Sentara taps new president and CEO

Sentara Healthcare has named Dennis Matheis to succeed Howard Kern as president and CEO, Sentara announced Friday.

Kern announced his retirement earlier this year after spending more than 40 years at the Norfolk-based health care system.

Matheis will take the helm on Sept. 1. He has served as president of Sentara Health Plans and executive vice president at Sentara Healthcare since 2018 and has 30 years of senior leadership experience, according to Sentara. He led the modernization of Sentara Health Plans to provide digital tools to members and implemented innovative models of care with provider partners and the joint ownership transaction of Virginia Premier with Virginia Commonwealth University Health System.

Sentara Health Plans division has more than 950,000 members, more than 25,000 physicians and more than 100 hospitals in its network. Under Matheis’ leadership, the division’s number of members has doubled.

Before joining Sentara, Matheis was senior vice president of Anthem Inc. and was president of Anthem’s Central Region and exchanges. He has held senior leadership roles at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri, Cigna Healthcare and Humana Healthplan and Advocate Health Care in Chicago.

Additionally, he serves on the executive committee of the Virginia Association of Health Plans, the board of directors of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and is a member of Board of America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Matheis earned a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Kentucky and was a certified public accountant before he entered the health care industry.