This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Family doctor and public- health administrator Joseph K. Miner will be the next director of the Utah Department of Health.
Gov. Gary Herbert, flanked by Miner and his predecessor, David Patton, made the announcement Monday in a press conference at the Capitol. In June, Patton announced he was leaving to take a job in the private sector.
Miner has been with the Utah County Health Department for 32 years, serving as executive director. Herbert said he got to know Miner well when he was a county commissioner there.
"He's the right man at the right time," Herbert said.
Miner brings a "unique balance" because of his decades in public health and his medical practice in Utah County, the governor said.
Miner said his long involvement with Utah County's community health centers gives him a good background for the current debate on how to expand Medicaid for Utah's poor.
"We all pay for the care of uninsured individuals anyway, and we pay for it the most expensive way possible — in emergency rooms and hospitals," Miner said.
Miner said he supports the approach the governor and legislative leaders are taking in the wake of the Legislature's failure to support the governor's Health Utah plan.
Patton, who called the director's job his best job ever, praised Herbert for his courage in the pressing for Medicaid expansion.
Twitter: @KristenMoulton