Time for Joe Frick to step up his golf game - now that he's beating back his cancer.
"I'm not getting any more chemo strokes," Frick complained good-naturedly to one of friends recently.
The remark is vintage Frick - affable, down-to-earth, and the second chief executive officer of Independence Blue Cross to be hammered by cancer in less than three years.
What was on his to-do list this summer, besides getting strong enough to lose the pity points his pals gave him on the fairway?
Forge ahead with a complex merger that, if successful, will fold Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Inc. together to create the state's largest health insurer.
Find summer jobs for 1,000 Philadelphia teenagers through his role as president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
And bully through postoperative chemotherapy sessions that walloped him, landing him in the hospital for two days with dehydration, and putting him on a crash diet that took off 45 pounds - the miserable way.
For Frick, his colon cancer put him in a unique position to learn. Here he was, among the most powerful men in health care in Philadelphia. Yet like many others, the 55-year-old Frick found himself in a battle for his life, fought in an arena he helps to shape.
"This experience made me a better person, a better leader," he said. "It reinforced the responsibility I have, the opportunity I have. It made me more energized and committed to everything, not just at IBC, but everything I do."
For Independence Blue Cross, Frick's cancer came as a shock to a $10.7 billion organization barely recovered from the cancer death of its former leader.
Last spring, barely more than two years after G. Fred DiBona Jr., 53, lost a hard-fought struggle against kidney cancer, Frick told his board, his managerial staff, business leaders, and employees that he also had cancer.
"We were all kind of scared," said board chairman Walter D'Alessio. "It gave you pause. Could this happen to us twice in a row, with two young and very active executives? Did we have the willies? Yes, we did."
*
By the time DiBona died Jan. 11, 2005, he was among the city's civic and corporate elite.
More than 2,500 attended his funeral, and his reputation as a business leader who tripled Independence Blue Cross' revenue during his 15-year tenure was more than matched by his leadership role in the community.
