AAPL Members Make 2017 List of Top 100 Influential Leaders in Health Care

Three Republican senators topped the annual judging, which honors the most influential individuals in the industry in terms of leadership and impact.

Two members of the American Association for Physician Leadership were listed among the 100 most influential people in health care in 2017 by Modern Healthcare .

Kaplan

Gary Kaplan, MD, FACP, FACMPE, FACPE, the chairman and chief executive officer of Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle, Washington, is No. 40 in the annual rankings, voted upon by peers and the magazine’s senior editors.

Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., ranks No. 66 in the list.

Benjamin

The magazine’s annual list, released Monday, honors the most influential individuals in the health care industry in terms of leadership and impact.

Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona shared the top spot after resisting party pressure and voting against a "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act in July.

Modern Healthcare notes “their pivotal role in changing the direction of the debate.”

Kaplan, a practicing internal medicine physician, appears in the rankings for the ninth time. He was cited for his shaping of Virginia Mason Health System into a “pioneer of patient safety and quality” and as a “bold experimenter in the name of higher quality, better-priced care.”

Benjamin, 65, who has led APHA since 2002, is known as one of the nation’s most influential physician leaders. He chaired a National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine committee that determined the U.S. academic biomedical research community is ill-prepared for disasters such as hurricanes and cyberattacks. This is Benjamim's 11th year on the list.

Here are the top 20:

1. Susan Collins - (R-Maine) - U.S. Senate

2. John McCain - (R-Ariz.) - U.S. Senate

3. Dr. Toby Cosgrove - Outgoing president and CEO - Cleveland Clinic

4. Mitch McConnell - Majority leader - U.S. Senate

5. Dr. Tom Price - Secretary - HHS

6. Joseph Swedish - Chairman, President and CEO - Anthem

7. Seema Verma - Administrator - CMS

8. Dr. John Noseworthy - President and CEO - Mayo Clinic

9. Trevor Fetter - Chairman and CEO - Tenet Healthcare Corp.

10. Marilyn Tavenner - President and CEO - America's Health Insurance Plans

11. Eugene Woods - President and CEO - Carolinas HealthCare System

12. Dr. James Madara - Executive VP and CEO - American Medical Association

13. Lisa Murkowski - (R-Alaska) - U.S. Senate

14. Bernard Tyson - Chairman and CEO - Kaiser Permanente

15. Anthony Tersigni - President and CEO - Ascension

16. Rep. Paul Ryan - House speaker - U.S. House of Representatives

17. President Donald Trump - President - United States

18. Mark Bertolini - Chairman and CEO - Aetna

19. Rick Pollack - President and CEO - American Hospital Association

20. R. Milton Johnson - Chairman and CEO - HCA Healthcare

Click here for the complete list.