McKesson’s Rizk to head Accretive

Who: Dr. Emad Rizk, 51

New role: President and CEO of Accretive Health, a Chicago-based revenue-cycle and collections company, effective July 21. The firm has struggled with restructuring, executive turnover and an ongoing restatement of its finances, which prompted a delisting this year by the New York Stock Exchange. He replaces Steve Schuckenbrock, who has been CEO since April 2013.

Previous position: President of McKesson Healthcare Solutions since 2003. The division includes revenue cycle, health information technology and accountable care software and services, and the clinical decision-support service InterQual.

On Accretive’s struggles: Rizk declined to comment on Accretive’s finances before he joins the company. The firm is restating its finances as far back as 2011. “I have known Accretive for years. I believe the product works very well. I believe the customers get significant value from the services.” Rizk said he believes Accretive will benefit from his “operational experience and my past experience of bringing strong controls to an organization.”

On his first order of business as CEO: “I probably believe there will be a good few weeks of listening and getting deeper into operations, understanding the operations, understanding the product offerings, getting to know the employees, and most importantly, visiting with our customers. We will have a culture of customers first.”