Penn Medicine Leader Named CFO of UPHS

Julia Puchtler has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), effective July 1, 2024. Puchtler currently serves as chief financial officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), an integrated academic medical campus at the center of Penn Medicine’s clinical, research, and education missions, which provides care across a 1,083-bed inpatient footprint and through more than 2.2 million outpatient visits each year.

In her new position, Puchtler will provide executive leadership for revenue cycle, corporate finance, financial operations and budgeting, billing compliance, and supply chain and procurement operations for the entire health system, which serves patients from the Susquehanna River to the New Jersey Shore through six hospitals, dozens of outpatient facilities, and a home care enterprise.

“Nationwide, health care has reached an inflection point which requires us to think differently about our resources,” said UPHS CEO Kevin B. Mahoney. “Julia brings deep financial experience and strong business acumen to this role, which will help guide our organization through this rapidly changing financial landscape in a continued position of strength.”

Puchtler joined Penn Medicine in 2015 as vice president for financial operations and budgeting, and became HUP’s CFO in 2019, a position that also includes financial management of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, Penn Medicine Radnor and Valley Forge, and the Interventional Support Center. She played key roles in planning for the Pavilion, including leading revenue and expense plans for the project’s inpatient, procedural, and emergency department expansions. She has deep experience as a co-leader of Penn Medicine’s innovative “funds flow” model, having evolved the approach to ensure the continued balance in financial support to each of Penn Medicine’s related missions of clinical care, education, and research.

Prior to Penn Medicine, Puchtler held senior financial positions for Trinity Health and Catholic Health East, which upon their consolidation in 2013 became one of the largest non-profit Catholic health systems in the country. She began her career at Ernst & Young in health care assurance and advisory business services. She is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in accountancy from the University of Virginia.

Puchtler succeeds Keith Kasper, who will begin a new role as executive vice president and chief administrative officer of UPHS. Kasper, who served as CFO of UPHS for the past 20 years, provided essential leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the system retained positive margins while others in the region and nationally struggled financially. He also captained the financial integration of Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, and Princeton Health into the health system, positioning UPHS as the region’s health care leader serving patients across a broad footprint in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.