penn State’s health care interests at the local, state and federal levels.

42 AMY GOLDBERG & KATHERINE LEVINS INTERIM DEAN; VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC POLICY & GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LEWIS KATZ SCHOOL OF MEDICINE; TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM A recognized trauma surgeon and gun violence prevention advocate, Dr. Amy Goldberg was named interim dean of Temple’s School of Medicine earlier this year. She joined the surgical faculty at Temple in 1993, working her way up to surgeon-in-chief and chair of the Department of Surgery.

Katherine Levins is the director of government affairs with the Temple University Health System. As part of the government affairs team, she represents the school and system’s legislative and regulatory health care interests.

44 LESLIE DAVIS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT UPMC With more than 30 years of healthcare experience, Leslie Davis specializes in operations and developing businesses and services. She serves as the executive vice president of UPMC and president of the Health Services Division, as well as director of the Magee-Womens Hospital.

Coming out of the pandemic, Davis has said UPMC Health Services will continue to invest in telemedicine and

PENN MEDICINE; IMAGE COURTESY OF DIANE HOLDER; ALBERT LEE/CITY OF PHILADELPHIA;

has vast research experience on the effects of stress, and his lab has developed several translational models for panic and related anxiety disorders.

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deliver services directly to communities.

City & State Pennsylvania

Philadelphia’s Empowerment Zones were the brainchild of Eva Gladstein.

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as the chief of staff to former Pennsylvania First Lady Judge Marjorie Rendell. Now, she uses her experience with corporate integration and mergers to continue to improve the health of the Reading and Greater Philadelphia communities.

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BILL JOHNSTON-WALSH STATE DIRECTOR AARP PENNSYLVANIA

MARK SEVCO & DIANE HOLDER PRESIDENT; PRESIDENT AND CEO UPMC CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH; UPMC HEALTH PLAN UPMC’s children’s hospital and health plans are in the hands of Mark Sevco and Diane Holder. Sevco, who’s been with the health system for nearly three decades, leads UPMC’s integration and international development efforts. Holder, who oversees insurance and benefit management, is responsible for more than 4 million Pennsylvanians’ coverage. Both are also teaching the next generation of health care leaders at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

46 EVA GLADSTEIN DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES CITY OF PHILADELPHIA Leading Philadelphia’s Health and Human Services’ programs, Eva Gladstein is in charge of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability

Services, the Department of Public Health, the Office of Homeless Services and the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity. Her “Shared Prosperity Philadelphia” plan to address poverty has received national attention and sparked the creation of the West Philadelphia Promise Zone. Gladstein has a bachelor’s in Urban Studies from Temple University and has been working in city government since 1998.

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by enhanced collaboration between agencies and efforts to address behavioral health issues. She is trained as a clinical psychologist and spent time in behavioral health in New York for both the city and Kings County Hospital. Her expertise in staff development and training, organizational management and strategic planning helps Bowen oversee all seven of DBHIDS’ divisions.

48 SUE PERROTTY

JILL BOWEN

PRESIDENT AND CEO

COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY SERVICES (DBHIDS)

TOWER HEALTH

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA Jill Bowen’s tenure with DBHIDS has been highlighted

A retired bank executive and community leader, Sue Perrotty took over the role of president and CEO of Tower Health in February. She comes from a banking and finance background, and following retirement, she spent time

Responsible for nearly 2 million members in Pennsylvania, Bill JohnstonWalsh has been leading AARP in the Commonwealth for eight years. He oversees the advocacy, community outreach and education work for the nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization. Johnston-Walsh gets his policy background from having spent time in both the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania AARPs, as well as six years as a deputy secretary in the Pennsylvania Department of Aging under Gov. Ed Rendell.

50 MELISSA REED PRESIDENT AND CEO PLANNED PARENTHOOD KEYSTONE Melissa Reed has been working with organizations advocating for women’s rights for her entire career. She began her time with Planned Parenthood in North Carolina in 2008, handling public affairs and electoral work before moving to Pennsylvania to run Planned Parenthood Keystone.

As abortion-related bills are once again considered in Harrisburg and Washintgon, D.C., Reed continues to fight for a woman’s right to choose.

