2021 Board of Directors Bios
GARY ALBERS
Gary Albers is co-founder and CEO of Imperium Health Management, started in 2011 with the idea of creating independent physician led ACO's for the not yet completely designed MSSP program. Imperium currently partners and or manages 11 MSSP ACO's and is expecting with the 2016 class to have over 15 plus ACO's with 120,00 lives, 1,300 physicians and 1.2 billion dollars in annual Medicare spend. Prior to Imperium, Gary was president of Soteria Imaging Services, LLC, an outpatient medical imaging provider that grew to 36 locations across the nation with over 300 employees. He attended Indiana University and received a degree in public affairs from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Gary also attended Madison University for completion of his MBA.
TRAVIS BROOME
Travis Broome is the senior vice-president of policy and economics at Aledade, Inc. He guides Aledade and partner physicians through the policy, strategy and economics of value based health care. Joining Aledade shortly after its start, he worked on nearly every aspect from business development for both practices and payers, to early analytics, to serving as an ACO executive director for Aledade Louisiana ACO. Prior to Aledade, he spent seven years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in roles ranging from regulation writing to quality improvement to management. Mr. Broome earned his masters of public health and business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
EMILY DUHAMEL BROWER - Secretary*
Emily Brower serves as senior vice president of clinical integration and physician services for Trinity Health, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation, serving more than 30 million people across 22 states. In this role, she provides leadership and strategic direction within the evolving accountable healthcare environment, with an emphasis on clinical integration and transformation under alternative payment models. Ms. Brower joined Trinity Health from Atrius Health, where she last served as vice president of population health, building and executing the essential capabilities required to achieve strong financial and clinical outcomes within integrated care models under value-based reimbursement, particularly for publicly insured populations. Her Medicare ACO team delivered year over year improvement in cost and quality, and the highest per-capita savings in an independent evaluation of the Pioneer model. Prior to Atrius Health, Ms. Brower spent fifteen years in operational, financial, and contracting leadership roles at Urban Medical Group, a Massachusetts non-profit healthcare organization specializing in the care of medically complex, chronically ill populations across a community-based, long-term care continuum. During that time, she launched a PACE program and other innovative, capitated contracts for medically complex populations and served as Principal Investigator for a multi-year research project analyzing cost and quality outcomes to support payment reform. Ms. Brower received her BA from Smith College and MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.
ROBERT FIELDS - Chair*
Dr. Robert Fields is a family medicine physician and serves as the EVP/chief population health officer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. In this role, Dr. Fields leads a network of hospitals and physicians managing $3.5 billion dollars of medical spend for over 450,000 patients in the downstate region. He also leads system strategy for managed care and value-based contracting and revenues. Dr. Fields began his career as an independent primary care physician serving all ages with a particular concentration on underserved Latino patients in Western North Carolina. He held various leadership positions including serving as the CMO of the area’s first ACO. Dr. Fields came to Mount Sinai in March of 2018 as the SVP and CMO for population health. Dr. Fields serves as the board chair of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) and serves on the board of America’s Physician Groups (APG). He is also a member and chair for various national committees on quality and measure development for the National Quality Foundation and CMS. He earned his medical degree from the University Of Florida College Of Medicine, and completed a family medicine residency at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, NC where he was chief resident. Dr. Fields earned his master of health administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
CLIF GAUS - President and CEO*
Clif Gaus, Sc.D. is currently president and CEO of the National Association of ACOs which he helped found in 2012. NAACOS is the only national organization owned and managed by ACOs. It advocates for ACOs on policy and offers shared learning experiences through conferences, webinars, forums and work groups. Dr. Gaus has a diverse background as a public servant, entrepreneur and health executive. He served in senior health positions under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton. In the 1970's and 80's, as associate administrator of HCFA (now CMS), he directed the development of a broad range of innovations in health care financing and delivery, including the DRG hospital payment system, RBRVS physician payment system, Medicare Hospice Programs and Medicare payment of Physician Assistants. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now AHRQ).
