Dive Brief:

• After performing a 5-month-long national search for a new CIO, Kaiser Permanente announced this week they are going to pull from their bullpen instead of drafting a free agent, naming interim CIO Richard "Dick" Daniels to the top post, according to a Kaiser press release.
• "Information technology plays a central role in our ability to consistently provide high-quality, affordable and accessible care and coverage to millions of Americans," said Chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson in the release. "With his proven leadership skills and expertise in IT, Dick is the ideal person to lead the critical work we are doing to ensure we continually meet the evolving needs of our members, customers and consumers."
• Daniels, who has 30 years experience in IT, has been Kaiser's interim CIO since Kaiser's previous CIO Phil Fasano announced he was taking on the CIO role at AIG Insurance. Prior to that, he was Senior VP of enterprise shared services, which included oversight of technology end user services, national facilities services and national pharmacy operations. Before that, Daniels was senior vice president of Kaiser Permanente's information technology for health plan and hospital operations. Prior to joining Kaiser in 2008 as the company’s Senior VP/Business Information Officer, Daniels was Capital One's Senior VP for Technology for four years, and prior to that he held the same title at JPMorgan Chase, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dive Insight:

This is not a time for Kaiser, or any other provider, to be messing around with their IT departments. It wasn't like Kaiser’s IT ship was rudderless since last September, as Daniels had both strong enough leadership experience and institutional memory with Kaiser to take the wheel seamlessly. Nevertheless, keeping him at the helm was probably the best choice, regardless of the talent pool.

With Meaningful Use picking up steam, 21st Century Cures legislation from Congress on the horizon and the huge shadow that the Anthem hack is casting over the industry's entire IT framework, Kaiser was probably smart not to rock the boat.