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53 STEPHEN FERA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC AFFAIRS INDEPENDENCE BLUE CROSS

Kevin Mahoney of Penn Medicine

51 KEVIN MAHONEY CEO UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH SYSTEM Now in his second year at Penn Medicine, Kevin Mahoney is leading one of the nation’s top-ranked and ever-growing health systems. Mahoney had been in leadership at the university for 23 years before being named CEO in 2019.

He’s been recognized as an architect in the development of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, and spurred Penn Medicine’s

growth into the nationally renowned institution it is today.

52 ALECIA MANLEY & NANCY BRISBON EXECUTIVE OPERATING OFFICER; EXECUTIVE MEDICAL OFFICER MAZZONI CENTER Alecia Manely and Dr. Nancy Brisbon make up the interim leadership team at the Mazzoni Center, overseeing the organization’s compassionate LGBTQfocused health and wellness services. Manley, who’s been with the Mazzoni Center since 2001, has years of

The Mazzoni Center is the oldest HIV services provider in the state of Pennsylvania.

Stephen Fera has led Independence Blue Cross’s government and community affairs and health policy initiatives since 2012. Having been with the company since 1990, Fera has served in several executive-level positions and is now responsible for its interests with state and federal legislators and advocates.

He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from St. Joseph’s University and currently serves on the Drexel University School of Nursing Advisory Board and Villanova University College of Nursing Board of Consultors.

54 TODD SHAMASH PRESIDENT AND CEO CAPITAL BLUECROSS Taking over the top leadership role last year, Todd Shamash has helped Capital BlueCross continue to grow as a leading health plan. He previously served as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, overseeing legal, regulatory and governance teams. His government experience includes time

as deputy chief of staff for the Pennsylvania governor’s office. He’s also served on multiple banking, insurance, community and healthrelated boards throughout the Commonwealth.

55 NATALIE LEVKOVICH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER HEALTH FEDERATION OF PHILADELPHIA Having served in the position for more than three decades, Natalie Levkovich has led the organization’s growth from a budget of less than $200,000 to more than $20 million. Her leadership through various community-oriented initiatives helped bring together health centers and payers to form a successful integrated care model. Earlier this year, Levkovich was a finalist for the Not for Profit Social Impact Innovators Award during the Greater Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal Awards.

56 JAMES BERNARDO PRESIDENT AND CEO PRESBYTERIAN SENIOR LIVING Since 1985, James Bernardo has been working for Presbyterian Senior Living, starting as an administrator and climbing all the way up to CEO. His career in aging services includes time as a social worker and gerontologist, in addition to serving as LeadingAge’s treasurer. The not-for-profit organization now provides health care services and residential living to roughly 6,000 seniors at 30 locations throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Delaware.

PENN MEDICINE; MARK GARVIN; MORAVIA HEALTH; SILENT MOMENTS, LLC BY VALERIE HARSHMAN

social service experience and is responsible for medical case management and care coordination, among other services. As executive medical officer, Bribson brings her family medicine expertise to the health center.

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City & State Pennsylvania

C. Frank Igwe is the founder and president of Moravia Health, a full-service home care agency with 10 locations in PA.

PA were among the first to draw attention to low reimbursement care rates during the pandemic.

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C. FRANK IGWE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT MORAVIA HEALTH C. Frank Igwe founded Moravia Health, a full-service Medicare and Medicaid home health agency licensed by the state of Pennsylvania, in 2012.

Based in Philadelphia, Moravia provides care to more than 200 elderly and/or disabled patients in their homes. Igwe has conducted research on how African Americans are shaping technology to create new social support systems. He also teaches a course on media relations and messaging at one of his alma maters, the University of Pennsylvania.

58 DIANE MENIO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CENTER FOR ADVOCACY FOR THE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF THE ELDERY (CARIE) Diane Menio joined CARIE in 1989 before assuming the role of executive director in 1995. During her tenure, she worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on abuse prevention training for practitioners. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Menio

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SHERRI LANDIS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE ARC OF PENNSYLVANIA

and CARIE have been at the forefront of the push to fix the safety and care issues in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

employees. Most recently, Gapstur was recognized as one of the nation’s 50 most influential clinical executives

by Modern Healthcare.

