David Ault is counsel at Ropes & Gray, LLP where he focuses his practice on advising complex health systems, health care providers and payers on the regulatory, contracting, compliance and litigation aspects of health insurance. He routinely advises clients on the analytical underpinnings of government health insurance models and regulations, the inner workings of the regulatory bodies that develop these systems, as well as the compliance challenges and litigation risks that health insurance stakeholders face. Mr. Ault brings an insider’s understanding to the regulatory challenges and opportunities in the ever-changing health insurance space. A former government litigator and authority on alternative payment models under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), he now advises health care providers and payers on regulatory, compliance and litigation issues in health insurance, focusing on value-based contracting. He also provides counsel on complex issues arising from pharmaceutical manufacturer government price calculation and reporting practices. Mr. Ault has spent years on the forefront of key industry trends and shifts, including the broader transition to value-based reimbursement. He spent almost a decade with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including serving as director of the Division of Financial Risk within the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (a subset of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Mike Badome, ASA, MAAA, is ECP’s head of actuarial and has over thirteen years of healthcare actuarial experience. Mr. Badome has served in senior actuarial roles across the industry including Iora One Medical, Prospero Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. His current work focus is around the Medicare Shared Saving Program and other Medicare value-based care initiatives. Mr. Badome has a BS in actuarial science from Florida State University and a master’s certificate in business administration from Northeastern University.
Shannon Banks is the chief operating officer at MaineHealth ACO. She is an experienced healthcare administrator and organizational development professional who served in senior leadership roles at Martin’s Point Health Care and Central Maine Health Care before founding her own consulting firm, Banks Bellwether where she partnered with healthcare and social service leaders to help them clarify their visions and accomplish their goals. Ms. Banks holds faculty positions at Bates College and the University of Southern Maine, teaching strategic planning, organization development and healthcare administration. She also serves as a member of the Board of the MidCoast Hunger Prevention Program, a hunger relief and prevention agency in the midcoast region. Ms. Banks received her BA degree from Bates and a MS in organization and management from Antioch New England University.
Nicole Banister, vice president of practice transformation, leads the Signify Health delivery team in their work supporting clients on annual wellness visits, care management, transitions of care, disease management and post-acute care. She is responsible for the quality of care and outcomes for over 700,000 beneficiaries in our ACOs. Ms. Banister has over 20 years of leadership experience in health care operations ranging from community clinics to academic medical centers and independent physician practices. Prior to coming to Signify Health, she designed the learning network for the Comprehensive Primary Care program as a contractor for the CMS. Ms. Banister is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds two master’s degrees, one in healthcare administration from Trinity University and another in nutrition from the University of Texas.
Nick Bartz is a dedicated healthcare professional with a strong background in value-based care operations and healthcare analytics. He began his career as a consultant at the Advisory Board where he worked with health systems that were beginning the shift from volume to value but very quickly realized that real change needed to happen before patients get to a hospital bed. For the past seven years, Mr. Bartz has been helping to build Aledade, starting out launching ACOs in Missouri, Kentucky and Florida, then building a business intelligence team for the company and now working to launch innovative new business ideas as part of its new ventures team. Mr. Bartz earned his MBA from Wharton and his undergraduate degree from Yale University.
Anna Basevich oversees Enterprise Partnerships at Arcadia, where she supports healthcare’s most innovative leaders as they implement effective enterprise-level programs. She drives the transformative impact of Arcadia’s analytics platform and embraces the opportunity for organizations to adopt effective population health strategies. Anna recently led the expansion of Arcadia’s customer training program, enabling Arcadia customers to accelerate their value-based care outcomes. Anna received her Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.
