Our Company

As President and Chief Executive Officer of SSM Health, Laura S. Kaiser, FACHE, leads a Catholic not-for-profit health system serving communities across the Midwest through a robust and fully integrated health care delivery system. Headquartered in St. Louis, SSM Health includes 23 hospitals, more than 290 physician offices and other outpatient and virtual care services, 10 post-acute facilities, comprehensive home care and hospice services, a pharmacy benefit company, a health insurance company and an accountable care organization.

Laura joined SSM Health in 2017, bringing 30+ years of experience in health care strategy, improving clinical quality, fueling innovation, managing operational performance and growth, leading change management and successfully facilitating health care integration.

Laura previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Intermountain Healthcare. She also served at Ascension Health in a number of senior leadership roles, including President/CEO at Sacred Heart Health System.

She currently serves on several boards, including the American Hospital Association Health System Council, the Catholic Health Association, the Healthcare Leadership Council, Nuance Communications, Embold Health, the Scottsdale Institute and Civic Progress.

Laura earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Missouri, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Administration from Saint Louis University. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and in 2018 and 2019 was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine.

As President and CEO, David provides enterprise leadership and strategic direction for Navitus to drive its continued growth. He is responsible for external relationships such as industry thought-leader engagement, media interaction, and potential and current client strategies and support. David collaborates with the executive management team to maintain Navitus’ strategic plan and to develop and direct its goals, policies and execution.

Prior to joining Navitus, David served as President of Dean Health Plan, where he led the operations and continued growth of one of the largest HMOs in the Midwest, with a network of more than 4,000 practitioners at nearly 200 primary care sites and 28 hospitals. David has also served as Executive Vice President—Markets at Blue Shield of California, where he managed a nearly $20 billion, 4-million member non-profit health plan. He has previously held executive roles at Aetna, Coventry, Anthem and Humana, where he oversaw a health plan that included a 110-physician, multi-specialty group practice. David began his career as a CPA, providing auditing services for publicly traded hospital and insurance clients. 

David has held leadership positions on a number of boards, including the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, Labor-Management Council and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He earned a degree in accounting from the University of Louisville and has completed executive education at Duke University and Harvard University.

Richard Stephens, RPh is the Senior Vice President of Pharmacy for Costco Wholesale. He reports to Ron Vachris, President of Costco Wholesale. Richard’s responsibilities include overseeing the operation of 550+ pharmacies in the U.S. as well as the purchasing of Rx/Prescription and Over the Counter non-prescription products carried at Costco.

Richard started his retail and professional career as a pharmacist at Eckerd Drug in Dallas—Fort Worth, Texas. Over 10 years, Richard rose from staff pharmacist to pharmacy manager at several high-volume locations before finally becoming the Regional Pharmacy Supervisor, overseeing 30 high volume pharmacies in the Dallas—Fort Worth area. In 2001, Richard joined Costco as a pharmacy manager of Costco’s Ft. Worth location.

During his 21+ years at Costco, Richard has held positions as Pharmacy Manager, Regional Pharmacy Supervisor for the Texas region, AGMM, AVP and Vice President of Pharmacy Operations.

An Oklahoma native, Richard earned a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford Oklahoma.

As recently retired Chief Financial Officer of SSM Health, a $10 billion Catholic not-for-profit health system serving communities across the Midwest, Randy Combs was responsible for the direction and oversight of all financial services, including long-term positioning, mergers and acquisitions, operational finance, financial and regulatory reporting, managed care and revenue cycle management, internal audit, financial planning, capital management, bond financing and investment activities. He was also responsible for information technology, analytics and health plan activities. 

Randy has more than 30 years of senior leadership experience in health care strategy, finance and operations. Throughout his career, he has led a number of successful partnerships, acquisitions, divestitures and other significant transactions, including bond offerings. 

