Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal Announces DHH Secretary, Undersecretary & Deputy
BATON ROUGE – Governor-Elect Bobby Jindal announced at a press conference today that Alan Levine, the former Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, will serve as the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), and that Charles Castille, currently serving as the Undersecretary for DHH will continue serving as Undersecretary of the Department. Jindal also announced that Sybil Richard, who is originally from New Orleans and formerly served as Levine’s deputy in Florida, will serve as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals.
Alan Levine, of Tallahassee, Florida,is currently serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Broward Health, one of the largest not-for-profit public healthcare systems in the nation. During his tenure as CEO, he initiated two of the largest tax cuts in nearly three decades, leading to the best financial performance in Broward Health's history. He also worked to receive two bond rating upgrades from the largest national rating agencies, and improved patient satisfaction by as much as twenty eight percent in some service areas. Levine also led the effort to acquire the world’s leading cancer technology center, also recruiting a highly touted team of physicians from Harvard University to implement the program. Broward Health's turnaround was recently highlighted as a cover story for Smart Business Magazine.
Previously, Levine served as Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administrationfrom 2004 to 2006, overseeing more than 30,000 health care facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and health care clinics. He also managed Florida’s Medicaid program, with a budget of more than $16 billion.
Levine also produced significant results through initiatives to crack down on fraud, waste and abuse, increasing recoveries from third parties by 57 percent and increasing cost avoidance by 54 percent; and nearly tripling the number of providers placed on prepayment review. Additionally, Levine helped lead Florida’s hospital and health care system’s response to eight hurricanes – a response which is now being touted across the nation; and he led Governor Jeb Bush’s efforts to reform the medical liability system in Florida.
Levine formerly served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Health Policy Advisor to Governor Jeb Bush, and also as the Chief Executive Officer of South Bay Hospital in Sun City Center, Florida from 2000 to 2003. Before that, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Doctors’ Memorial Hospital in Perry, Florida, the Chief Operating Officer of Tallahassee Community Hospital, the Vice President of Operations for Columbia Regional Medical Centers, and the Chief Operating Officer of Bayonet Point/Hudson Medical Center in Hudson, Florida.
Modern Healthcare magazine named Levine one of 30 leaders nationwide likely to have a powerful impact on the future of healthcare in August, 2006, and he was named an “up and comer in American healthcare” in 2005. Levine was also named a “Heavy Hitter in Health Care” by the South Florida Business Journal in 2007. Levine has a bachelor’s of science in health education and community health, a master’s degree in health science, and a master’s of business administration from the University of Florida.
Charles Castille, of Baton Rouge, is currently serving as the Undersecretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Castille has served in this position since 1998, managing the state’s Medicaid program and overseeing financial research, contract administration, human resources, capital outlay, and policy development. Castille also helps develop legislative strategy and packages.
Previously, Castille served as the Deputy Secretary of DHH from 1994 to 1996, overseeing the administration of day-to-day operations, including the oversight of Medicaid, mental health, public health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse programs. He also formerly served as the Chief Executive Officer and Operating Officer of the Louisiana Health Care Authority from 1991 to 1993, serving as the Interim CEO during the transfer of the charity hospital system from DHH to the Louisiana Health Care Authority. Castille has also served as general counsel for DHH during several different periods, started work as a staff attorney there in 1975.
During his time at the department, Castille has worked to consolidate IT and human resources functions throughout the department to provide more consistent delivery of services. He also worked to implement the Medicaid outreach and LaCHIP program which provided coverage for more than 300,000 additional Louisiana children. Additionally, Castille managed the implementation of the Intergovernmental Transfer Program, which has generated $900 million toward the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly.
Castille has a bachelor’s of arts in history from the University of Southwest Louisiana, and a law degree from LSU.
Sybil Richard, originally from New Orleans, has served as the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Medicaid Operations for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration since 2005. She is responsible for the management and operation of Medicaid’s 47 service programs in the bureaus of Medicaid Pharmacy Services, Medicaid Services, Health Systems Development, as well as the 11 field offices throughout the state.
Richard previously served under the agency’s former Secretary Alan Levine as the Director of Planning and Development, assisting Levine in health care planning by identifying critical and evolving health care issues and conceptualizing health care reform proposals and initiatives. Before that, she served as the chief of the Bureau of Medicaid Pharmacy Services for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, administering policy initiatives related to the Medicaid prescribed drug program and focusing on research and analysis of proposed state and federal legislation, including the Medicaid prescribed drug program budget, and cost containment initiatives.
Richard holds gubernatorial board appointments on the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation Board of Directors (Florida’s SCHIP program), the state Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged and the Governor’s Commission on Disabilities. Additionally, in July 2004, Richard was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the State Prescription Assistance Transition Commission, which was chartered under the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement & Modernization Act of 2003.
From 2001 to 2004, Richard served as the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ Director of Federal Health Programs in Alexandria, Virginia. She also previously served as Health Policy Fellow at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Baltimore. Richard first began work as a pharmacist in New Orleans in 1991 and she continued working as a pharmacist for the next 10 years in various cities around the country.
Richard was the 2000 David A. Winston Health Policy Fellow, through which she completed an internship at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formerly known as the Health Care Finance Administration. Richard has a bachelor’s in pharmacy from Xavier University in New Orleans, a master’s in health administration, and a law degree from Indiana University.
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