Henish Bhansali is a physician executive in Medicare Advantage (MA) and a practicing internist. He joined Duly Health and Care (FKA DuPage Medical Group) in 2021 as their senior vice president of MA, overseeing care model design and delivery, TCoC management, HEDIS, payor relationships, risk adjustment and MA expansion. Prior to Duly, he was Oak Street’s SMD and vice president of care navigation leading clinical strategy for diagnostic and specialty care for 100K+ patients across 20 states. Prior to Oak Street, he led primary care education of 50+ internal medicine residents as an associate program director with the University of Chicago for five years. Dr. Bhansali trained in internal medicine and was chief resident at Washington University-Barnes Jewish Hospital. Post-residency, he directed BJH’s readmission reduction program and WU’s Global Health Program. Dr. Bhansali’s interests are incentivizing outcomes centered, value-based medicine to achieve one goal: happier, healthier patients. His current focus is on improving the MA care model and he is pursuing a masters of public policy from the University of Chicago. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the AOA Medical Honor Society and is board certified in both internal and obesity medicine.
Eric Becker is the vice president of ACO REACH and Medicare Innovation Model Strategies with Agilon Health. In his role, Mr. Becker is responsible for operations and strategy for Agilon’s eight REACH ACOs, and serves as their subject matter expert on this and other Medicare Innovation Center models. Mr. Becker joined Agilon Health in 2017 as senior director of provider engagement strategy where he helped develop several of Agilon’s early processes related to provider engagement, market growth and provider satisfaction assessment and reporting. Prior to joining Agilon health, he served as director of clinical integration with Providence St. Joseph Health where he led the formation of a 600-physician Clinically Integrated Network in Southern California. He previously worked with the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Kaiser Division of Research, focusing on health policy and health services research. Mr. Becker earned a masters in public policy from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Marc Berg is the CEO and co-founder of Bluerock Primary Care, a primary care organization specifically designed to deliver high value care to seniors in risk-based contracts. He is also the CEO of the ACO REACH ‘Penn Avenue Health’, a standard ACO in CMS/CMMI’s Medicare Direct Contracting Program. Marc is a former McKinsey partner, with over 20 years of international experience improving the delivery, organization, and contracting of health care, using information technology, advanced data analytics, and innovative payment models.
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 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. 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. Ms. Brower received her BA from Smith College and MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.
Jason Burk is a health actuary with over 20 years of experience primarily focused on managed Medicare and Individual products. At VillageMD he leads the actuarial and financial analytics teams focusing on Value Based Care programs. Mr. Burk also holds an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Kimberly Busenbark currently serves as the compliance officer for 10 DCEs and has over a decade of experience helping organizations meet their compliance requirements under CMS value-based programs. After beginning her career in Medicare Advantage compliance, she began working with ACOs during the first wave of the Medicare Shared Savings Program and spent the first three years of the program as the ACO compliance officer for 35 Shared Savings Program ACOs. During this time, she was responsible for the implementation and oversight of the compliance program for each of the ACOs. Ms. Busenbark started Wilems Resource Group in 2015. Since then, WRG has continued to grow, and has helped more than 65 ACOs and DCEs across the country remain compliant and be successful within the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Next Generation ACO Model and, the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model. WRG is currently working to help several organizations apply and prepare for the next phase of value-based care, the ACO REACH Model. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where she received a bachelor of business administration in marketing and management, and of The University of Houston Law Center, where she received her juris doctorate before being admitted to the State Bar of Texas.
Isaac Burrows is the senior manager of ACO operations at VillageMD, where he directs the operations of its six REACH ACOs and leads the organization’s cross-functional efforts for improving health equity. Mr. Burrows previously led Total Cost of Care strategy at Cigna and served nearly five years at the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI), working closely on design and implementation of the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI), Comprehensive care for Joint Replacement (CJR), Maryland All-Payer Model (model lead) and the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network (HCP-LAN). Mr. Burrows holds a master of public health degree from Boston University, and is a licensed and nationally-certified EMT in Connecticut where he resides.
