Patricia Wang, J.D.
President & Chief Executive Officer

Pat Wang joined Healthfirst as President and CEO in March 2008. Ms. Wang brings extensive experience in New York’s healthcare system to the organization, having served for more than 16 years as a Senior Vice President at the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), a 300-member trade association representing hospitals and continuing care facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. At GNYHA, Ms. Wang was responsible for health finance and managed care policy and advocacy at the local, state and national levels, and was instrumental in the formation of Healthfirst as a new model for hospital-sponsored managed care.

Prior to joining GNYHA, Ms. Wang worked as an attorney specializing in legislative, regulatory and litigation matters affecting hospitals serving low income and uninsured populations. Ms. Wang received an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law.



Steven Sakovits
Sr. Vice President
Chief Information Officer

Steven Sakovits has over 20 years of experience in healthcare information systems, accumulating an extensive background in software development, technical services and project management. In 1997, he came to Healthfirst to manage the implementation of a new managed care systems infrastructure. In 1998, he assumed the role of Chief Information Officer and reorganized the Information Services Department to better align with the new systems environment and to take advantage of emerging technologies. Healthfirst Information Services Department is an exceptionally stable organization, providing reliable and innovative healthcare systems to improve service quality and reduce administrative costs.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Sakovits developed clinical practice management systems and retail pharmacy systems. He
also managed major back office data processing contracts for New York based payers. Steven later assumed responsibility for EDI development, customer services and implementation and consulting services for national accounts. He then joined a national healthcare sales force automation firm and assumed project ownership for initiatives focused on development and improvement of operational metrics and capacity planning.



Jay Schechtman MD, MBA
Sr. Vice President
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Schechtman has been Chief Medical Officer of Healthfirst since 1999. Dr. Schechtman’s responsibilities include medical management, appeals and grievance, quality improvement, network and ancillary. Under Dr. Schechtman’s leadership, Healthfirst achieved the highest ranking in New York State for Medicaid Quality in 2007. Dr. Schechtman is an industry expert in HEDIS turn-around, provider profiling and incentive programs as well as medical cost control.

Prior to working at Healthfirst, Dr. Schechtman was a National Medical Director for Magellan Specialty Health and a full time academic physician at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Dr. Schechtman is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He obtained a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and an MBA from the combined healthcare management program of Mount Sinai and Baruch College. Dr. Schechtman is board-certified in rehabilitation and was chief resident at Mount Sinai.



Marybeth Tita
Chief Financial Officer

Marybeth Tita has more than 14 years of experience in accounting and financial reporting for the health insurance industry. She joined Healthfirst in 2007 with responsibility for managing the Corporate Finance Department. Her responsibilities include overseeing maintenance of the company's books and records, processing payments, billing and collections, budgeting and forecasting, treasury management and financial reporting. Ms. Tita is a financial executive with a strong managed care background whose accomplishments demonstrate success in evaluating operations, implementing innovative solutions, and improving internal controls.

Ms. Tita began her career as an accountant at Touche Ross, where she led audits of clients in various industries, including insurance and healthcare. Before joining Healthfirst, she spent time working for other New York insurers and managed care companies where she led change, enhanced controls and implemented systems which led to the improved safeguarding of corporate assets and more transparent financial reporting.

Ms. Tita is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor. She obtained her BS in Accounting from St. John's University and her MBA in Finance and Management from Columbia University, Graduate School of Business.

George Frawley
Sr. Vice President, Operations

George Frawley has over 30 years experience in both the healthcare and managed care industries.
Joining Healthfirst as Vice President of Claims Administration in 1998, he has increased the company's capacity and automation of claims processing. Bringing his vast claims expertise, Mr. Frawley enabled Healthfirst to increase capacity by over 500%, maintaining error rates of less than 2%, and paying 98% of all claims in less than 30 days.

