This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
As senior vice president for community and government relations at PinnacleHealth System, a community-based health services network in central Pennsylvania, Christopher P. Markley '81 oversees the areas of insurance and risk management, legal services, customer relations, visual services, marketing and public relations, and gifts and endowments. He was previously vice president of legal services and governmental relations.
An International Affairs graduate, Markley received a J.D. in 1984 from Dickinson School of Law and joined Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz.
“The career focus on health care law was totally unplanned,” says Markley. “I got out of law school expecting to do corporate and tax law. But one client was a nonprofit hospital wanting to do a real-estate purchase with a group of physician investors. I gradually began to handle more of their work and decided I really liked this area. In 1988 I started as general counsel for one of the hospitals that now make up PinnacleHealth.”
Markley, who is also president of Pennsylvania Society of Health Care Attorneys, says risk management and malpractice are a relatively small part of health care law. “A great deal of time is spent negotiating-for Medicare and managed care reimbursements-and handling employment issues for our 5,000 employees.”
Christopher Markley '81