Kate Casaday recently joined On Belay where she works as chief of staff and executive director of program management. Ms. Casaday brings unique operational experience spanning market operations, value based care, and population health at industry giants such as Optum, CareMount Medical – now part of Optum Health – and EmblemHealth. Her diverse background spans healthcare delivery, public health at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and completing her masters of public health at Columbia and business, holding an MBA from The Wharton School. She is passionate about improving the state of healthcare by working with start-ups, massive industry incumbents and everything in between.
Jennifer Clair is the chief analytics officer at VillageMD, Ms. Clair works closely with providers and clinical thought leaders to develop solutions that support primary care practice growth, innovation and outcomes delivery. She has over 20 years of experience in developing clinical, financial and patient experience analytic tools and applications. Prior to her time at Village, she led a large analytics function at Elevance Health responsible for the development of data driven models to support value-based program design, clinical care models, risk adjustment and consumer health. She has a master of public health with a concentration in biostatistics and epidemiology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
David Clain presently serves as chief product officer at HDAI, a predictive analytics company based in Boston, MA. He began his career at The Advisory Board Company, a healthcare research and technology firm, where he focused on revenue cycle operations and accountable care strategy, with a particular focus on the financial and operational implications of bundled payment and shared savings contracts. Mr. Clain later worked as a senior manager for research at Athenahealth, an EHR vendor, developing best practices and strategic guidance for physician group leaders based on insights from the country’s most complete source of EHR and practice management data.
Eric Cragun is the executive director of government programs for Castell, an Intermountain Health company. In his role, Mr. Cragun leads Castell’s efforts to succeed in risk-based contracts with government payers. This includes guiding Castell’s strategy in Medicare and Medicaid programs, managing participation and collaborating with operations teams to drive performance. Mr. Cragun and his team have experience participating in a range of models including ACO REACH, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement – Advanced and Idaho Medicaid Value Care Organization. In addition, Mr. Cragun helps Castell support Medicare Advantage and Medicaid products operated by SelectHealth. He also contributes to Castell’s work advancing national and state health policy discussions. Prior to joining Intermountain, he led health policy consulting for Advisory Board, serving as an advisor to executives at health systems around the country. Mr. Cragun earned an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Robert Daley is the Director of Legislative Affairs at NAACOS where he contributes to developing the association’s federal advocacy strategy on legislative, political, and regulatory issues. He has over a decade of experience in government relations and advocacy. Prior to joining NAACOS he worked in the public policy practice at an Am 100 law firm consulting on a wide range of health care issues. He also spent six years working on Capitol Hill where he gained a thorough understanding of the legislative process and the role stakeholders play in the development and implementation of public policy. He draws on this experience to help manage relationships with lawmakers to effectively communicate the association’s priorities during the policymaking process. Since joining NAACOS, Robert has helped secure favorable policy changes on several value-based care initiatives, including the passage of legislation extending financial incentive payments for ACOs participating in Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs).
Remy DeCausemaker is the Open Source lead for the digital service at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.) Mr. DeCausemaker helps developers, designers, and other contributors work with dedicated civil servants to create open and accessible healthcare technology projects, programs and policy. Through his work with the digital service at CMS, Mr. DeCausemaker improves access to health information and grows communities of practice around Open Data, Open Standards, and Open Source code. He comes to CMS with over 15 years at the frontier of Open Source Software. His career has included many firsts, including helping to launch the first academic minor in Open Source Software in the United States at Rochester Institute of Technology. He was the first Open Source program office lead at Spotify, the second Open Source program office lead at Twitter, the first Fedora Community lead at Red Hat, and now serves as the nation’s first ever Open Source lead at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Caroline Delgross currently serves as the vice president of Medicare Accountable Care Performance at One Medical overseeing operations for the Iora Health and One Medical REACH ACOs. Prior to joining One Medical, Ms. Delgross supported growth and operational initiatives for the Clover Health Partners Direct Contracting Entity and spent 18 years at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in various roles, including utilization management and population health management, operations and finance strategy. Ms. Delgross has public health degrees from Syracuse University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also certified in Lean Six Sigma, Project Management and Change Management.
