Mark Finucane

Mark Finucane was appointed Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services in January 1996 by the Board of Supervisors. The Department is the nation's second largest health system with a $2.34 billion annual operating budget and more than 26,000 budgeted positions.

Mr. Finucane is responsible for six hospitals with affiliations with three major medical schools and training programs for 1,850 resident physicians, two residential rehabilitation centers for the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse, six comprehensive health centers and 39 health centers, six of which are operated under public-private partnerships. He also oversees the County's emergency medical services agency, the County-operated federally qualified health maintenance organization, and a wide range of public health programs including environmental health, AIDS, and communicable disease control.

Mr. Finucane is a Founding Director and member of the Executive Committee for the Integrated Health Association of California (IHA), a trade association established in 1994 by 27 of California's leading health care providers, including managed care organizations, medical groups, health systems, and hospitals. He also serves on the Advisory Panel to the Cease Fire Education Project, a national violence prevention effort aimed at addressing the handgun violence epidemic. The project is sponsored by Rolling Stone magazine. In addition, Mr. Finucane serves on the Executive Committee and the Board of the Healthcare Association of Southern California Hospitals and Health Facilities Council. Mr. Finucane is the past Chairman of the National Association of Public Hospitals (NAPH), an organization representing 100 of America's largest and most essential "safety net" hospitals and health systems. He presently serves on the NAPH Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.

Mr. Finucane's consulting work includes the State of Hawaii, the American Hospital Association Research and Education Trust, the Commonwealth Foundation, and the Milbank Memorial Fund. He was a member of the Health Care Reform Task Force established by former California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, and he played an advisory role in President Clinton's health care reform effort. He is often asked to testify before state and federal legislative bodies on a variety of managed care and health policy issues including, most recently, the Kaiser Commission on the future of Medicaid, and has made numerous presentations to various health management and health policy organizations across the nation. Mr. Finucane delivered the commencement address of UCLA's 1996 School of Public Health graduating class. He also received the 1996 California Hispanic American Medical Association's (CHAMA) Distinguished Community Service Award.

Past professional affiliations include:
 

• Chairman, Board of Directors, National Public Health and Hospital Institute (1993)
• Member, Health Care Council Planning Committee, Hospital Council of Northern and Central California (1993)
• Chairman, Board of Directors, California Association of Public Hospitals (1990-91)
• Co-chair, California Response to the Institutes of Medicine Report on the Future of Public Health (1989)
• Member, Board of Directors, Hospital Council of Northern California (1988)
• President, County Health Executives Association of California (1987-88)

Prior to his current position, Mr. Finucane was the Director of the Contra Costa County Health Services Department from 1984 to 1996 and held a series of senior executive positions for the San Francisco Department of Health and San Francisco General Hospital from 1977 to 1984.