STEVEN M. SAKOVITS
54 Horizon Court ▪ Washington Township, NJ 07676
Home (201) 493-9940 ▪ Cell (201) 270-6118 ▪ ssakovits@gmail.com
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Chief Information Officer / IT Management Executive
25 years of healthcare IT experience including 17 years in executive management. Successful in designing and
implementing innovative solutions to optimize business performance and reduce administrative costs. Excel at
strategic planning, building high-performance teams, project management, and continuous improvement programs.
Expertise in payor and provider business processes, technology and finance. Excellent communication and
presentation skills combined with broad technical and management experience. Proven areas of expertise include:
▪ Strategic and Business Planning
▪ Organizational Development
▪ Budget Development & Management
▪ Contract Negotiations & Management
▪ Infrastructure Design & Implementation
▪ Compliance & Risk Management
▪ Project Management
▪ Process Improvement & Best Practices
▪ IT Value Delivery
▪ Cost Optimization
▪ System Architecture
▪ SOX / Model Audit Rule
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
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Meridian Health
Vice President of Information Technology
9/11 to Present
Diversified $1.8 billion Integrated Health System with 13,000 employees across New Jersey comprised of 6 hospitals,
a Medicare Advantage Plan, ACO and eight healthcare related businesses.
Lead the activities of over 200 professionals in the Information Technology Department supporting nearly 100
locations. Member of the Population Health Strategic Planning Group, Compliance Operations Group, IT
Representative to the Medical Executive Council, Emergency Preparedness Committee and Data Governance
Steering Committee. Recognized as the #1 Hospital IT Departments to work for in 2014, and as one of HealthCare’s
Most Wired Hospitals in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Engage senior leadership from across the enterprise to identify opportunities to improve the adoption and utilization
of technology, increase automation and drive innovation. Developed Enterprise Mobility Strategy to increase
productivity and improve end-user and customer satisfaction. Leading a strategic project for the implementation of
an enterprise data warehouse solution in support of a Population Health Management initiative.
Accomplishments:
 Responsible for all aspects of the selection and deployment of an enterprise data warehouse designed to
provide advanced analytics and predictive modeling to explore patterns of patient behavior, provide insight
on how to assess risks, influence behavior and provide solutions for chronic disease management.
 Sponsored an initiative that established HL7 and CCD-A connectivity between hospital and ambulatory EMR
systems and the state Health Information Exchange, resulting in the seamless flow of clinical information for
access by physicians and patients through a secure portal.
 Successfully deployed virtual desktop solution using VMware View that supports over 4,000 end-users
reducing support costs by 26%.
 Initiated project to implement a secure messaging solution to provide HIPAA compliant text capabilities to
clinicians and send critical results to their mobile device.
 Leading the IT support of a corporate oncology project to implement six TrueBeam Linear Accelerators and
an outpatient oncology EMR system, and to create a patient centric oncology services program.
 Sponsored a project to improve connectivity with physicians that alerts primary care doctors when their
patients are in the ED, allows for the placing of lab orders and receipt of results between the Meridian lab
and physician EMR’s.
 Implemented Microsoft Office 365 and saved $2mm by migrating over 9,000 team members to a cloud based
email service.
 Coordinated the implementation and integration of IT solutions for a 50,000 member Medicare ACO.
 Led Corporate Data Governance initiative with a project team comprised of E&Y consultants and Meridian
Team Members establishing a Meridian baseline and a roadmap to achieve an industry leadership position.
 Successfully implemented a geographically distributed high availability storage and server environment for
mission critical systems.
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Deployed a Symantec data loss prevention solution to comply with HIPAA security regulations.
Sponsored an initiative to automate the IT Helpdesk reducing call wait times by 75% and improving resolution
times by 18% through the deployment of a self-service system and intelligent call routing.
Coordinated IT response and support activities during Super Storm Sandy and maintained 100% system
availability and connectivity for 6 hospitals while on emergency power for 7 days.
Horizon Management
Principal
1/11 to 8/11
Provider of Interim Chief Information Officer and consulting services for the healthcare industry. Collaborated with
executive management and clinical staff to develop IT strategic plans, perform management consulting and project
management services. Leveraged broad experience in the provider and health plan markets to drive business
transformation and innovation in complex healthcare systems.
Developed the corporate IT Security Charter and monitoring program for an Advanced Illness Coordinated Care
company. Named Chairperson of the IT Security Committee and ex officio member of the Corporate Compliance
Committee. Established an IT governance model focused on improving system availability, compliance with HIPAA
regulations and the HITECH Act.
Accomplishments:
 Performed an IT Security gap analysis and developed a remediation plan which resulted in the awarding of
a contract with a major Blue Cross plan.
 Facilitated process improvement sessions resulting in business process and system reengineering solutions
that were accepted by Executive Management and achieved a 40% reduction in data exceptions.
