Health Care Leader—Vinod Sahney, Ph.D.— Named Chief Strategy Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Business Wire, March 13, 2006

BOSTON -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Chief Executive Officer Cleve Killingsworth announced today that Vinod K. Sahney Ph.D. will join BCBSMA on May 1 as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Corporate Strategy, Planning and Business Development.

Sahney's responsibility will be to collaborate with CEO Cleve Killingsworth and the senior leadership of BCBSMA to set the corporate and strategic direction of the company. "We are very pleased that Vin has agreed to join our team," said Killingsworth. "He is a visionary leader who will assist us in our efforts to become indispensable to our members."

Sahney was a leader in the founding of the Massachusetts-based Institute for HealthCare Improvement (IHI), and currently serves as its Chairman. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health for the past 28 years. He is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Project Officer at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He has served in a number of senior strategic planning positions at HFHS since 1981. Most recently, Sahney managed a $450 million dollar project to establish a new strategically situated 300-bed hospital within the HFHS system.

Sahney has published more than 50 articles in peer review journals, authored two books and ten chapters in books on health care administration. He has a Doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a Master's degree from Purdue, and a Bachelors degree from the Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi, India. He is an elected member of both the Institute of Medicine and The National Academy of Engineering.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com) was founded 68 years ago by a group of community-minded business leaders. Today, headquartered in Boston, BCBSMA provides coverage to 2.9 million members. Consistently recognized for standards of service that are among the highest in the nation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is the choice for health care consumers seeking reliable and high quality health care coverage. BCBSMA received the 2006 Innovation in Health Information Technology Award for its e-health programs from the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Foundation. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.