Tracy. L. Bahl,
Chief Executive Officer, Uniprise (invited)

Michael F. Cannon
Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute

Trevor Fetter
President and Chief Executive Officer of Tenet Healthcare Corporation

Kate Sullivan Hare
Director, Health Care Policy, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Andrew L. Stern
President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), CLC

Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D.,
Senior Fellow at Project HOPE

Speaker Biographies

TRACY L. BAHL

Tracy is responsible for leading the growth of Uniprise® and advancing its pre-eminent position as the leader in the large employer marketplace. Under his guidance, he ensures that the company performs at exceptional levels and drives ever-increasing customer focus, quality, innovation and efficiency into the health and well-being market.

Tracy joined UnitedHealth Group® in 1998 as president of Uniprise Strategic Solutions, a division of Uniprise that provides customized health and well being, productivity and administrative solutions for large domestic and multi-national employers, governments and institutions. He held this position for five years before he was named chief marketing officer of UnitedHealth Group, where he was in charge of defining and framing the corporation’s marketing and business development functions. He returned to Uniprise in 2004 when he was named CEO.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, he served in various executive positions at CIGNA HealthCare, most recently as senior vice president of CIGNA’s Commercial Health Plan business segment, where he was responsible for the strategy, management and performance of CIGNA’s fully insured managed care business nationwide. Tracy was also president and general manager of CIGNA HealthCare Mid-Atlantic, vice president and executive director, CIGNA HealthCare of New York, and director of provider relations, CIGNA HealthCare of California.

He also held senior level health care positions with UniHealth America, Maxicare Health Plans and the National Institute for Cardiovascular Technology.

Tracy holds MBAs from the Columbia Business School at Columbia University and the London Business School. He received his undergraduate degrees in Business Administration, Health and Exercise Science from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

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MICHAEL F. CANNON

Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute's director of health policy studies. Previously, he served as a domestic policy analyst at the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, where he advised the Senate leadership on health, education, labor, welfare, and Second Amendment policy. Cannon has appeared on CBS, CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, and NPR.

His articles have been featured in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics. Cannon is coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It. He holds a bachelor's degree in American government (B.A.) from the University of Virginia, and master’s degrees in economics (M.A.) and law & economics (J.M.) from George Mason University.

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TREVOR FETTER

Trevor Fetter, 47, has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tenet Healthcare Corporation since September 2003. He also serves as a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

Brought in to spearhead the company’s turnaround, Fetter has led the company through significant changes in strategy, culture and corporate governance. Since he became Chief Executive Officer, Tenet has been ranked among the top ten percent among publicly-traded healthcare companies for corporate governance practices by Institutional Shareholder Services.

Also under his leadership, Tenet has been in the forefront in finding solutions to the nation’s uninsured challenge. Its Compact with Uninsured Patients, which has quickly become a model for the industry, provides managed care-type discounts to uninsured patients and ensures they receive treatment, regardless of their ability to pay.

The cornerstone of Tenet’s turnaround strategy is to improve the quality of patient care in its hospitals. Tenet ranks first among the investor-owned hospital companies in adherence to CMS’s publicly reported quality standards as defined by the U.S. Government, due in large part, to the company’s Commitment to Quality initiative. By addressing hospital governance, evidence-based medicine, patient safety and operational efficiencies, C2Q is creating a common language and common standards across Tenet facilities, enabling the company’s hospitals to improve their decision-making processes while enhancing the environment in which they provide care.

Tenet is focused intensely on a core group of 55 hospitals in 12 states. The company has divested half of the hospitals it owned as of late 2002, as well as other businesses, as part of the strategy to concentrate its resources to create growth in its core markets. The company also created a comprehensive compliance infrastructure and an expanded ethics program to ensure that Tenet’s business practices met high standards for regulatory compliance and integrity.

Other major developments during Fetter’s tenure include moving the company’s corporate headquarters to Dallas from Santa Barbara, California, achieving a peace accord with organized labor and resolving all major litigation facing the company.

Fetter originally joined Tenet in 1995, serving as Executive Vice President and then Chief Financial Officer and Chief Corporate Officer in the Office of the President. In these roles, he oversaw the company’s corporate functions, including the areas of finance, law, information systems, human resources, communications and administration, and was actively involved in the areas of future strategic initiatives, acquisitions and new ventures.

