Humana adds Cerner's Feinberg to board amid activist pressure – Healthcare Dive
Dive Brief:
Humana has elected David Feinberg, CEO of electronic health records firm Cerner, to its board of directors following a deal with activist investor group Starboard Value LP to refresh the board.
The appointment comes one week after Humana and Starboard agreed to appoint two new directors; one before the company’s annual shareholder meeting in April and one after. As part of the deal, one incumbent director, who has yet to be named, will not stand for reelection at the upcoming meeting.
Humana’s Chairman Kurt J. Hilzinger called Feinberg a “proven executive” and said his “patient-centric mindset” will help the payer improve clinical care and customer experience while reducing costs.
Dive Insight:
Feinberg’s appointment adds to Humana’s board a high-profile healthcare executive, one who in recent years has had a special focus on leveraging healthcare and patient data.
Before Feinberg took the helm at Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner, he lead Google’s push into the healthcare space as it tried to align its disparate health products and projects more closely together.
In his time at Google, Feinberg struck deals with numerous health systems to help them leverage data and technology to smooth operations.
Google Health inked a deal with Nashville-based HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest hospital operators, to create a platform to process data analytics to improve clinical decisions.
During his short tenure with Google, Feinberg also teamed with Ascension, one of the nation’s largest health systems, to collect the healthcare data of tens of millions of Americans in effort to develop new products. The partnership, dubbed “Project Nightingale,” raised concerns about patient privacy and consent.
However, after just a few shorts years, Google disbanded the unit upon Feinberg’s departure.
In September, Feinberg explained why he chose to leave Google for technology and electronic medical record firm Cerner in a LinkedIn post.
“The greatest impact I can have on healthcare quality and accessibility is at a company where every day we wake up thinking about how to use technology to improve people’s lives. That’s why I chose Cerner,” Feinberg wrote.
Feinberg’s appointment comes amid Humana’s cost-cutting plan. The health insurer hopes to identify $1 billion in its operations that it can reinvest back into its core business, Medicare Advantage.
Humana commands a large share of Medicare Advantage enrollees. It is currently the second-largest MA operator behind UnitedHealthcare.
However, earlier this year, Humana was forced to slash its enrollment expectations for its flagship product as fewer seniors enrolled for coverage than it had originally expected. The news caused shares to tumble at the time.
Now, activist investor group Starboard has agreed to terms with Humana to shake up its board, following similar investor pressure at Centene, which also focuses on government-sponsored health insurance.