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ROXANNA GAPSTUR

ADAM MARLES

PRESIDENT AND CEO

PRESIDENT AND CEO

WELLSPAN HEALTH

LEADINGAGE PA

Roxanna Gapstur brought her extensive experience in strategic planning, business development and operational leadership in health care settings to the position when she assumed the role of WellSpan’s president and CEO in 2019. She now oversees operations of this comprehensive care delivery system leader in south central Pennsylvania and its 20,000

A trusted principal and advocate in aging services, Adam Marles leads the statewide nonprofit organization that works on behalf of operators of long-term care facilities for older adults and those with disabilities. He is dedicated to not only promoting senior services, but also creating affordable and ethical care for seniors. He and LeadingAge

Menio has been at the forefront of addressing nursing home abuse issues.

Sherri Landis leads the Arc of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth’s chapter of the largest disability rights organization in the nation.

Based just outside Harrisburg, The Arc’s systems advocacy and government affairs work is often seen in the Capitol.

As executive director, Landis has testified in front of the legislature several times, including last year on how the state should safely reopen schools and support those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

62 MARTIN RANIOWSKI EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT PENNSYLVANIA MEDICAL SOCIETY Prior to taking over as executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED), Martin Raniowski was deputy secretary for health planning and assessment at the Pennsylvania Department of

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63 LAURA DUNCAN PRESIDENT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH SERVICES EXECUTIVES, PITTSBURGH CHAPTER Laura Duncan leads the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE), a non-profit organization of Black health care executives dedicated to the advancement of Black health care leaders and to elevating the quality of care in underserved communities. She’s also the senior administrator for UPMC’s Department of Medicine, driving efforts to enhance access to care through telemedicine, clinical operations and analytics.

64 DREW WEISSMAN INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN PENN MEDICINE Dr. Drew Weissman is an acclaimed immunologist who’s best known for developing the modified mRNA techniques used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

He began at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, studying RNA and innate immunity,

where he and Katalin Karikó used synthetic nucleotides to modify RNA to make it viable as a therapy. Their groundbreaking discoveries have won them multiple awards and may one day lead to a Nobel Prize.

65 DALE ADAIR MEDICAL DIRECTOR OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES (OMHSAS) Dr. Dale Adair is the state’s leader in clinical mental health and substance abuse services within the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. He acts as the chief medical officer of the state mental hospital and chief clinical officer for providers, giving oversight to community services. He previously served as acting deputy secretary within OMHSAS and was applauded for his work bringing the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics pilot to the state.

Nilda Ruiz has been a leading Latina voice for the health care community in Philadelphia for more than 25 years.

dollars invested into North Philadelphia. She serves on several boards and has received various awards for her work.

66 NILDA RUIZ PRESIDENT AND CEO ASOCIACIÓN PUERTORRIQUEÑOS EN MARCHA, INC. (APM) Nilda Ruiz, who had been a financier and staff member of APM for years, became the organization’s second president and CEO in 2005.

She’s been leading the Latinobased health, human services and community development organization in Philadelphia ever since. During her tenure, she has spearheaded housing, education and community projects and assisted in getting billions of

67 EDITH PETERSON MITCHELL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (NMA) PAST PRESIDENT NMA A retired Air Force Brigadier General, board certified oncologist and professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson

University, Dr. Edith Peterson Mitchell has worn too many hats to include in one title.

She’s been dedicated to helping underserved areas throughout her career while researching cancer and chemotherapy. Mitchell has also held leadership positions in the American Society of Clinical Oncology and National Medical Association and continues to teach at Jefferson while working as Editor-in-chief of NMA’s journal.

68 SANDRA BROOKS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF COMMUNITY HEALTH EQUITY OFFICER JEFFERSON HEALTH Dr. Sandra Brooks has dedicated her career in medicine focusing on combating health disparities and improving population health outcomes. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at

ASOCIACION PUERTORRIQUENOS EN MARCHA; PHIL KRAMER; PENN MEDICINE

Health. At PAMED, the largest physician-run association focused on state level health issues, he uses his policy, academic and management experience to oversee the nearly 18,000-member association. Raniowski and PAMED have been vocal throughout the pandemic, most recently championing the passing of informed consent legislation.