In the late 90's Dr. Gaus held the position of executive vice president and chief administrative officer of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. Prior to WellPoint, he was senior vice president of the national Kaiser Permanente Health System in Oakland, California. From 2002-10 he served on the Board of Directors of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University. In recent years he has consulted for a number of prominent organizations, including a six month engagement with the Administrator of CMS working on the ACO regulations and the start-up of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). He holds a master's degree in health administration from the University of Michigan and a Doctorate of Science in health care management from The Johns Hopkins University.
TIM GRONNIGER
Tim Gronniger joined Caravan Health in 2017 as the senior vice president for strategy and development, becoming the company president in 2018. In those roles he oversaw the company’s delivery and operations as well as marketing and its strategic growth plan. He is the former chief of staff and director of delivery system reform at CMS where he led the agency’s work on drug spending issues, significant elements of the agency’s implementation of the new physician payment system created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, creation of new payment models, and other topics. He was previously a senior adviser for health care policy at the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he was responsible for coordinating administration activities in health care delivery system reform. Before joining DPC he was a senior professional staff member for Ranking Member Henry Waxman at the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, responsible for drafting and developing elements of the Affordable Care Act. Tim began his career in Washington at the at the Congressional Budget Office. Tim holds master's degrees in public policy and health services administration from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.
KIMBERLY KAUFFMAN - Member-at-Large*
Kimberly Kauffman is Best Value Healthcare’s COO with a special focus on value-based care operations. In her role, she is responsible for the transition from fee-for-service to fee-for-value. In support of value-based contracts with CMMI, Medicare Advantage, commercial health plans and Medicaid managed care, she leads the care coordination, health education, integrated programs, quality reporting and improvement, risk adjustment and provider engagement teams and works closely with health plan partners. Prior to joining Best Value Healthcare, Ms. Kauffman was the chief value based care officer for Summit Medical Group, a physician-owned primary care group with 300 providers and 300,000 active patients. Prior to that role, she managed a large independent physicians’ association in Florida and also worked with hospital and physician leadership to create several regional physician hospital organizations. She received her master’s degree from the College of Public Health at the University of Florida.
THOMAS KLOOS – Past-Chair*
Thomas Kloos, MD, is executive director of the Atlantic Health MSO, a management services organization which supplies management services to both the Atlantic ACO and Optimus Healthcare Partners ACO. The two ACO's serve both the MSSP program and commercial relationships and encompass over 90,000 attributed Medicare beneficiaries and over 200,000 commercial attributed beneficiaries. He is a NAACOS board member. He was past president of Optimus Healthcare Partners, a physician established ACO and has also has served as past president and medical director of Vista Health System IPA. On the payer side, he is board member and past board vice president of the Affiliated Physicians Health Plan, a self-funded Multiple Employer Welfare Association (MEWA). Dr. Kloos is a board certified internal medicine practitioner and has been a NCQA recognized level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). He graduated from the University of Louisville Medical School in 1979 and from Rutgers University in 1975.
MELANIE MATTHEWS
Melanie Matthews is the dynamic, creative and innovative CEO at Physicians of Southwest Washington (PSW) and president at MultiCare Connected Care. She brings more than 20 years of operations, financial, human resources and product marketing experience in health care services for specialty populations. Her passion for public policy and engaging legislatures has propelled her as the “voice” of physician health policies. Since she joined the company in 2016, Ms. Matthews has maintained the core principals in which PSW was founded on and expanded business lines to include MSO services including credentialing, coding and compliance and the implementation of CMMI innovation models such as the Next Generation ACO. Her extensive knowledge in post-acute care provides strategic focus in reducing overall cost of care as well as provider and beneficiary engagement.
Prior to PSW, Ms. Matthews served for three years as vice president of operations for Prestige Care, Inc., where she was responsible for regulatory and financial operations and outcomes for 38 skilled nursing facilities and two Medicare home health agencies in a four-state northwest region. Among her other accomplishments, she serves as co-chair for APG – Risk Evolution Taskforce, was selected by the American Health Care Association as a “National Political Ambassador” in 2013, and was named a national “Future Leader” in 2012. Ms. Matthews holds a master of science, social gerontology, degree from Central Missouri State University and a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University.
