Christopher Booth Named CEO-Elect for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield

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Christopher Booth

ROCHESTER, NY (04/02/2012)(readMedia)-- Christopher C. Booth, president of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, has been named to become chief executive officer of the health plan and its parent corporation, The Lifetime Healthcare Companies, effective January 1, 2013.

The announcement of Booth's appointment came from Randall Clark, chairman of the board of directors. Booth will succeed David Klein, who retires at year's end.

"The best companies have orderly transitions, and this one is as good as it gets," Clark said. "Chris is not only the legal architect of our entire corporation, he has been in the pivotal role of running our health plan and achieving membership growth as well as high performance goals. He has a deep understanding of our business needs and mission. Our company will be in steady hands, and our communities will be well served by his leadership."

"It's an honor to lead such a talented upstate workforce of people who provide care and coverage for their neighbors," Booth said. "Whether federal health care reforms are upheld or not, we must work collaboratively with those who provide care and those who pay for it. Our mutual goals are high quality care and making coverage as affordable as possible."

As CEO, Booth will oversee The Lifetime Healthcare Companies, a $6.2 billion not-for-profit holding company that finances and delivers health care. Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., it provides health insurance coverage to 1.8 million people across 39 counties. The Lifetime Healthcare Companies employs more than 6,500 people across upstate New York through its health plan and affiliated companies.

Other Lifetime Healthcare Companies include:

• MedAmerica, which provides long-term-care insurance coverage to more than 122,000 policyholders in New York and nationwide.
• Lifetime Health Medical Group, which provides direct medical care to more than 80,000 patients in the greater Buffalo and Rochester markets.
• Lifetime Care Home Care and Hospice, which provides home care, palliative care and hospice services to more than 22,000 people annually in six upstate counties.
• Sibley Nursing Personnel Service, which helps home care patients and temporary medical staffing clients in 31 western and central New York counties.
• EBS-RMSCO, which provides comprehensive employee benefit and risk management solutions to nearly 4,000 employers throughout the United States.
• Support Services Alliance (SSA) provides employee benefit services for 6,000 businesses and acts as a general agent for more than 300 brokers. SSA is also one of the largest payroll companies in Central New York.

Joining the company in 2004 as chief administrative officer and general counsel, Booth was promoted to executive vice president for Commercial Markets and Health Care Affairs in January 2009. He became executive vice president and chief operating officer in January 2010 and was promoted to president of the health plan in March 2011.

Booth has more than two decades of experience working with the corporation, having worked for Hinman Straub PC, the corporation's outside legal counsel in Albany, N.Y. In that role, Booth led the legal team in forming the corporation's legal structure as it prepared to absorb a series of mergers and acquisitions. Before leaving Hinman Straub, he served as chairman of the firm's health practice.

Booth serves as a trustee and vice chair of WXXI's Board of Trustees, and as a trustee at St. John Fisher College. He also serves on the boards of directors at Greater Rochester Enterprise and Young Entrepreneurs Academy. He is a member of the State Public Health and Health Planning Council and serves as vice chairman of its Committee on Establishment and Project Review.

Booth, 51, resides in Pittsford, N.Y., with his wife Gail and their three daughters.

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Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, a nonprofit independent licensee of the BlueCross BlueShield Association, is part of a family of companies that finances and delivers vital health care services to 1.8 million people across upstate New York. Excellus BlueCross BlueShield provides access to high-quality, affordable health coverage, including valuable health-related resources that our members use every day, such as cost-saving prescription drug discounts and wellness tracking tools in our Step Up program. To learn more, visit www.excellusbcbs.com.