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City & State Pennsylvania

the University of Pennsylvania before serving as a professor and director of gynecologic oncology at the University of Maryland. She now sits on the Aspira Women’s Health board of directors, and in her work with Jefferson Health, led free “Trusted Messenger” educational sessions on vaccines.

the Philadelphia area. Fray also is a founding member of the Women of Color in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

73 LAVAL MILLER-WILSON

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH LAW PROJECT

BERT BRUCE REGIONAL PRESIDENT, RARE DISEASE PFIZER BIOPHARMACEUTICALS GROUP Bert Bruce brings extensive pharmaceutical development experience to Pfizer. He oversees the rare disease portfolio for the company, leading sales and marketing strategies and commercial development in North America. In the Philadelphia region, he sits on the President’s Leadership Council at Jefferson Health.

He’s also played a critical role as chair of the Pfizer Global Black Community, supporting the company’s efforts to respond to racial inequities and spearheading its equity commitments.

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Raina Merchant is the associate vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Health at Penn Medicine and an associate professor of emergency medicine. She led a citywide effort to connect Philadelphians to automated external defibrillators through her app. And her research continues to bridge new technologies into the medical field.

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jobs, and this year, OraSure received three emergency use authorizations for its “InteliSwab” rapid antigen COVID-19 tests, one of which will provide patients with an over-the-counter COVID-19 test.

72 MARIANNE FRAY

STEPHEN TANG

CEO

RAINA M. MERCHANT

PRESIDENT AND CEO

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT

ORASURE TECHNOLOGIES

MATERNITY CARE COALITION

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH SYSTEM As an expert in emergency medicine, Dr. Raina Merchant melds digital media and health knowledge and her work has had widespread impacts in Philadelphia. She’s the director of the Center for Digital

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After serving on OraSure’s board of directors for roughly seven years, Stephen Tang was named OraSure’s next president and CEO in 2018 – and the Bethlehem-based medical device company has seen numerous successes under his watch. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tang announced an expansion slated to create 177 new

As CEO of the Maternity Care Coalition, Marianne Fray spearheads the organization’s efforts to provide support to current and expecting mothers throughout the southeastern part of the state. The Maternity Care Coalition provides new parents and families with educational resources, early childhood development programs and cribs and sleep education to those in

For Laval Miller-Wilson, looking out for Pennsylvania’s more vulnerable communities is always on his radar.

As an advocate for lower income people and seniors, he frequently represents consumers in Harrisburg on the state’s Medical Assistance Advisory Committee and promotes policies and practices that get underserved populations essential health care services. Recently, Miller-Wilson worked in conjunction with protective services to rescue several patients from neglect in their current situations, according to published reports.

74 MARIA COLLETT & JUDY WARD STATE SENATORS State Sens. Maria Collett and Judy Ward both entered the General Assembly with extensive experience in health care. Collett has worked as both a Level 1 trauma nurse and long-term care nurse, while Ward is a registered nurse herself and also worked as a wellness coordinator for Ward Transport and Logistics.

The duo has even worked together on legislation to update the state’s Family Caregiver Support Act, as well as the Child Protective Services Law.

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RICHARD FISHER PRESIDENT, CEO AND CANCER CENTER DIRECTOR FOX CHASE CANCER CENTER Dr. Richard Fisher oversees nearly all operations of Fox Chase Cancer Center, where he is president, CEO and Cancer Center Director.

He’s been awarded for his expertise in medical oncology and is the senior associate dean for cancer programs at Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Fisher has been widely recognized by the oncology community, and under his watch, Fox Chase Cancer Center has repeatedly been recognized by U.S. News & World Report.

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professor. Vonderheide’s lab focuses on tumor immunology and developing new immunotherapies for cancer treatment. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and graduated from Harvard Medical School.

77 KAREN FEINSTEIN Karen Feinstein’s work with the JHF has enabled her to reach much of the state’s older and underserved population.

