Alan Puzarne, a former executive at Blue Shield of California and FHP International Corp. (now PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.), is the new chief executive of Cogent Healthcare Inc. of Laguna Hills.
Michael Brouthers, who had served as Cogent’s chief executive and president, retains the latter title.
Puzarne most recently was with Blue Shield of California, where he served as senior vice president and chief executive for commercial health plans. In that job, Puzarne oversaw commercial accounts generating around $2.5 billion in annual revenue with statewide membership of 2 million.
Puzarne also held several positions at FHP before joining Blue Shield in 1994.
Puzarne holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, San Francisco State University and California State University, Northridge.
Cogent Healthcare provides networks of inpatient-based physicians, or “hospitalists.” Cogent, which is privately held and had around $10 million in revenue last year, has contracts with more than 65 facilities including 155 hospitals with 1,300 referring primary care doctors.
Aetna Inc., Humana Inc. and United Healthcare Corp. are among Cogent’s clients. The company also has a program with Kaiser Permanente to provide hospitalists to handle emergency care sought by Kaiser members at non-Kaiser hospitals.