Logan Ferrie is an industry leader in value-based care with over 10 years of experience building and scaling healthcare organizations across the US. Mr. Ferrie’s expertise is in model development and go-to-market strategies for services and technology to improve outcomes across the total value-based care risk spectrum. His experiences range from leading national clinical support service lines to facilitating partnerships between health plans and provider groups and formulating innovative top line growth strategies for high growth organizations in Oak Street Health, VillageMD, Easyhealth and Vytalize Health. Mr. Ferrie is recognized as a top industry expert in risk adjustment for government programs and is a published author of several articles including New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst. He serves as the vice president of value-based care and risk at Vytalize Health and lives in Tampa, Florida.
Jason Fish, MD, is a professor in the department of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He serves as Chief Medical Officer for Southwestern Health Resources, a leading, clinically integrated network bringing together the strengths of UT Southwestern, Texas Health Resources and independent physicians within the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He specializes in general internal medicine. Dr. Fish earned his medical degree at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He performed his residency in internal medicine and completed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program, earning a master’s degree in health services research, at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also holds a master’s degree in health care organization leadership from the Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fish joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2011. Dr. Fish is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the American College of Physicians.
Sarah Fogler, PhD, MA, joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center) in February 2021. She is currently serving as the acting director of the Patient Care Models Group (PCMG). The PCMG develops and implements episode-based payment initiatives, including the: Bundled Payments for Care Initiative – Advanced Model, Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model, Oncology Care Model, Enhancing Oncology Model, Independence at Home Demonstration and the Intravenous Immunoglobulin Demonstration. Prior to joining the Innovation Center, she served as the senior director of population health and community benefit at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. In her role, Dr. Fogler led primary care transformation efforts, including the implementation of a new behavioral Collaborative Care Program and Complex Care Clinic. She also previously held various leadership positions in the Center for Medicare, leading the policy development and implementation of the Medicare Shared Savings Program. In addition to Medicare fee-for-service payment policy, Dr. Fogler has also spent time working on Medicaid long-term care supports and services — namely supporting the Money-Follows-the-Person Grant program and the regulatory development of the Medicaid health homes. She has an MA from Boston University and a PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Elizabeth Fowler, PhD, JD, is the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Dr. Fowler previously served as executive vice president of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and vice president for global health policy at Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Fowler was special assistant to President Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council. In 2008-2010, she was chief health counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), where she played a critical role developing the Senate version of the Affordable Care Act. She has over 25 years of experience in health policy and health services research. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment and a law degree (JD) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Fowler is a fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Amanda Furr, MD is a national medical director at VillageMD. Dr. Furr focuses on helping Village Medical clinicians deliver value-based primary care that is patient centered and delivers consistent health outcomes. She has a special interest in creating seamless access to care through excellent patient engagement and experience. Dr. Furr brings a rich history of transforming and innovating healthcare including primary care at- home services and virtual care delivery. Prior to joining VillageMD, she was a physician executive with Community Health Network in Indianapolis, where she led ambulatory and hospital providers spanning specialties that included primary care, family medicine, pediatrics, urgent care, and more. Dr. Furr completed a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in psychology at Indiana University. She went on to complete her medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine and her residency training in pediatric care at St. Vincent Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
Jennifer Gasperini is the director of regulatory and quality affairs for the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) where she works on federal regulatory issues facing ACOs. Ms. Gasperini brings 10 years of health policy experience on both the state and national levels. She came to NAACOS from the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) where she served as the director of health policy, working on a variety of state and federal health policy issues concerning physicians. Before joining the NCMS, she worked at the National Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) where she focused on federal legislative and regulatory issues pertaining to physician quality and payment including ACO issues, and value-based payment programs such as PQRS and the Value Based Payment Modifier. Ms. Gasperini holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, minor in political science from the Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in legislative affairs from the George Washington University.