PRESIDENT AND CEO JEWISH HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION As President and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Dr. Karen Feinstein oversees the organization’s three arms: the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, Health Careers Futures and the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global. Feinstein founded Health Careers Future as a way to help the Pittsburgh region attract and keep employees, while WHAMglobal was founded to empower women in the health care field. As a whole, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to promoting advancements in health care relative to Pennsylvania’s aging and underserved populations.

as the executive director of the American Neurological Association, and worked as a pediatric pharmacist for Jefferson Health System.

She spent an additional two years as assistant director of pharmacy at Hahnemann University Hospital, and received her pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

79 DHANALAKSHMI RAMASAMY

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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESIDENT

DIRECTOR

VICTORIA ELLIOT

ABRAMSON CANCER CENTER

CEO

A child and adolescent psychologist with Lehigh Valley Health Network, Ramasamy also is the executive committee president of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society. Ramasamy splits her time between locations in Allentown and Bethlehem and treats teenagers for behavioral and mental health issues.

Ramasamy received degrees in medicine and surgery from Coimbatore Medical College in India, and she completed her residency in psychiatry at Temple University Hospital.

ROBERT VONDERHEIDE

Internationally known for his work on immunotherapy and translational cancer research, Dr. Robert Vonderheide has been director of Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center since 2017. Vonderheide has particular expertise in immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer, and also is the John H. Glick, MD Abramson Cancer Center’s director

PENNSYLVANIA PHARMACISTS ASSOCIATION Victoria Elliot came to the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association with experience in management and training as a pharmacist, most recently serving as CEO for the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care. She also spent time

PENNSYLVANIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY

80 MEREDITH BUETTNER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA CANNABIS COALITION As the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition’s executive director, Meredith Buettner works on behalf of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana permit holders to lobby and advocate for their needs, while also pushing for a regulated, adult-use cannabis law in the Commonwealth as Pennsylvania’s neighbors begin to do the same. Buettner was previously labeled one of Pennsylvania’s “rising stars”

by PoliticsPA for her work as former U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan’s finance director.

81 PETER CASTAGNA JR. CEO AND PRESIDENT MILLER-KEYSTONE BLOOD CENTER Since 2013, Peter Castagna, Jr. has led Miller-Keystone

PENN MEDICINE; JOSH FRANZOS; JONATHAN PERRY/J. PERRY PHOTO; ELAINE GATES PHOTOGRAPHY

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Blood Center’s efforts to supply blood throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while also serving as president and CEO of Hospital Central Services, of which Miller Keystone Blood Center is an affiliate. Miller-Keystone Blood Center is the exclusive blood provider for 29 hospitals in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey, and under Castagna’s leadership, the center received the Air Products Leonard Parker Pool Impact Award in 2018.

City & State Pennsylvania

Paul DeAngelo Jr. is the CEO of Mission Autism Clinics, which utilizes therapies to help children achieve small victories.

based services such as nursing and wound care, occupational therapy and end-of-life care.

Giovanni is also president of St. Luke’s Home Health and Hospice, based in Bethlehem.

86 ANTOINETTE KRAUS DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH ACCESS NETWORK

82 PAUL DEANGELO JR. CEO MISSION AUTISM CLINICS As CEO of Mission Autism Clinics, Paul DeAngelo, Jr. oversees the organization’s efforts to provide tailored therapy services for children with autism. Mission Autism Clinics provides day and afterschool programs that offer specialized therapy sessions for young children and teens, respectively. Under DeAngelo’s watch, the organization has outlined plans to expand this year, with Mission Autism Clinics scheduled to open up locations in Wilson Borough, Saucon Valley and Shamokin Dam.

83 CHERI RINEHART PRESIDENT AND CEO PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS As president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers, Cheri Rinehart leads the 300-member strong association with a wealth

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of experience in health care at her disposal. Rinehart is tasked with developing the direction of the organization, which represents federally qualified health centers, rural health centers and others.

