Dive Brief:

• Humana CFO Brian Kane will step down to “pursue other opportunities,” the health insurer announced Monday. Kane has been in the role since 2014.

• Susan Diamond, president of the Louisville, Kentucky-based company’s home business, will take over as interim CFO on June 1, while Humana completes an external search for Kane’s replacement. Diamond will continue leading the home business while serving as interim finance chief, and Kane will remain on in an advisory role through year end.

• "Brian brought rigor to his role, and [created] strong financial capability—not only through sophisticated fiscal and ongoing operational discipline, but also by developing a deep bench of talent within our finance organization to drive this discipline forward,” CEO Bruce Broussard said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

During his CFO tenure, Kane, a former investment banker, managed through a period of heavy industry consolidation, although not all deals made it through. In 2017, after a federal judge blocked the deal citing antitrust, Humana canceled a planned merger with Aetna. 

In the role, Kane primarily oversaw Humana’s care delivery organization, which Broussard said has seen “meaningful turnaround at Conviva Care Solutions and significant innovation and organic growth at Partners in Primary Care.” 

Today, combined operations include 170 senior-focused clinics serving more than 250,000 patients with approximately $2.5 billion in revenue, Broussard said.

Humana’s hospice and home healthcare business expanded considerably during Kane’s tenure, much of it inorganically through acquisitions, including of Curo Health Services and Kindred Healthcare in 2018.

Humana reported a $3.37 billion net income in 2020, 24% more than 2019. 

"I’m proud of what Humana has accomplished in a period of rapid transformation,” Kane said. “I know [Humana] is well-positioned to continue executing on its strategic plans and delivering shareholder value in the coming years.”

Diamond joined Humana in 2006 as a strategy advisor. Since then, she has served in various leadership roles across the organization. She spent eight years on the Medicare leadership team, and two years on Kane’s team, where she oversaw enterprise planning, forecasting and Humana’s lines of business CFOs and controllers. 

Before joining Humana, Diamond led finance at Smoothstone IP Communications and Prosperitas Investment Partners. She began her career as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Given Susan’s strong knowledge of our business and financial expertise, I have great confidence in her ability to lead the finance team as we recruit a new CFO,” Broussard said. 

“We expect there will be plenty of interest from top industry talent to interview for the seat,” Scott Fidel, an analyst with Stephens Inc., told The Wall Street Journal.