He left Tenet in February 2000 to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of start-up company Broadlane, Inc., which has become a leading provider of cost management services to both investor-owned and non-profit hospitals. Broadlane was founded by Tenet and several other major health care providers. During his nearly three years at Broadlane, Fetter led the company to achieve seven-fold growth in revenues. He returned to Tenet in November 2002 as President and was named acting CEO in May 2003.

Fetter received his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982 from Stanford University and a master’s degree in business administration in 1986 from the Harvard Business School. He began his career with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, where he concentrated on corporate finance and advisory services for the entertainment and health care industries. In 1988 he joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., where he had a broad range of corporate and operating responsibilities, rising to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition to managing MGM’s financial organization, he oversaw its licensing and merchandising operations and served on the Operating Board of the company’s international distribution partnership.

He serves on the boards of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Broadlane, Inc., the Federation of American Hospitals, the Dallas Citizens Council and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.  He is an honorary board member of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, and serves on the Harvard Business School Healthcare Advisory Board.

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KATE SULLIVAN HARE

Kate Sullivan Hare joined Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in December 2005 and is the company's Director of Health Care Policy. Kate is responsible for policy, legislative and regulatory issues that impact Wal-Mart's 1.1 million member health benefits plan, as well as issues pertaining to the company's pharmacy operations. She also leads Wal-Mart's partnership efforts with health care stakeholders to transform the nation's health care delivery system into one that rewards quality and value, is safe and efficient, and is accessible and affordable for all Americans regardless of income or employment status.

Kate came to Wal-Mart after seven years with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where she oversaw health care policy issues for employers of all sizes, focusing on solutions for the uninsured, health care cost containment and quality improvement.

Her public sector experience includes serving as Senior Health Policy Advisor to former U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee chair Nancy Johnson (R-Connecticut; 1983-2007), and as Senior Legislative Assistant to former U.S. Representative Harris W. Fawell (R-Illinois, 1985-1999). Kate was former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar's (R) Washington Representative for health and welfare policy for his first four-year term (1991-1995).

Immediately prior to joining the Chamber, Kate was with a non-profit multi-provider health system in Chicago, where as Director of Government Programs she was responsible for finance and planning for the system's Medicare and Medicaid clientele. She had previously been affiliated with the law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay where she represented numerous medical specialty providers and providers of both acute and long-term care health services.

Kate earned her Master's of Health Services Administration from the George Washington University and her undergraduate degree in American Government and English from Georgetown. She and her husband Neil live in Washington, D.C., with their two daughters.

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ANDREW STERN

Andy Stern is the president of the 1.8 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the fastest-growing union in North America.

As both a labor leader and an activist, Stern is a leading voice and aggressive advocate for practical solutions to achieve economic opportunity and justice for workers; to ensure affordable, quality health care for all; to promote quality public services; and to guarantee that globalization benefits not just big corporations but also working people. To that end, Stern has spearheaded bold new partnerships with community allies, employers, and other worker organizations, and he has helped elect officials of both major parties.

Called “a different kind of labor chief” and a “courageous, visionary leader who charted a bold new course for American unionism,” Stern began working as a social service worker and member of SEIU Local 668 in 1973 and rose through the ranks before his election as SEIU president in 1996. After launching a national debate about the fundamental change needed to unite the 9 out of 10 American workers who have no organization at work, Stern led SEIU out of the AFL-CIO and founded Change to Win, a new six-million member federation of seven major unions dedicated to giving workers a voice at their jobs.

Stern is the author of the book, A Country That Works (Free Press), which offers a fresh prescription for the vital political and economic reforms America needs to get back on track.

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GAIL WILENSKY

Gail Wilensky, an economist, and a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE (an international health education foundation) analyzes and develops policies relating to health care reform and to ongoing changes in the health care environment.

Dr. Wilensky is a Commissioner on the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, is co-chair of the Department of Defense task force on the Future of Military Health Care, is Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission and serves as a trustee of the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America and the National Opinion Research Center. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and has served two terms on its governing council. She is a former chair of the board of directors of Academy Health, a former trustee of the American Heart Association and a current or former director on numerous other organizations. She is also a director on several corporate boards.

From 1990 – 1992, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. She also served as Deputy Assistant to President (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues from 1992 to 1993.

From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on payment and other issues relating to Medicare, and from 1995 to 1997, she chaired the Physician Payment Review Commission. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President’s Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation’s Veterans, which covered health care for both veterans and military retirees.

Dr. Wilensky testifies frequently before Congressional committees, acts as an advisor to members of Congress and other elected officials, and speaks nationally and internationally before professional, business and consumer groups. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.

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