Kahn, Margolis Announce Departures

Two top Southern California healthcare executives are departing their posts in the coming months.

Robert J. Margolis, M.D., chief executive officer of DaVita HealthCare Partners, is stepping down on March 1. He will remain as co-chairman of the organization and will provide strategic counsel.

Howard A. Kahn, chief executive officer of L.A. Care Health Plan since 2001, announced last week he will be retiring in January 2015.

Margolis, 68, a graduate of the Duke University Medical School, co-founded California Primary Physicians Medical Group in 1975. It became HealthCare Partners when it merged with two other medical groups in 1992, and eventually grew it into one of the largest medical groups in Southern California, with more than 600 physicians and 65 offices in the region. In 2012, HealthCare Partners merged with DaVita, a national firm focused on renal care.

"From the foundation Bob has built, HealthCare Partners will continue to develop its potential and pursue its vision for the national healthcare delivery system,” said Dennis Kogod, chief operating officer of DaVita HealthCare Partners. 

Kahn, 57, has overseen the growth of L.A. Care, the Medicaid managed care plan for Los Angeles County and nation's largest public health plan, from about 700,000 lives at the start of his tenure to the current 1.2 million. Revenue has grown from about $934 million in 2002 to nearly $2.8 billion last year.

“As I have thought about this during the past couple of years, it was clear that our board preferred that I stay through the end of 2014. “This has been the greatest work one could hope for.”

Craig E. Samitt, M.D., current executive vice president of DaVita's HealthCare Partners division, will replace Margolis.

Samitt, who was formerly CEO of Dean Health Systems in Wisconsin, was appointed to his current position last summer and was likely positioned to replace Margolis.

No replacement for Kahn has been named yet.