Rinehart is a registered nurse and serves on the board of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

84 MARGIE ZELENAK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA ASSISTED LIVING ASSOCIATION Margie Zelenak leads efforts at the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association to advocate

for the state’s assisted living community by seeking to improve care, accessibility and options for Pennsylvania’s seniors. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Zelenak has been a vocal advocate for seniors, encouraging prioritized vaccinations for the state’s elderly community, while routinely stressing the importance of increased funding for personal care homes and assisted living facilities.

85 LISA GIOVANNI PRESIDENT PENNSYLVANIA HOMECARE ASSOCIATION Lisa Giovanni represents nearly 700 member-organizations that provide home-based health care as president of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association. The PHA blends advocacy work and legislative and regulatory efforts to support its members, which include home care and hospice providers who provide home-

With more than a decade of investment at the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, Antoinette Kraus has centered her work around increasing access to affordable health care in Pennsylvania, with a particular focus on patient protections and health-related reforms.

During her time as director, PHAN has helped enroll nearly 5,000 Pennsylvanians in health insurance coverage.

Kraus is also a member of the governor’s Health Innovation in Pennsylvania Steering Committee.

87 PERI JUDE RADECIC CEO DISABILITY RIGHTS PENNSYLVANIA Peri Jude Radecic has a long history of advocating for women, the LGBTQ community and the disabled, experience that has taken her from Maryland, to Arizona and now the Keystone State. As the CEO for Disability Rights Pennsylvania, Radecic puts both her legal background and advocacy experience to use to support Pennsylvanians with disabilities – as Disability Rights Pennsylvania provides legal, advocacy and policy services to people all across the state.

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ADRIAN SHANKER COMMISSIONER PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSION ON LGBTQ AFFAIRS AND PENNSYLVANIA HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION

As a longtime organizer and advocate, Adrian Shanker has made great progress for members of the LGBTQ community.

Adrian Shanker currently is a commissioner on both the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, and serves on the health committee of the latter, working closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to make health care more inclusive for those in the LGBTQ community.

Shanker is also the founder and executive director of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, which is based in the Lehigh Valley. He also previously worked as the executive director for Equality Pennsylvania.

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BETSY SNOOK

MAUREEN MAY

PRESIDENT AND CEO

CEO

PRESIDENT

PENNSYLVANIA STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION

PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF STAFF NURSES AND ALLIED PROFESSIONALS

PUBLIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT CORPORATION

As CEO of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, Betsy Snook manages an association made up of more than 200,000 nurses across the state. This legislative session, Snook and the PSNA are advocating for measures that would set “safe staffing” levels for nurses, capping the number of patients that a nurse can be assigned. The PSNA supports legislation that would establish multistate nursing licenses, which would allow nurses in Pennsylvania to practice in 34 other states.

Since 2018, Maureen May has led PASNAP, a statewide union of nurses and other health professionals. May came to PASNAP with more than 30 years of experience as a registered nurse and previously served as president of the Temple University Hospital Nurses Association. As an union, PASNAP is supportive of safe staffing protocols, universal health care and measures to protect health care workers from harassment.

RICHARD COHEN

Richard Cohen has led the Public Health Management Corporation for more than 40 years, managing more than 3,500 employees and 350 health programs. The Public Health Management Corporation runs programs with PHMC affiliates, as well, which provide services ranging from behavioral health and primary care to health care services for those who are experiencing homelessness. Cohen oversees a budget of more than $325 million and has consulted with the federal

92 TAMMY TAYLOR PRESIDENT COMMONWEALTH PREVENTION ALLIANCE Elected president in 2017, Tammy Taylor heads efforts at the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance, a nonprofit, member-driven organization that strives to eliminate substance abuse by Pennsylvania’s youth. In recent years and under Taylor’s direction, the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance has expressed skepticism at the idea of legalizing recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania, and has warned state lawmakers about the potential impacts of expanding availability of to-go cocktails.

93 WILLIAM STAUFFER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA RECOVERY ORGANIZATIONS ALLIANCE With extensive experience in drug and alcohol recovery work, William Stauffer has led the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance since 2012. In his current role, Stauffer oversees the nonprofit’s efforts to support those overcoming addiction and educate the public and key stakeholders about how best to support those in recovery through public policy. He also serves as co-chair of the public policy committee for Faces & Voices of Recovery and has routinely been awarded for his efforts in this field.