Randy comes from Navvis, SSM Health’s population health partner, where he was the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. Prior to joining Navvis, Randy served in Chief Financial Officer roles at Mercy and KentuckyOne Health. 

Lisa Erickson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Medica. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Medica Holding Company, which oversees our family of businesses, including Dean Health Plan. 

Lisa joined Medica in 2023 as Chief Financial Officer. She has more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of industries. 

Prior to Medica, Lisa was a Senior Vice President at Optum, where she led pharmacy network contracting and relationships, network operations, and pricing and underwriting. She also served as the Chief Financial Officer at OptumInsight, and in financial leadership roles at several other organizations, including Best Buy, General Mills, The Pillsbury Company, and TCF Bank. 

Lisa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Animal Humane Society and previously served on the Board of Trustees for the Academy of Holy Angels. 

She received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Finance and Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters of Business Administration from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. 

Brad Hanna is the Vice President of Pharmacy Operations for Costco Wholesale. He reports to Richard Stephens, RPh, Senior Vice President of Costco Pharmacy. Brad’s responsibilities include managing the operation of 550+ pharmacies in the U.S. and merchandising non-prescription pharmacy related products.

Brad started his retail career with Costco in 1997 working as an Over the Counter pharmacy stocker and Pharmacy Technician. Brad graduated from University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy with his Pharm.D. and continued his career with Costco, working his way through various pharmacist positions.

During his 25+ years at Costco, Brad has held positions as Pharmacy Technician, Pharmacy Manager, Regional Pharmacy Supervisor for the Northwest region, AGMM, AVP and in 2021, was promoted to Vice President of Pharmacy Operations

Joseph R. Swedish is the former Chairman, President and CEO of Anthem, Inc, (currently Elevance Health) a Fortune 22 company and the nation’s leading health benefits provider. This became the foundation for Elevance Health today serving nearly 47.3 million members – or one in seven Americans – through its affiliated health plans, and over 117 million individuals across 33 states through its broad portfolio of health insurance and service subsidiaries.

He served as the Chairman, President and CEO from 2013 to 2018. Subsequently he served as a Strategic Advisor from 2018 to 2020. During his tenure Anthem’s membership grew by four million, or 11 percent, the average share price nearly quadrupled, and operating revenue increased 39 percent to over $89 billion. Core strategic imperatives included improving medical costs, working with physicians and health care organizations to improve quality and access, and improving the consumer experience.

As a business executive, conservationist, and philanthropist, Joe serves on the board of directors for CDW, Mesoblast – as Chairman, Centrexion Therapeutics, Accelus and Navitus Health Solutions. Most recently, he served on the board of directors for IBM, as chairman of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and chairman of the Catholic Health Association. He currently serves as a board member for The Nature Conservancy (Colorado). He has also held board and advisory positions with American Hospital Association, Coventry Health Care, Inc., RehabCare Group, Inc., Cross Country, National Quality Forum, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, and Loyola University Chicago. He is also a member and past chairman of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Board of Visitors.

Prior to joining Anthem, Joe served as CEO for several major integrated health care delivery systems, including president and CEO of Trinity Health, an 18-state integrated health care delivery system. He also held CEO and senior leadership positions with the Hospital Corporation of America, Colorado’s Centura Health, and integrated health systems in Florida, Virginia, and the Carolinas.

In 2018, he continued to apply his expertise leveraging his extensive health care experience as co-founder of Concord Health Partners, a private equity firm investing in data analytics, provider enablement services and consumer engagement enterprises. He is now Partner Emeritus having recently departed active status.

More broadly, he has built a reputation as a trend-setter by leveraging value-creating assets through high-performing governance, creative strategies, consumer marketing, clinical innovations, and mergers/acquisitions – all efforts focused on organization renewal and growth.

For 12 years in a row, Modern Healthcare named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, ranking in the top 20 of the health sector’s most senior-level executives, high-level government administrators, elected officials, academics, and thought-leaders for five consecutive years.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his master’s degree in health administration from Duke University