Thomas Jefferson University’s chief financial officer John Mordach is out
The high-level departure comes as Jefferson is just beginning the integration of Lehigh Valley Health Network, which it acquired in August.
Thomas Jefferson University’s chief financial officer John Mordach is out as of Friday, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia-based nonprofit health system confirmed Monday. Mordach was also the top financial officer for Jefferson Health.
“We mutually agreed to part ways,” Nick Ragone, Jefferson’s chief marketing and communications officer, said Monday.
The sudden departure comes as Jefferson is in the early stages of integrating Lehigh Valley Health Network, which it acquired Aug. 1. The acquisition gave Jefferson $14 billion in annual revenue and 32 hospitals from South Jersey to near Scranton, Pa.
Thomas Marchozzi, the former CFO at Lehigh Valley and now Jefferson’s chief integration officer, will serve as acting CFO for Jefferson until a permanent replacement is found, Ragone said.
Jefferson CEO Joseph G. Cacchione hired Mordach as CFO two years ago. Mordach started in March 2023, after three years in a similar job at Duke University Health System in North Carolina. Before that, Mordach worked for nearly a decade at Rush University System for Health & Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Mordach’s exit came the same day Jefferson reported financial results for the first half fiscal 2025, which ends in June. Jefferson reported a $55.3 million operating loss. The loss is not comparable to the same period a year ago because it includes five months of results from Lehigh Valley.
Jefferson’s trajectory
The Lehigh Valley deal is the latest in a run of Jefferson deals that started a decade ago with the acquisition of Abington Health under former CEO Stephen K. Klasko.
Under Klasko, Jefferson expanded from three hospitals in Philadelphia to as many as 18 from 2015 through 2021, when Jefferson completed its deal for Einstein Healthcare Network. Jefferson has since closed Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park and incorporated it into Moss Rehab. Klasko also led the acquisitions of Philadelphia University and Health Partners Plans, a nonprofit Medicaid insurer.
Cacchione took over as CEO as in September 2022 after Klasko’s retirement and faced the challenge of making all the hospitals and doctors offices that Klasko had acquired work together as a more efficient system. Then came the opportunity in late 2023 to acquire Lehigh Valley. Jefferson and Lehigh announced their preliminary deal in December 2023.
Last fall Mordach led a major refinancing of municipal bond debt that united the balance sheets of Jefferson and Lehigh. The sale of bonds in December included $542 million in new debt for building and remodeling projects at both systems.
Jefferson has been trying for years to achieve a healthy level of profitability, while selling stakes in numerous businesses, such as home care, laboratories, and breast imaging, to raise cash.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024, Jefferson adopted a new way of recording an expense for the depreciation of property and equipment. That expense fell 15%, to $304.2 million from $358.6 million even though Jefferson opened the $726 million Honickman Center in Center City in the spring. Normally the opening of an expensive new building would add to depreciation expense.
Fiscal 2025 financial results will also have some quirks. In November, Jefferson postponed annual raises for more than 42,000 employees in the Philadelphia region from Jan. 1 to July 1, which is the beginning of the next fiscal year. That change will provide an unspecified financial boost to the organization’s financial results during its first year of owning Lehigh Valley.