MEGAN KELLER PHOTOGRAPHY; KRISHA LIEN PHOTOGRAPHY

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government for his expertise in the area of substance abuse.

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City & State Pennsylvania

for more than a decade, prosecuting a wide variety of criminal cases.

97 DEBORAH DUENYAS PRESIDENT PENNSYLVANIA COUNSELING ASSOCIATION Joshua Brooker works with policy groups across the state on complicated health care questions.

94 WARD BLACKWELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL ASSOCIATION Ward Blackwell joined the Pennsylvania Dental Association in 2020 after a 20-year stint at the Louisiana Dental Association as executive director. Now, Blackwell oversees the PDA’s day-to-day operations, which include efforts to influence public policy for the benefit of association members, management of association staff, management of the association’s budget, while also advocating for the dentistry field and its practitioners in Pennsylvania.

95 JERRY GRANT PRESIDENT AND CEO ACTS RETIREMENT-LIFE COMMUNITIES For nearly three decades,

Jerry Grant has been a critical component at Montgomery County’s Acts organization, one of the largest nonprofit continuing care retirement communities in the nation.

Grant oversees 22 Acts operations in eight states, which house 9,100 residents and employ more than 6,000 people. He served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Acts prior to his role as CEO.

96 MARK MATTIOLI & JESSICA NATALI SHAREHOLDERS GREENBERG TRAURIG Combined, Mark Mattioli and Jessica Natali share more than 50 years’ experience when they represent clients at the Greenberg Traurig law firm, which has worldwide reach. Mattioli specializes in counseling physicians during transactions with health systems for compliance with fraud and abuse, antitrust, Medicare privacy and more.

Natali’s focus is in cases involving health care fraud, and she formerly served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney

Licensed in Pennsylvania and Ohio as a professional counselor, Deborah Duenyas was elected Pennsylvania Counseling Association’s 53rd president last year.

In addition to her work promoting ethical and culturally inclusive counseling practices throughout the Commonwealth, Duenyas is also an assistant professor at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. She has held a number of leadership roles in clinical counseling settings with a focus on behavioral and mental health. At one point in her career, she taught English to children in Osaka, Japan.

98 SCOTT STEVENSON PRESIDENT AND CEO PHOEBE MINISTRIES A trusted name in the Lehigh Valley, Phoebe Ministries is a non-profit senior living organization with four retirement communities, eight affordable housing facilities and four pharmacies across seven counties. For the past 13 years, Scott Stevenson has led this operation, which generates more than $125 million annually in revenue. His nearly three decades of financial and operational experience spans the health care continuum, including acute care, longterm care and community based services.

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99 SHAWN PATRICK O’BRIEN & KIP OLMSTEAD CEO; PRESIDENT GENOMIND Shawn Patrick O’Brien and Kip Olmstead are CEO and president of Genomind, respectively.

They are responsible for strategic planning, finances, development and sales for the King of Prussia-based company that is a leader in pharmacogenetics. Genomind is innovating mental health care by advancing precision medicine, such as their Genecept Assay and Mindful DNA, which is designed to identify genetic variations in a person’s brain and help providers deliver personalized care to each patient.

100 JOSHUA BROOKER FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL PA HEALTH ADVOCATES Designed to make understanding health care options easier, PA Health Advocates is a Lancasterbased health insurance agency specializing in employee benefits, Medicare, Medicaid and individual health. At the helm is Joshua Brooker, who works with many policy groups around the Commonwealth, as well as the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, in order to find answers to complicated health care questions for his clients.

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CITY & STATE PENNSYLVANIA MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING Publisher Susan Peiffer speiffer@cityandstatepa.com Group Publisher Tom Allon Event & Sales Director Lissa Blake Vice President of Operations Jasmin Freeman Comptroller David Pirozzi

Who was up and who was down last month

LOSERS THE BEST OF THE REST

JASON WINGARD Dr. Jason Wingard made history on July 1 when he became president of Temple University. Succeeding Richard Englert, who had served as president since 2016, Wingard is the first Black president in the school’s 137-year history. As Temple’s new president, he has committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion at Temple and in the surrounding North Philadelphia community. Wingard got his first taste of Temple as a child, when his father attended graduate school there. Now, he’s the big man on campus.

