OneCall's New CEO Has Tough Row to Hoe

Wednesday, January 27, 2016 | 0

OneCall's new CEO is Dale Wolf.

Wolf, OCCM’s executive chair, was named CEO yesterday after serving as the interim CEO since Joe Delaney’s departure last summer.

Wolf’s history includes a stint running the small group health insurance business at the Travelers (where he was a client of mine), a series of progressively responsible executive slots at Coventry Healthcare, and a couple years working in the private equity world. Wolf’s tenure at Coventry concluded with former CEO Allen Wise removing his former protege from the CEO position after a series of underperforming quarters due to high medical loss ratios.

The announcement came after OneCall’s sales meeting in Jacksonville where close to 300 sales staff heard about a realignment that reportedly reflects a shift from field to corporate sales.  While many will not be directly affected by the change, the overall mood was, according to some, “muted.”

Word is OCCM will soon have the vacant CFO position filled, the last of the executive slots sitting open.

Where the company goes from here is a great question, and one of intense interest among OCCM’s debt and shareholders.  With its debt reportedly trading well below par and returns in the mid-teens there is, depending on your perspective, significant upside or a lot of risk.  Much will depend on the ability of leadership to staunch the bleeding from Align as that subsidiary is coming off a tough year with significant client defections; more are rumored over the next few months.

Meanwhile, changes in state fee schedules for imaging, especially in California, have reduced the profitability of that business line somewhat.  It remains to be seen if other states follow suit, although I do NOT expect future changes to have anywhere near the impact of California.

The net is Wolf has a tough row to hoe indeed.

Joe Paduda writes Managed Care Matters, a popular blog about health care and workers' comp issues.