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Marcus Metz is ready to embrace the numerous challenges facing health-care plans these days. They must deal with struggles at the legislature, pressure to justify the skyrocketing cost of health care, and public misunderstanding of how their plans work.
"I'm excited to get things going," Metz said. "There are some challenging responsibilities, but I think we have the opportunity to make some positive things happen."
Merz was recently named chair of the board of directors for the Minnesota Council of Health Plans (MCHP), which represents the state's HMOs. He has served on it and other healthcare boards for much of his 30-year career.
In that time, he helped launch PreferredOne Administrative Services, a hospital-physician joint venture that quickly became a leading local managed-care organization with about 600,000 enrollees.
Merz said a life in the health-care field has prepared him for this role. A native of Washington state, he worked...