Anna Goldman joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) in January 2023. She is currently serving as a technical advisor for the Patient Care Models Group (PCMG) where she is overseeing the data transparency element of the Innovation Center’s recently announced specialty care strategy. Prior to joining CMMI, Ms. Goldman spent almost 15 years in revenue cycle and value-based strategy consulting where she gained strong knowledge of state and federal payment policies as well as episode-based payment initiatives such as Bundled Payments for Care Initiative Advanced Model, Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model and Oncology Care Model. In her prior roles, Ms. Goldman worked closely with providers across the nation participating in value-based models. She led multiple teams where she built analytic solutions, created reporting to monitor performance and provided action-oriented data insights on savings opportunities.
Josh Gray presently serves as vice president of analytic services at HDAI, a predictive analytics company based in Boston, MA. Mr. Gray has experience in healthcare spanning more than three decades with particular focus in strategy and in public health research. He most recently launched and oversaw the research department at Athenahealth, the industry’s leading cloud-based electronic health records vendor. He has extensive experience working in health care at the Advisory Board Company, a healthcare consultancy based in Washington DC and the Boston Consulting Group, a strategy consulting firm.
Drew Guerra leads Aledade’s corporate strategy function and currently serves as the interim head of Aledade’s risk stratification department. Prior to Aledade, he was a consultant in both McKinsey and Deloitte’s healthcare strategy groups, and served in health policy roles at both the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MBA in health care management from Wharton and BA from Northwestern University.
Sheireen Huang, PharmD, serves as the director of pharmacy services for CHESS Health Solutions, a physician-led healthcare services company empowering physicians and health systems to make the transition to value-based care. In this role, she leads a multi-system, comprehensive pharmacy managed population health program aimed at lowering costs, improving clinical outcomes, and achieving high quality care. Before joining CHESS in 2021, Sheireen worked at Kaiser Permanente Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic for 21 years, where she found her passion for medication therapy management, patient education, wellness, and health promotion. Sheireen earned her doctor of pharmacy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor of science in business from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Gary Jacobs is a seasoned healthcare executive with a wide breadth of experience in government relations and public policy. He has worked actively in health insurance and the primary care space with a concentration on Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Medicare Supplement, long-term care, public and private exchanges, individual products and payer/provider collaborations. He has a successful history of developing, selling and acquiring healthcare companies. Recognized for quickly assessing the big picture and implementing workable plans to increase revenue and profitability targets, Mr. Jacobs has a keen understanding of the intersection of public policy and business opportunity. He currently serves as the executive director of VillageMD’s Center for Public Policy where he is directly accountable for developing coalitions and strategic alliances with national partners and stakeholders to advance critical topics facing the healthcare industry. He also manages VillageMD’s political action committee, lobbying activities and the company’s national grassroots campaign.
Charles Jackson is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a graduate of Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts. During those years at Emmanuel, he found he had an affinity for diversity and inclusion issues especially those dealing with race. After graduating from college, he went on to receive his certification as a diversity practitioner from NTL Institute. Mr. Jackson has served as the program manager/outreach specialist for numerous local and national African American health campaigns including the American Cancer Society and multiple Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded campaigns for health issues including influenza, HIV and smoking. In 2013 Mr. Jackson received his certification of community health leadership from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, Mr. Jackson teaches introduction to health disparities to future medical practitioners and serves as health equity director at the Baltimore City Health Department.
Tim Jackson is the director of the division of quality and price transparency at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He leads the quality team committed to achieving better health for individuals, better population health and lowering growth in expenditures in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Mr. Jackson also leads hospital price transparency efforts, monitoring and enforcing requirements for thousands of hospitals to help Americans know the cost of a hospital item or service before receiving care. He has over 20 years working in health policy and operations in diverse settings. Mr. Jackson is also the commander of the 405th Field Hospital in West Hartford, CT, as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Dr. Tiffany Jenkins serves as director of population health pharmacy for Trinity Health Alliance of Michigan and director of ambulatory pharmacy services for Trinity Health’s national health system. After earning her doctor of pharmacy degree, Tiffany completed an ambulatory-focused post-graduate pharmacy practice residency and became board certified in ambulatory care pharmacy. Following residency training, she took a role as the first ambulatory care pharmacist with Corewell Health with responsibility for program development. In her current role, Tiffany is responsible for strategic development of Trinity Health’s approach to ambulatory pharmacy in addition to leading a team of population health pharmacists and technicians focused on identifying areas of opportunity to positively impact alternative payment model contract performance with an emphasis on development of programming to improve cost, quality, and safety through the appropriate use of medications.