STEPHEN NUCKOLLS - Treasurer*
Stephen Nuckolls is the chief executive officer of Coastal Carolina Health Care, PA, and their ACO, Coastal Carolina Quality Care, Inc. His responsibilities include the direct management of the 60 provider multi-specialty physician-owned medical practice and its ACO that was selected by CMS in the initial round in April 2012 and is currently in a 2-sided risk model. Mr. Nuckolls facilitated the formation of the medical practice in 1997 and has served in his current role since that time. Prior to the formation of this organization, Mr. Nuckolls helped guide physicians and integrated hospital organizations in the formation of larger systems. Mr. Nuckolls earned his BA in economics from Davidson College and his MAC from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is a founding member of the National Association of ACOs and served as their board chair from 2016-2017 and currently serves as treasurer. Prior to 2016 he served as treasurer and chair of their policy committee. In addition to these responsibilities he has served on several advisory boards and committees for the North Carolina Medical Society and is a frequent speaker on ACOs and related topics at medical conferences including presentations for the Medical Group Management Association, the American College of Physicians, and the National Association of ACOs.
ANTHONY REED
Tony Reed serves as the vice president of population health operations for ChristianaCare. Prior to this role, he served as the vice president of population health strategic solutions, clinical and network services at Ascension Medical Group (AMG) where he had responsibility for all value based health care programs and contracts for AMG. Mr. Reed is on the board of directors for NAACOS and has presented at many conferences including the leaders board for population health management, NAACOS conferences, The Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania, xG Health Solutions, Inc and for the Marcus Evans Group. He is in his 23rd year of work in health care industry and his previous roles include, chief administrative officer for the Keystone Accountable Care Organization, AVP of accountable care initiatives at Geisinger Health, director of business development for Geisinger Diversified Services and program director for VITALine Infusion Pharmacy Services. He also served for seven years as a product director for B. Braun Medical, Inc. with product development responsibilities and gaining FDA and Health Canada approvals for their lines of infusion pumps and accessories.
JAMIE REEDY
Jamie Reedy, MD, MPH is chief of population health at Summit Medical Group, PA – New Jersey and Summit Health Management, LLC. She is responsible for ensuring the success of value-based care programs for both Summit Medical Group (SMG), the largest independent multi-specialty medical group in the country, and Summit Health Management (SHM), an organization born out of the success of SMG that establishes partnerships with independent medical groups nationally to share and implement its care model and best practices. Dr. Reedy provides leadership, medical expertise and business direction for population health and quality activities that support strategic growth, the continuous improvement of care, wellness and greater value. Her position currently involves leadership of numerous, diverse high performing value-based contracts. She previously served as senior vice president and medical director of population health and quality at SMG and SHM and was also formerly chief of hospital medicine and post-acute care. In those roles, she has overseen the design and implementation of innovative care delivery models involving care management, care navigation, social work, clinical pharmacy and other disciplines. Prior to joining Summit, Dr. Reedy was medical director, compliance officer and a practicing physician with Paramount Medical Group/Westfield Family Practice in Westfield, NJ. In that role, she led an initiative to become a Level-3 National Committee for Quality Assurance recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home. Dr. Reedy has a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master’s degree in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. She earned her medical degree at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now known as the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School). She also completed her internship and a residency in family medicine at Robert Wood Johnson. She is board-certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and a diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners.
REBECCA ROHRBACH
Rebecca Rohrbach, DNP, has been in healthcare for 30 years. She currently serves as the chief population health officer for NOMS ACO, LLC. She was a family nurse practitioner until 7 years ago when she took the role as vice president of population health for NOMS ACO, LLC. Rebecca works closely with the champion physicians of the organization to promote transformation of healthcare delivery at NOMS Healthcare. This role entails oversight of a care management team, development of quality incentive scorecards for physicians and team members, evaluation of programs, quality metric reporting, and development of post-acute care networks and management of the ACO. She is also responsible for the exploration and determining feasibility of implementing other CMS innovation programs. As a result, many of our primary care providers are CPC+ track 2 and the orthopedics’ participation in BPCI-A total lower extremity joint bundle payment programs. Rebecca received her master of science in nursing specializing in family practice from the Medical College of Ohio in 2001 and a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Toledo in collaboration with Wright State University in 2015.
