IBX CEO Greg Deavens will retire in December

Jan. 29—Gregory E. Deavens will retire as chief executive of Independence Health Group in December at the end of five years leading the biggest health insurer in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Independence announced Wednesday.

Deavens, 63, joined IBX in 2017 as chief financial officer and became CEO at the beginning of 2021. During his tenure at the company, its revenue climbed from $16.4 billion to $31 billion through 2023. Much of the growth came from the company's Medicaid subsidiary.

Deavens led the insurer through the COVID-19 pandemic and broad increases in health care costs. More recently, he has had to deal with the disruption caused by Highmark, another large Blue Cross Blue Shield company based in Pittsburgh, that started competing in Southeastern Pennsylvania this year.

"This is the right time for me and the company to initiate a leadership transition," Deavens said. "As Independence builds out its strategy for the next five years, I felt it was best to have a CEO in place who'd be executing that plan."

Independence will conduct a national search for Deavens' successor.

"We appreciate Greg's steady leadership during an incredibly dynamic time in the health care industry,"Independence board chair Charles Pizzi said.

To help with the transition to a new CEO, Independence promoted Richard Snyder, currently executive vice president for health services, to chief operating officer.

"Rich's appointment underscores Independence's commitment to a seamless leadership transition," Deavens said. "Rich is a very accomplished and respected leader in the company and the communities that we serve."

Deavens' priorities

In an interview Tuesday, Deavens described his top priorities during his tenure as integrating behavioral and physical health and doing more to reduce racial disparities in health care.

The company announced last fall that it had increased by 47% the number of in-person and virtual behavioral health practitioners available to people with its insurance in Southeastern Pennsylvania. "We have not only expanded the total number of providers that we have, but we've got a more diverse set of providers," Deavens said.

The region's largest health systems and Independence banded together in 2022 to improve racial equity in health care in Philadelphia. The collaboration, called Accelerate Health Equity, uses pilot programs to try out different approaches and share what is learned. The project as focused on 16 areas, including substance abuse, maternal and infant mortality, obesity and diabetes, and racism in medical settings, food access, housing, and community violence.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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