Sam Johnmeyer is the director of actuarial services and medical economics at PSW and MultiCare Connected Care where he leads a small team of actuaries in their mission of using math to reduce the total cost of care, improve health outcomes and increase patient satisfaction. With a background in operations Mr. Johnmeyer enjoys caveats and efficiency or, as he has dubbed them, ‘Efficient Caveats’. He previously worked for a Medicare Advantage health plan and in various healthcare consulting roles. Mr. Johnmeyer is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
Deepika Kewlani-Varkey is the director of network performance for Catholic Health Physician Partners, a downstate-New York based health system. In her current role she serves as an accountable lead with payer partners and government stakeholders on clinical operations, regulatory affairs and value-based contract performance improvement. Prior to her time at Catholic Health, Deepika has served in health IT-related roles for several organizations including the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as well as the Community Health Care Association of NYS (CHCANYS). Deepika holds a bachelor’s of science in business management and masters in business administration with a focus on executive management from St. John’s University.
David Klebonis was a part of the original executive team that lead PBACO to save Medicare a total of $628M over 9.5 performance years, the most in program history.
David is a former medical practice executive and consultant specializing in independent physician advocacy, value-based contracting, Analytics/EHR and clinical workflow improvement. He has worked in physician led organizations for virtually his entire career.
David has a Bachelor of Science, and a Master of Science in Business Administration, specializing in Information Technology, from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business.
Andre Kohn, an actuarial manager at VillageMD, provides mathematical and strategic support to members of the analytics, finance, business development and operations teams across the organization. As a member of the actuarial forecasting team, Mr. Kohn specializes in generating actuarial projections and developing ACO performance/strategy. Prior to joining VillageMD, he worked as a consultant on the Payer/Provider/Government (PPG) group within PwC’s Actuarial Healthcare department. Mr. Kohn graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in actuarial science. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA), and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
Christopher Koller is president of the Milbank Memorial Fund, a more than 100-year-old operating foundation that improves population health and health equity by connecting leaders with experience and sound evidence. The Fund fosters state health policy leadership, which focuses on critical population health issues, and publishes evidence-based content and The Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health policy. Before joining the Fund, Mr. Koller served the State of Rhode Island as the country’s first health insurance commissioner, from 2005 and 2013. Previously, Mr. Koller was the CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. He has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and master’s degrees in religion and public/private management from Yale University. He has served on four committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as well as its Health Care Services Board. He has also served in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities and was the recipient of the Primary Care Collaborative’s Starfield Award in 2019. Mr. Koller is a professor of the practice in the department of health services, policy and practice in the School of Public Health at Brown University.
Laura Larssen is the quality program manager for payer operations at MaineHealth ACO (MHACO). In this role, she manages quality measures and performance across all value-based contracts, monitors quality trends in the industry, and communicates performance to providers and leadership. Prior to joining MHACO, Ms. Larssen worked as a care consultant at Anthem in the northeast region, helping large provider organizations achieve success in Anthem’s value-based care program. She also worked as a quality improvement specialist at Mid Coast-Parkview Health System in Brunswick, Maine, guiding 25 primary and specialty practices through quality initiatives such as controlled substance prescribing, hypertension control, and patient-centered medical home recognition. Previously, she worked as a clinical trainer and project manager at Epic Systems Corp. in Verona, Wisconsin. Ms. Larssen serves as an officer on board of directors for the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program and is passionate about providing access to healthy food for all and ending hunger in our communities.
