WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Leapfrog Group CEO Leah Binder, formerly the vice president of Franklin Community Health Network in Farmington, Maine, was ranked No. 28 of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare,” in a list that included President Obama, Peter Orzag, Senator Max Baucus, Drew Altman, and many more health care leaders.
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This is Binder’s first year on the annual ranking, which Modern Healthcare, a national health care publication, has issued for eight years. This year, Modern Healthcare reported more than 25,700 nominations, up 76 percent from 14,600 last year. Binder was ranked No. 28 after nearly a half million votes were cast resulting in this year’s top 100.
Prior to joining Leapfrog, Binder was vice president of the Franklin Community Health Network in Farmington, Maine, for nearly 10 years where she oversaw operations for the system involving marketing, planning and public health outreach. She also served there as executive director of the Healthy Community Coalition and Franklin Health Access. Before arriving in Farmington, Leah served as senior policy advisor to New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani where she developed programs to improve care of the uninsured, among others.
“Leah contributed enormously to the leadership strength of FCHN that helped us become one of the best health systems in the country,” said Rick Batt, former president of Franklin Community Health Network. “Now Leah is using her exceptional skills and experience to provide leadership nationally at a critical time when health reform proposals are being formulated by Congress and the President. We can all be proud of Leah and that our local success and leadership are now helping create a better health system for the country.”
Since taking over as chief executive officer in March 2008, Binder, according to the press release, has been instrumental in communicating Leapfrog’s vision for health care reform, building on the perspective of Leapfrog’s members and supporters who are the nation’s largest purchasers of healthcare benefits for employees as well as local business coalitions on health across the country.
She has outlined specific strategies for policy makers to improve the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of American hospitals, based on Leapfrog’s influential annual hospital survey. She has confronted hospitals on improving their performance, pointing out that in 2008, only 7 percent of Leapfrog-reporting hospitals fully met medication error prevention standards, over 64 percent of hospitals didn’t have all recommended policies in place to prevent hospital-acquired infections, and 75 percent of hospitals did not fully meet the standards for 13 evidence-based patient safety practices. The vast majority of hospitals did not meet standards for efficiency or mortality rates.
Binder has also become a crucial voice in the national dialogue on payment reform, efficiency, and waste in the healthcare system. She has been a vocal proponent of innovative pay for performance and gainsharing programs that would appropriately incentivize hospitals and providers who perform at the highest levels on quality and patient safety standards.
“Appearing on this list is not about me personally, of course, but really a testament to the influence of The Leapfrog Group and its purchaser members,” Binder said. “In only nine short years of existence, Leapfrog has changed the way Americans think about public reporting of hospital performance. Leapfrog has been willing to tell the stories others have hidden – about medical errors, lives lost, waste and inefficiency, and the need for our nation to dramatically improve the quality of care Americans get in their hospitals.”
Binder lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Sam Elowitch, and their children, Henry and Fanya.
For more on the ranking: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/ Binder’s predecessor, Leapfrog CEO Suzanne Delbanco, appeared on the list from 2002-2007.
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org). On behalf of the millions of Americans for whom many of the nation’s largest corporations and public agencies buy health benefits, The Leapfrog Group aims to use its members’ collective leverage to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 by the Business Roundtable and is supported by its members, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other sources.
