Healthcare Moves: A Monthly Summary of Hires, Exits and Layoffs

This roundup is published monthly. It is meant to highlight some of healthcare’s recent hiring news and is not intended to be comprehensive. If you have news about an executive appointment, resignation or layoff that you would like to share for this roundup, please reach out to [email protected].

Hires

Breyer Capital appointed Bret Bostwick as its new venture advisor. He recently served as a senior medical director at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he co-invented several RNAi therapeutics. Before that, he worked as chief of pediatric genetics at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Cone Health named Paul Krakovitz as its new CEO. Krakovitz, who will step into the new role in March, currently serves as executive in residence at private equity firm Cressey & Company. Prior to that, he held leadership roles at Intermountain Health and Cleveland Clinic.

DexCare, a startup offering health systems a platform to help them coordinate and manage digital care, welcomed Rakshay Jain as chief product officer. He joins the company from Innovaccer, where he most recently served as vice president of product management. 

Tracy Beth Høeg became the new director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — marking the fifth person appointed to lead the center in 2025. She is a sports medicine physician who joined the agency in March as special assistant to the commissioner.

Heart Rhythm Society appointed Christina Wurster as its new CEO. Wurster, who will assume the position in March, currently serves as CEO of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, a role she has held since 2021. Before that, she spent more than 12 years in leadership roles at Heart Rhythm Society.

Thomas Carlough joined companion care company Papa as its new chief technology officer. In the past, he worked for more than a decade at Atlantic Health System, serving mostly in clinical analytics leadership roles.

Value-based kidney care company Strive Health welcomed Keith Bellovich as its new chief nephrologist. He joins the company from Henry Ford Health, where he served most recently as chief medical officer of the Detroit-based health system’s St. John Hospital.

Promotions

Community Health Systems (CHS), one of the largest for-profit health systems in the nation, appointed Kevin Hammons as its new permanent CEO and Jason Johnson as its new CFO. Both executives had been serving in interim roles since October. Hammons first joined CHS in 1997 and has served in several leadership roles since, mainly in financial management. Johnson joined the health system in 2012 as vice president and assistant corporate controller.

The Federation of American Hospitals named Charlene MacDonald as its new CEO. She joined the organization in 2023 as its executive vice president of public affairs. Prior to working at FAH, she held leadership roles at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and FTI Consulting, as well as spent nearly 10 years in senior policy positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Exits

Rick Pollack, CEO of the American Hospital Association, announced his plan to retire by the end of 2026. He spent 43 years at the organization — including more than a decade as its CEO.

Layoffs

Northern California-based Alameda Health System plans to lay off 296 employees across various departments, including clinical care, administration and support. The health system said the job cuts are a result of millions of dollars of lost revenue stemming from the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Vibra Specialty Hospital of Portland will close in February and let go of more than 300 employees due to financial challenges.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals announced plans to slash 146 jobs in New Jersey following the voluntary withdrawal of its only commercial drug, Ocaliva, from the U.S. market.

To cut costs, Pfizer is reducing its workforce in Switzerland from about 300 staffers to roughly 70 by the end of 2025.

Voyager Therapeutics laid off 30 employees. This followed its partner Novartis‘ decision to discontinue two discovery-stage gene therapy programs under their collaboration.