Equality Health Appoints Four Executives to Leadership Team

Equality Health, a leading provider of value-based physician networks uniquely equipped to address the needs of diverse and historically underserved populations, announced the appointment of four key members of its executive leadership team. The new executives bring a wealth of experience in healthcare and other industries, with proven expertise in driving growth while leading high-performance teams.

“Our ability to draw high-level talent of this quality to join Equality Health underscores the credibility, stability, and growth potential of our organization––and the importance of our mission,” said Equality Health Founder and CEO Hugh Lytle. “Individually, these new executives are already raising the bar in their respective departments, and collectively they not only will help Equality Health propel value-based care for more people but will provide the foundation that supports our growth in the years ahead.”

The four new Equality Health leaders include:

• Ruth Gutierrez Hafoka, Chief Human Resources Officer––A proven business leader who advocates for talent, Ruth takes pride in her ability to translate business strategies into innovative yet pragmatic talent strategies. Throughout her career, she has successfully led significant cultural transformations that enable growth and advance an inclusive and innovative environment. Her background spans all core disciplines of HR for organizations in healthcare, financial services, and fintech. She’s led the full spectrum of HR functions spanning Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, HR Business Partners, HR Shared Services, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Before joining Equality Health, Ruth held a series of progressively responsible HR leadership roles with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, most recently serving as CHRO reporting to the CEO.
  
  
• Beverly Tanabe, Chief Marketing Officer––Drawing on her award-winning experience in healthcare marketing, Beverly applies entrepreneurial approaches to catapult brands, products, and services. She excels in driving revenue growth using marketing, sales, business development, and communications strategies. Beverly joins Equality Health after leading marketing in the Midwest region for Centene Corporation, a public managed care company serving government-sponsored and privately insured healthcare programs. There, as Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Product & Communications, she drove growth for government product lines and pharmacies. Earlier, she served as Chief Marketing Officer & VP of Communications, PIO at NorthShore University Health System where she led the COVID Response Team for the organization. She also served as the VP of Marketing for Northwestern Medicine and the European Product Marketing leader at Hollister Ostomy.
  
  
• Romey Murphy, General Counsel and Government Affairs Director––Purpose-driven with a passion for building diverse and engaged teams to help drive growth, Romey has an extensive background in healthcare, litigation, regulatory strategy, mergers and acquisitions, product innovation, risk management, corporate governance, and compliance. Prior to joining Equality Health, she served as Chief Legal Officer for Brown & Toland Physician Services Organization, where she supported a large physician network with growth and integration strategy and led the firm’s legal and compliance function with a focus on scalability to support future growth. Earlier, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel at Cigna, leading a team of legal and regulatory professionals responsible for supporting a broad group of functions across the organization. During her time at Cigna, she also served as Senior Litigation Manager, Legal Operations Director and Chief Ethics Officer.
  
  
• Benjy Green, President, Texas Market––A high-initiative and decisive health plan leader with a proven track record of positive financial performance, Benjy is particularly adept at navigating complexities across payers, providers, and health systems to improve financial performance. He joins Equality Health after serving as president of New Markets for AmeriHealth Caritas, and previously in leadership roles with Magellan Health, Cigna-HealthSpring, and UnitedHealth Group. In his new role, he serves as the strategic leader with responsibility for coordination of direct and indirect functional areas to deliver high-quality solutions that enhance care coordination, care management, and member experience for both payers and providers in the Texas market.

Equality Health, LLC is a Phoenix-based whole-health delivery system focused on transforming value-based care delivery with population-specific programs that improve access, quality, and member trust. Through an integrated technology and services platform, culturally competent provider network and personalized care model, Equality Health helps managed care plans and health systems improve outcomes for diverse populations while simultaneously making the transition to risk-based accountability.