Pauline Lapin is the director for the Seamless Care Models Group (SCMG) in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at CMS. Ms. Lapin oversees and provides guidance in the development and implementation of innovative payment and delivery models related to advanced primary care and accountable care organizations, namely the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) and CPC Plus initiatives, the Pioneer ACO and Next Generation ACO Models and the Comprehensive ESRD Care initiative. Her group also manages Health Care Innovation Awards related to primary care redesign, “hot-spotting,” and ACO-like models. She has been in federal service at CMS for over 24 years. Ms. Lapin has spoken at national conferences and written articles on health promotion and disease prevention for various journals and newsletters. She holds a master of health science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Phillomon Laptiste is the chief people officer (CPO) at Community Care Cooperative (C3), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) governed by Federally Quality Health Centers (FQHCs). Ms. Laptiste oversees human resources, compliance, member operations, health equity and the diversity equity and racial justice work within the organization. Prior to joining C3, Ms. Laptiste served as the executive director of Bowdoin Street Health Center (BSHC), an FQHC lookalike in Boston. Ms. Laptiste holds an MHA and executive MBA from Suffolk University and is one of seven Commissioners to the Board of Health for the city of Boston.
Jennifer Leazzo, Duly Health and Care’s vice president of analytics, has 30 years of experience in healthcare and currently has oversight of analytics supporting financial risk, revenue cycle management, operational, quality, risk adjustment and network reporting for all lines of business for executive and provider audiences. Ms. Leazzo’s wealth of actuarial experience includes financial modeling of reimbursement methodologies for the spectrum of healthcare services and a variety of risk. She is knowledgeable about industry standard reimbursement methods and a variety of carrier- and product-specific risk arrangements, such as Medicare Shared Savings Program, ACO REACH and carrier-specific accountable care organizations. Ms. Leazzo holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, is a member of the Academy of Actuaries and a fellow in the Society of Actuaries.
Yates Lennon, MD, currently serves as the president and chief transformation officer for CHESS Health Solutions. He is nationally known for his work in quality, previously serving on the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) Quality Leadership Council and presently on NAACO’s Quality Committee. Dr. Lennon’s background includes 23 years as a practicing OB/GYN and a fellow of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He served as chief quality officer for Cornerstone Health Care before joining CHESS in 2018. He has a deep understanding of practice transformation and how to engage physicians and their staff. His value-based care expertise allows him to translate his knowledge into initiatives that health care teams understand and can implement to ultimately transform patient care.
Rachael Lesch is an expert in optimizing population health strategy, operations, and outcomes. Rachael has led quality strategy for decades and has spent the last 14 years with CentraCare building a value-based infrastructure producing one of Minnesota’s top-performing population health teams and #1 rated integrated health partner (IHP). She has served the Central MN ACO since its inception in 2016. Rachael partners with ACO and operational leaders to achieve outcomes that reach patient, payor, and health system interests. Rachael has responsibilities for population health management, value contract portfolio performance, and leads strategy for patient engagement, equity, and community health improvement.
Michelle Leslie currently serves as the senior vice president of population health for MaxHealth as well as the executive director for two REACH ACOs. Ms. Leslie has over a decade of experience working with providers to improve the quality of healthcare while lowering the cost of care. She began her career with WellMed Medical Management, which later became part of Optum, primarily focused on aligning with providers to successfully improve clinical outcomes and cost for Medicare Advantage members. During Ms. Leslie’s tenure with Optum, she led the implementation of Optum’s first Florida Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO. She assisted with developing initial processes for the ACO and recently assumed the role of executive director for both ACOs. Ms. Leslie is a graduate of Indiana University, where she received a bachelor’s of arts in criminal justice, and of Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis, where she received her juris doctorate before being admitted to the State Bar of Texas and Florida.