Prior to joining Healthfirst, Mr. Frawley worked at small, regional, and national healthcare entities accumulating extensive knowledge and expertise in claims systems, EDI, workflow and operational planning for claims and service departments. For ten years, he provided Management Consulting Services to healthcare firms in South Florida, focusing on project management, strategic planning and systems development. Throughout his career, Mr. Frawley has been at the forefront of many dramatic changes in healthcare and has developed proficiency for integrating staff and technology to increase performance, quality, efficiency, and thereby reducing administrative costs.

Keith Y. Gordon
Senior Vice President, Sales (acting Chief Marketing Officer)

Keith Gordon has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Upon graduation from Northeastern University, he went to work for several for-profit and managed healthcare companies, including US Healthcare, Aetna and United Health Group.

Mr. Gordon has held several senior marketing roles in his career including Vice President of Commercial Sales, General Manager of Commercial and Medicare Sales, and Executive Director responsible for Medicare Sales and Hospital and Physician Contracting. Mr. Gordon joined Healthfirst in 2004 as a Vice President in the Medicare division. Under his leadership, Healthfirst has significantly developed its Medicare business and tripled its Medicare membership. Mr. Gordon’s areas of expertise include team building, training, recruitment and identification of talent, compliance and regulatory policy, and achievement of sales objectives.

Michael Honig
Sr. Vice President, Business Development and Analysis

Michael Honig has worked in managed care for over 30 years. He joined Healthfirst in September of 1999. Michael Honig is currently responsible for the analysis of health care performance, product pricing and evaluation of new business opportunities. His earlier experience includes serving as President of Fairfield Health Plan (FHP) in 1977 and President of American Health Management and Consulting Corporation (AHMAC) in 1991.

At AHMAC, Michael specialized in the development of provider sponsored health plans. He is directly responsible for the development of more than a dozen managed care plans in the tri-state area including: Health Partners of Philadelphia, Mercy Health Plan of Pennsylvania, Yale Preferred Health in Connecticut and, under the auspices of the Greater New York Hospital Association, the creation of Healthfirst.

Andrea Forino
Vice President, Human Resources

Andrea Forino has over 14 years experience in human resources. She joined Healthfirst in 2002, and is currently responsible for overseeing human resources, training and corporate communications functions for Healthfirst and its employees.

Prior to joining Healthfirst, Andrea’s experience included: heading the human resources functions for companies in different industries including healthcare marketing and communications and engineering. In addition, she has over 4 years experience consulting on improving employee performance and productivity.

Andrea is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and previously served on the Board of Directors for Body Positive, Inc.

Christine Helzner
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs (acting Compliance Officer)

Christine Helzner has more than 13 years of experience in government sponsored healthcare programs, regulatory compliance and general corporate operations. After joining Healthfirst in 2004, Ms. Helzner was instrumental in the development and implementation of the organization’s compliance program, which became a model for the healthcare industry. She currently oversees the program and serves as the liaison between the Compliance Committee and the Audit & Compliance Committee for the Board of Directors, as well as Chairperson of the company’s Internal Compliance Committee, Fraud & Abuse Committee, and Marketing Incident Committee. Ms. Helzner also serves as the company’s HIPAA Privacy Officer and is responsible for all government relations and regulatory affairs for the organization.

Prior to joining Healthfirst, Ms. Helzner spent 10 years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) where she served as lead analyst for Medicare bankruptcy petitions and oversaw the evaluation of Medicare contractor performance, compliance and policy implementation. Ms. Helzner holds a BBA from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Jack Stephenson
Vice President and Executive Director, New Jersey

Jack Stephenson with more than ten years of healthcare experience joined Healthfirst in January 2007. As Vice President and Executive Director for Healthfirst's New Jersey operations, Jack leads the development of our provider network and marketing strategy. He is also responsible for the statewide management of Network, Provider Relations, Community and Government Relations as well as Sales and Marketing.

Prior to coming to Healthfirst, Jack held various progressive management positions in network management, government programs, provider relations, operations, hospital contracting, vendor relationships as well as delegating risk relationships at large commercial and government-sponsored health plans. Additionally, he led financial reconciliation project teams and worked on network pricing analysis. Jack Stephenson is a lifelong resident of New Jersey and is a graduate of The College of New Jersey and received his Masters Degree from Seton Hall University.