Elara Caring Hires President of Operations; Senior Helpers Names Chief Performance Officer

Elara Caring refines leadership team

Elara Caring has a new president of operations. The Addison, Texas-based home health provider announced Wednesday that Ian Gordan has been named to the role, effective immediately. 

Formed in 2018 after the merger of three large regional home health, hospice and personal care companies, Elara Caring and its 35,000 caregivers serve more than 60,000 patients across 16 states. In addition to home health, hospice and personal care, Elara Caring also offers behavioral health services.

In the president of operations position, Gordon will be responsible for corporate performance improvement, payment integrity, Elara Caring’s Caretinuum program and its new “Partner of Choice” program.

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Gordon previously served as president and COO at Solera Health and as senior vice president of health plan operations at Regence BlueCross BlueShield. His experience also includes time serving as COO at BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, among other health care positions.

Gordon’s hiring comes just over three months after Elara Caring announced that Scott Powers was taking over the CEO role from G. Scott Herman. Gordon will report directly to Powers moving forward.

“At Elara Caring, our unwavering commitment has been to provide quality care to our 60,000 daily patients when and where they need it,” Powers said in a statement. “We have no doubt that [Gordon] has proven himself to be the dedicated leader and advocate that our patients come to expect from us.”

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Senior Helpers promotes from within

Senior Helpers, one of the largest home care franchise companies in the U.S., has promoted Mari Baxter to the role of executive vice president and chief performance officer.

Baxter has worked for the Maryland-based Senior Helpers for more than 10 years. In her new role, she will lead Senior Helpers’ operations team at the franchise and corporate levels, help improve performance across all stores and spearhead new programs to address caregiver workforce challenges.

Baxter’s promotion will help Senior Helpers navigate the changing home care landscape, including shifts in requirements from home care partners, according to CEO and co-founder Peter Ross.

“It gives me great pleasure to recognize Mari’s exceptional leadership and contributions to Senior Helpers with a well-deserved promotion,” Ross said in a statement. “I couldn’t think of a more deserving member of our executive team to lead Senior Helpers in its pursuit of exceptional operations and performance at every level.”

Baxter originally joined Senior Helpers in 2008, most recently serving as the SVP of operations.

Net Health appoints CEO

Net Health has appointed Josh Pickus as its next CEO.

Anthony Sanzo, who served as Net Health’s CEO since 2012, becomes executive chairman as part of a planned transition following the acquisition of Optima Healthcare Solutions. Pickus will be tasked with leading Net Health through its next stage of growth, according to the company.

Net health provides cloud-based solutions for health care providers in specialty medical settings, including therapy, wound care, employee health and occupational medicine, in addition to hospice, in more than 14,000 facilities nationwide.

For the last six months, Pickus served as Net Health’s president and chief integration officer. He previously served as CEO of Optima.

Prior to Optima, Pickus was the CEO in residence at Alpine Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, and CEO of several Silicon Valley-based software companies, including Niku Corporation.

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