BRANDI LEVY When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of students’ free speech off campus, it was a major victory for this Schuylkill County cheerleader with a potty mouth. The Court stated that students retain their First Amendment rights as long as they don’t cause a danger or threat. Schools maintain the right to regulate student speech sometimes, but that wasn’t the case here, so, “GOOOO BRANDI!”

CREATIVE Creative Director Andrew Horton Photo Researcher Michelle Steinhauser ADVERTISING advertising@cityandstatepa.com Senior Sales Executive Michael Fleck mfleck@cityandstatepa.com Sales and Events Coordinator Laura Hurliman events@cityandstatepa.com DIGITAL Digital Director Michael Filippi Digital Marketing Manager Caitlin Dorman

SCOTT PERRY The congressman was among 21 House Republicans who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots. He said the vote was “all politics,” but for someone who claims to “back the blue,” the decision to honor his protectors should be an easy one.

ADVISORY BOARD Chair Governor Ed Rendell Board members Leslie Gromis-Baker, Gene Barr, Samuel Chen, Joseph Hill, Teresa Lundy, Anne Wakabayashi, Ray Zaborney

THE REST OF THE WORST

KEVIN STEELE Steele looked like a hero in 2018 when he secured a sexual assault conviction for Bill Cosby, the first celebrity to be tried in the #MeToo era. All that changed, though, when the state Supreme Court overturned it and Cosby walked out of prison a free man. The Court’s decision hinged on what Steele called a “procedural issue.” Convincing a jury of Cosby’s guilt might have been one of the most satisfying moments of Steele’s career, but now, we’re willing to bet it’s just a memory he’s trying to quickly forget.

CHRIS SAINATO This state rep. has allegedly charged taxpayers for more than $1.8 million in mileage, meals and lodging since he first got to the state House in 1994.

Included in that figure is more than $600,000 in per diems – flat payments lawmakers can collect whenever they travel more than 50 miles outside their districts. But hey, who wouldn’t love to have a blank check, right?

Vol. 1 Issue 2 July 2021 Physician, Zoom thyself

Pennsylvania’s plan for telemedicine

How Harrisburg shed the quarantine 15

Does Ed Gainey have what it takes to be the

MAYOR OF STEEL?

THE

HEALTH CARE POWER

CIT YANDSTATEPA .COM

@CIT YANDSTATEPA

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JUNE JULY 2021

Cover photograph: Ed Gainey campaign

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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA; U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AMY GUTMANN The UPenn president has been tapped to be the next U.S. ambassador to Germany. She’s known for her writing in political theory, and her family has a history with the country, as Gutmann’s father fled Nazi Germany in 1934.

Now, she’s President Joe Biden’s pick to represent us there. You could say it was “schicksal” (fate).

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

As the weather heated up in June, so did the drama in Pennsylvania politics. These winners and losers span from a university president making waves to a politcian leaving police out to dry. We hope you enjoy our toasting and roasting of Keystone State notables. Luckily for us, there never seems to be a shortage of material. If you have suggestions for Winners & Losers, e-mail us at editor@cityandstatepa.com.

EDITORIAL editorial@cityandstatepa.com Editor-in-Chief Jenny DeHuff jdehuff@cityandstatepa.com Senior Reporter Justin Sweitzer jsweitzer@cityandstatepa.com Staff Reporter Harrison Cann hcann@cityandstatepa.com NY Editor-in-Chief Ralph Ortega NY Managing Editor Eric Holmberg

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City & State PA will honor fifty of Pennsylvania’s most prominent and accomplished leaders in government, business and media over the age of 50 who continue to make a positive impact on Pennsylvania through their achievements, leadership abilities, philanthropic efforts, and dedication to the betterment of the State! Ten will be selected to make up City & State PA’s “FiftyOver 50 Lifetime Achievement Honorees.”

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