NINA TAGGART
Nina Taggart MA, MD, MBA, FAAO is the senior medical director for accountable care for the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) and medical director for the LVHN ACO. Bringing extensive health insurance experience to a provider network, she joined LVHN in July of 2015 to lead the design, development and delivery of LVHN’s Population Health initiatives in the Innovation Division. Dr. Taggart supports all aspects of Value Based Reimbursement programs (VBR) for the network including payer contracting, risk contracting design, analytics, and care management operations. In her role as medical director for the LVHN ACO, she leads a team of professionals on all aspects of MSSP program operations and strategy, including authoring recommendations under the Pathways to Success program. Dr. Taggart works to educate physicians in the PHO on key aspects of VBR performance. She supports the development and deployment of the PHO’s physician incentive program used as a method to align incentives and distribute VBR dollars to participating primary care and specialty physicians. She leads a clinical operational team dedicated to managing patients assigned through all VBR contracts, including both commercial and governmental programs. Dr. Taggart also works closely with Populytics, LVHN’s informatics and analytic subsidiary, to improve our system wide approach to Population Health. She provides clinical direction to Populytics and is responsible for the development of analytic processes to improve both the quality of care and financial performance under VBR programs. Prior to coming to LVHN, Dr. Taggart served in physician executive roles with increasing responsibility working for a regional Blue Cross plan, culminating with her position as chief medical officer. Dr. Taggart has published/presented on computer graphics, molecular biology and ophthalmic plastic surgery as well as managed care and population health. She has held multiple leadership positions on medical staff and served on the Board of Penn Care Board and the Board of the Luzerne County Medical Society. Dr. Taggart holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College (AB), Haverford College (MA), Alvernia University (MBA) and Weill Cornell Medical College (MD) and is a certified professional in healthcare information technology. She completed her internship at Bryn Mawr Hospital, and her residency at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. She is a board certified ophthalmologist.
ANTHONY VALDES
Anthony joined WellCare Health Plans (now Centene Corporation) in 2013 and is the president of Collaborative Health Systems. Previously, he served as the National Medicaid vice president of market performance. Before joining WellCare, Anthony held a number of positions of increasing leadership responsibility, including vice president of physical medicine for Healthways, chief executive officer of Maryland Medicaid health plan for UnitedHealth Group, and several financial management positions for The Procter & Gamble Company. Anthony received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Florida State University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
DEBBIE WELLE-POWELL – Chair-Elect*
Debbie Welle-Powell is the chief population health officer at Essentia Health. In this role, she is responsible for integrating population health management with community health and well-being services to address the social determinants of health. She works with market leaders, payer partners and community stakeholders to develop community-based, population health and risk sharing models that focus on wellness and disease prevention for better health outcomes. Prior to her new appointment, she served as the senior vice-president of accountable care. Essentia Health is a 17 hospital, 1500 provider health system spanning the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Wisconsin. Essentia is certified as an ACO Level III by NCQA. As the SVP of accountable care, she led the accountable care division with strategic and operational responsibilities for population care management, system quality, payer strategy and community health with strategic activities to help position Essentia Health as the preferred provider of care. Prior to Essentia, Ms. Welle-Powell was the vice president of accountable care and payer strategy for SCL Health System, a $3B health care system. As a seasoned executive, she led the strategic and market activities for accountable health readiness while developing innovative products, services, and technologies. Additional focus was on developing a vision, strategy and key tactics to support e-health business. She has more than twenty years-experience in executive healthcare positions within multi-state regions and integrated provider delivery system. She has extensive experience leading mergers and acquisitions and developing reimbursement and network development strategies supporting a full range of payment models.
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