 Conducted a vendor search, evaluation and implementation process resulting in the successful deployment
of a comprehensive security solution that provides vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, war dialing
services and online employee training and testing services.
 Performed a data center colocation project that resulted in the move of the corporate data center to a Tier III
plus and SAS 70 Type II certified facility and improved the reliability of the voice and data network.
Healthfirst Inc.
Chief Information Officer, Senior Vice President, (8/97 to 12/10)
5/96 to 12/10
High-growth $3 billion Company with 2,200 employees in New York, New Jersey and Florida. Largest provider of
government-based healthcare solutions in New York State.
Reported to the CEO, Member of the Corporate Executive Team and participant at Board of Director meetings. Lead
the activities of 150 professionals in the Information Technology Department and Project Management Office.
Transformed the IT Department by building a high performance management team and utilizing a centralized
governance model. Established the Project Management Office and recruited staff of talented project managers to
lead strategic corporate initiatives. Established close partnerships with business units to create project teams focused
on business transformation. Developed the IT Department into a profit center by offering IT solutions, infrastructure
and services to other corporations.
Accomplishments:
 Delivered solutions enabling revenue to increase from $120 million to $3 billion over 13 years.
 Implemented Sales CRM solutions that enabled a 350 member direct sales force to recognize a 50%
reduction of rejected applications and cut the lag in processing of applications from 5 days to real-time.
 Initiated process and technology improvement projects resulting in claims EDI percentage of 90% and autoadjudication of 85%.
 Led the selection and implementation of an enterprise document imaging and workflow management system
that reduced annual costs by over $600,000 annually, resulted in improved employee and departmental
based productivity metrics and enabled 4 departments to deploy telecommuting.
 Implemented an off-shore development team with Cognizant to support legacy systems and maintenance
projects worth $2 million annually.
 Transitioned the Software Development Department from a Waterfall to an Agile methodology.
 Led an initiative to provide real-time information to customers and business partners via IVR, secure web
portal and real-time EDI transactions that has reduced call center volume by 2 million calls annually.
 Successfully implemented multidimensional Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing solutions.
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Sponsored a Six-sigma initiative resulting in a 35% improvement in IT Service Delivery.
Developed high-speed, redundant MPLS WAN connecting offices across the east coast and enabled over
300 employees to telecommute with reliable voice and data connections.
Led the selection and implementation of a call center solution that handled over 1.8 million calls annually
utilizing CTI, speech-enabled IVR, intelligent/rules based call routing, and workforce management.
Successfully relocated 200+ servers and 120Tb of storage to a hosted data center.
Successfully executed business continuity plans on September 11, 2001 and operated core enterprise
systems and business processes via a SunGard recovery data center for 6 weeks.
Maintained Cybertrust Enterprise Security certification for the last 7 years as the CSO.
Sr. Project Manager, (5/96 to 7/97)
Independent consultant responsible for the implementation of enterprise-wide managed care system from Computer
Science Corporation. Reporting to CIO, managed the activities of the 20-member implementation team. System scope
covered all functional departments within the organization.
Dendrite International
Director
8/95 to 5/96
Responsibilities included the management of client relationships, P&L responsibilities, service and product delivery, and
management of a client support team. Team was comprised of 23 technicians including: technical project managers,
programmers, a customer service project leader and customer support representatives.
InfoMed
Business Services Manager, (8/93 to 7/95)
9/92 to 7/95
Responsible for all EDI development and business service activities supporting over 500 Unix based clinical management
and electronic medical record systems. Managed over 30 employees in the EDI, Customer Support, Business Services
and Implementation departments.
EDI Manager, (9/92 to 8/93)
Transformed and managed the EDI department for the Script Division of InfoMed. Hired and trained staff to develop and
support EDI activities for the division. The EDI department realized a 240% increase in the number of developed EDI/ECS
interfaces and a 160% increase in the number of customers using the EDI module over a 2-year period.
Scriptform Inc.
Director of Technical Services, (6/88 to 9/92)
6/85 to 6/92
Supervised a staff of 12 programmers, computer operators, and technical personnel. Responsibilities included project
scheduling and planning, operations management, and client liaison. Designed and installed Novell networks. Duties
included the selection of network topology, hardware, software, maintenance, and security considerations.
Sr. Programmer/Analyst, (6/85 to 6/88)
Designed and coded a medical office billing system which enabled the transfer of EDI to third party payors. Designed
and programmed a data entry system for laptops.
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EDUCATION
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William Paterson University
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science ▪ Minor in Business Administration
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AFFILIATIONS
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HIMSS (2011 – 2013) ▪ CHIME (2011 – 2013) ▪ Healthfirst NJ Board of Directors (2009 – 2010) ▪ Member of DST
Client Advisory Board (2004 – 2010) ▪ Linxus Board of Directors (2007 – 2010) ▪ Hackensack University Medical
Center PICU Family Advisory Council (2009 - 2011)