Quick Take
Dr. Larry deGhetaldi, a pioneering health care leader and longtime president of Sutter Health’s Santa Cruz division, passed away on Aug. 10 after a battle with brain cancer. Widely recognized for his national advocacy on Medicare payment reform and decades of service expanding health care access in Santa Cruz County, deGhetaldi was remembered as a compassionate mentor, policy expert and community champion.
Larry deGhetaldi, a longtime CEO and president of the Santa Cruz division of Sutter Health who championed Medicare payment reform and pushed for expanded health care access in the county, passed away Aug. 10 at the age of 69 at his Soquel home after battling brain cancer.
Outside of his two decades leading the regional Sutter Health system, deGhetaldi was one of the country’s top experts in promoting accuracy for Medicare payments based on geography. His work helped pass federal legislation that improved Medicare payments to California doctors who were underpaid because they were living in counties mislabeled as “rural” and therefore deemed a less expensive place to practice medicine. DeGhetaldi helped create the Medicare Geographic Practice Cost Index, which calculates the costs of medical care by geographic region.
Former Santa Cruz County supervisor Zach Friend told Lookout that deGhetaldi was one of a kind.
“There are community members with Medicaid because of his work, providers still providing for Medicare patients because of his advocacy and elected officials that became laser focused on health care policy because of his influence,” he said. “His impact can’t be replicated – one of the few that will never wonder if they lived a life making a difference for those that came after him. All of this with unquestionably one of the most gentle and giving souls imaginable.”
Santa Cruz health care providers, politicians and family told Lookout that deGhetaldi was a health care champion for Santa Cruz and beyond, a loving friend and enjoyed working with his hands. A 1976 graduate of UC Santa Cruz , deGhetaldi also played a part in establishing the banana slug as the university’s mascot.
His wife, Lynne Hubenette, told Lookout after deGhetaldi’s cancer diagnosis in September 2023 – which came just a few weeks before he retired – the couple set off on living his final days to the fullest. She said they “packed in a lot” as they took a long trip to New Zealand with friends, traveled to Victoria, Canada, and visited his friends on the East Coast.
“It’s a huge, huge hole for me right now,” she said about his loss. “But I’m so happy that we had all the years we had together.”
Lynne Hubenette and Larry deGhetaldi stand for a photo in Norway in 2019. Credit: Courtesy of Lynne Hubenette
Months after that diagnosis, hundreds of local leaders, family, friends and colleagues celebrated deGhetaldi in a retirement ceremony at The Grove, formerly the Cocoanut Grove, and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors proclaimed Sept. 23, 2023, “Dr. Larry deGhetaldi Day.” The proclamation described deGhetaldi as a “fierce and tireless advocate for health equity” who had a “distinguished career of nearly 40 years.”
DeGhetaldi was born Sept. 20, 1955, in Daly City. He was raised there by his parents, who both worked at San Francisco State University, before he moved to Santa Cruz to pursue his undergraduate degree at UCSC. Hubenette said that’s when he “fell in love” with the Santa Cruz area and played a part in establishing the banana slug as the school’s mascot.
While at UCSC, he played on the club soccer team at a time when the school still didn’t have a mascot. In 1974, according to Wikipedia, deGhetaldi and two of his teammates selected the banana slug for the club soccer mascot. They were the second squad to pick up the name after a volleyball team member chose the mascot in 1970. The official selection of the banana slug as a university-wide mascot didn’t happen until 1986 and took years of student advocacy.
UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive said that she was “deeply saddened” to hear of deGhetaldi’s passing, according to a LinkedIn post. She said he “embodied our core value of service to others.”
After leaving Santa Cruz for medical school, deGhetaldi returned in 1984 to work as an urgent care physician at the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic, which became part of Sutter Health in 1993. He later served for 21 years as chief executive of the health care system’s Santa Cruz region, which included the Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center.
His legacy at the helm of the local Sutter operations isn’t without criticism, as some physicians of his generation view deGhetaldi as leading Sutter Health in Santa Cruz when other facilities – Watsonville Community Hospital and Dominican Hospital – opposed its growth. After Sutter Health announced in 1992 that it would build a hospital in Santa Cruz, other health care leaders opposed it and “questioned the need for another hospital,” saying the facility’s lack of an emergency room and intensive care unit was concerning for Sutter’s patients, according to a 2003 Santa Cruz civil grand jury investigation.
The investigation, which focused on how much the three local hospitals each provided care to patients who couldn’t pay for their services, found that Sutter Health “consistently failed” to provide that care at the level established in an agreement among the hospitals.
Still, many local providers and representatives from those hospitals today acknowledge deGhetaldi’s contributions to health care access.
When he wasn’t leading the Santa Cruz region of Sutter Health, he was advocating for accurate Medicare payments to physicians and serving in roles like trustee and chair of the Medicare Reform Technical Advisory Committee of the California Medical Association. He was also a major supporter of the Watsonville Community Hospital bond measure campaign last year, according to hospital board chair Tony Nuñez.
“He was a huge proponent and hugely supportive of that,” Nuñez said of deGhetaldi’s support for the bond measure. “I think he was a big reason Sutter gave the campaign $50,000 for Measure N.”
Voters passed the $116 million Measure N in March 2024, paving the way for the hospital board to purchase the land the hospital sits on, invest in new medical equipment and make upgrades to its infrastructure. The Pajaro Valley Health Care District purchased the hospital out of bankruptcy in 2022 after its prior owners declared bankruptcy in December 2021.
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Stephen Gray called deGhetaldi “a health care legend” who was known widely for his fight for better government reimbursement for physicians. He said deGhetaldi’s work will affect the community for decades.
The Larry deGhetaldi Care Center building of Sutter Health in Santa Cruz. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz
“But locally among those who knew him, he was known for his heart and how much he fought for quality health care for all,” he said. “He continually pushed for the addition of specialty providers in our community, and recruited and hired many of the wonderful physicians we rely on in our community today.”
Sutter Health and Dominican Hospital executives expressed similar sentiments about deGhetaldi.
Stephanie Connor Kent, CEO of the Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center in Santa Cruz, said he was “brilliant, tenacious and kind.”
“His advocacy across the region, state and nation improved funding for care in our area,” she said. “His servant leadership style meant he supported many, many of us in our leadership journeys. Larry was a role model, a mentor and a friend, and we will miss him dearly.”
Nanette Mickiewicz, president and CEO of Dominican Hospital, said deGhetaldi will be “enormously missed.”
“It was an honor and privilege to work with Dr. Larry deGhetaldi, who was a dynamic leader with a quick wit and great sense of humor,” she said. “The Santa Cruz community is a better place to live thanks to his many health care efforts.”
His wife, Hubenette, said deGhetaldi lived a rich life outside of his work. She said he had four children from a prior marriage and was also a stepfather to her two daughters. They celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary earlier this year.
He had cherished friends who he stayed in contact with, played piano, enjoyed working long hours in the garden of their Soquel home and was quick to lend a helping hand.
She said one of deGhetaldi’s favorite pastimes was visiting Kirkwood Lake south of Lake Tahoe, where his father and grandfather built a cabin.
“It was his happy place,” she said.
There, his father and grandfather taught him carpentry and construction.
“What his friends and family would know about him is that he was always there in an instant, anytime anybody needed anything,” she said. “Whether it was a medical question, whether it was a dump truck run, whether it was a fence that needed to be put up, whatever it was. He was a jack of all trades.”
Larry deGhetaldi at Kirkwood Lake in 2024. Credit: Courtesy of Lynne Hubenette
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