Kerry Barnett has brought one of his former colleagues from Cambia Health Solutions to SAIF Corporation – Bill Barr – who joined the company in July and has been nominated by Governor Brown to serve on the Public Employees Benefit Board, which oversees insurance coverage for state employees and their dependents. The Senate will consider nominations for approval later this month.
Barnett left Cambia in April to become CEO of SAIF, which dominates the workers’ compensation market, having more than $4.3 billion in total assets and 800 employees. He had been the executive vice president of corporate services and chief legal officer for Cambia, the nonprofit parent company of Regence plans in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Washington.
Barr is now the chief operating officer at SAIF, responsible for claims, workplace safety services, return-to-work programs, and information services (IT), having two master’s degrees in business administration and child and family studies.
Two years ago, Barr, who had been CEO of LifeMap Assurance, was pushed out of that position by Jared Short, who ran Cambia's four-state insurance companies, The Lund Report learned from confidential sources. LifeMap is a subsidiary of Cambia that sells disability, life insurance, dental and vision plans. Barr had spent 10 years at Cambia as in high-level executive positions.
In an earlier story appearing in The Lund Report, Cambia spokesperson Regena Frieden denied Short was involved with Barr’s departure. Cambia is the holding company for the Regence health plans and other entities, some of which are for-profit.
Frieden told The Lund Report that Barr has “successfully led LifeMap through a year of record sales, new partnerships, the positioning of a new brand, and reaffirmation of an excellent AM Best rating,” and has chosen to move on to other opportunities. At LifeMap, Barr was charged with growing the market share of the company in Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Utah and Washington, according to an earlier statement by Mark Ganz, president of Cambia.
Two years before leaving Cambia, Barr traded places with Short following a coup attempt after the CEO of LifeMap – then known as Regence Life and Health – suddenly left for unknown reasons and two of his staff were forced out -– Janae Sorensen and Nathan Sanow.
When that occurred, in September 2011, those details were revealed by John Morgan, group executive vice president of Direct Care Solutions for what was then known as The Regence Group, in an internal memo sent to employees. Since then, Morgan has also left the company.
After Barr was forced to give up running Regence’s four-state insurance division, he was heralded by Ganz for being a “true entrepreneur with an extensive background in meeting consumers’ insurance needs. Coupled with his operations experience, Bill is a natural fit to lead the company’s long-term goals for growth. The company has established itself as an innovator, and under Bill’s leadership, this focus will continue.”
Barr’s change in leadership positions also came about for serious problems Regence had been having in Washington state with its computer conversion and delays in claims’ payments, which led to a market conduct study by Mike Kreidler, Washington’s Insurance Commissioner.
Announcing his departure, Barr told his colleagues, “Cambia has been a great fit for me. It has been challenging and exciting to be in the middle of the healthcare marketplace for the last ten years.” As far as his future is concerned, Barr insisted he had no plans to retire. “Many people have asked me about what my next steps might be. I don’t have any specific plans except to take a breather and then begin exploring other opportunities. You notice I haven’t used the word ‘retire’ because this is one thing I know I’m not going to do. I’ve discovered that I’m pretty darn good at this work thing and have a lot of creative energy to drive into another big adventure.”
After leaving Cambia, Barr did private consulting work.
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
