Pennsylvania Medical Society appoints new CEO

The Harrisburg-based physician advocacy group announced today that it has promoted an insider to CEO.

Martin Raniowski served as the society’s senior vice president of policy and programs for the past year, and now he will oversee the entire nonprofit organization, effective immediately, a news release said.

Aside from his work at the society, Raniowski also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

The health care veteran has two decades of industry experience that include overseeing the state’s response to public health disasters such as Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, Superstorm Sandy and Ebola.

Prior to joining the society, Raniowski was the deputy secretary for health planning and assessment at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Originally from Jefferson County, he now lives in Mechanicsburg with his wife, Jenna, and their two children, a news release said.

Raniowski is replacing Michael Fraser, who resigned from the society in August to become the executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington, DC.

Since Fraser’s resignation, another society staff member, Heather Wilson, served as interim CEO, according to society spokesman Chuck Moran. Now Wilson has returned to her role as executive director for the Foundation of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, which is the charitable branch of the society.

Raniowski has his work cut out for him, as the society continues to grow.

As of Dec. 31, 2016, the society had 17,773 members. A year prior, in December 2015, its membership count was 17,107, Moran said.

The medical society has a few health care items it would like to tackle in the New Year, most of which are focused on creating systems to help physicians manage alternative payment models, Moran said.

There is an industry shift to pay physicians based on performance instead of the number of patients seen, and the society has been creating programs to help physicians adjust to new reimbursement methods.