Christina Lewis is the executive director of St. Luke’s Care, LLC, a clinically integrated network of over 2,000 employed and independent providers. In this role, Ms. Lewis provides strategic and operational oversight of the CIN and St. Luke’s Medicare ACO. Along with hospital nursing and service line administration, Ms. Lewis’ previous experience includes medical management of government and commercial health plans and leadership of a physician hospital organization. Ms. Lewis holds an MPH from East Stroudsburg University, a BSN from Cedar Crest College, and a RN diploma from St. Francis Medical Center.
Maria Basso Lipani is the vice president for care management and population health at Mount Sinai Health System. In this role, Maria leads a team of dedicated, mission-driven social workers, nurses, and care coordinators that are aligned to Mount Sinai’s Clinically Integrated Network and aimed at finding and assisting patients at high risk for avoidable utilization. In her 15 years at Mount Sinai, Maria has designed and led several initiatives to improve the experience of illness and of care for vulnerable and under-served populations. Her team received multiple years of outcomes-based funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to support social work-led hospital transitions of care and she has presented at numerous conferences and co-authored several publications on this body of work. Maria is a licensed clinical social worker in New York and California. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, she ran bereavement groups for widows and widowers of 9/11 and provided social work services to chronically and terminally ill patients at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.
Jennifer Lundblad, PhD, MBA is president and CEO of Stratis Health, an independent non-profit organization that leads collaboration and innovation in healthcare quality and safety, and serves as a trusted expert in facilitating improvement for people and communities. Dr. Lundblad has an extensive background in leadership, organization development, and program management in both non-profit and education settings. She has a BA in speech communication and economics from Macalester College, an MBA in public and non-profit management from Boston University, and a PhD in education with a focus on training and organization development from the University of Minnesota. She brings to rural health value expertise in change management, dissemination of innovation, process and workflow analysis and redesign, rural-specific quality measurement, and organizational culture improvement across the continuum of care. Dr. Lundblad is a member of the national RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) Health Panel, the University of Minnesota’s Rural Health Research Center Expert Workgroup and serves on various other national and local boards and in committee leadership positions. She has an adjunct assistant professor appointment at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Molly MacHarris is a senior technical advisor in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services focusing on quality measurement and value-based purchasing programs. In this role, Ms. MacHarris provides technical expertise on the 22 quality reporting programs/value-based purchasing programs across care settings that CCSQ oversees. Additionally, she provides strategic support and advice on advancing the National Quality Strategy. Previously, she led the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program under the Quality Payment Program, in addition to the development of policies and operations on the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Programs. In this capacity, Ms. MacHarris provides leadership and input to a variety of aspects of the programs, including stakeholder engagement, operations, policy development and alignment with other quality programs. Ms. MacHarris has over 13 years of experience working on these programs.
Meredith Marsh serves as the chief of value-based services for Health Choice Network (HCN) in which she provides direct oversight of the Network’s value-based contracting, data analytics, clinical quality and credentialing services used to manage over 190,000 covered patient lives. Meredith has dedicated the last 20 years to serving South Florida’s healthcare and nonprofit sectors. She joined Health Choice Network in 2011 under the South Florida Regional Extension Center and later transitioned to the role of Executive Director for HCN’s two ACOs, Health Choice Care, formed in 2014, and Health Choice Community Partners, formed in 2023, both Medicare Shared Savings Program’s by HCN’s member centers and partners. Prior to joining HCN, Meredith specialized in health care compliance and coding in the private physician market. She received her bachelor of science degree in health services administration from the University of Central Florida and is certified in health care quality & management.
Jessica Martensen is the vice president of population care management and the interim vice president for telecare and telehealth services for Essentia Health. She is responsible for the development and oversight of care management programs for around 190,000 value-based care beneficiaries and for the virtual care strategy for nearly 500,000 unique patients throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. She has a broad range of nursing leadership experience spanning ambulatory, public health, and post-acute settings and is passionate about quality, patient safety, and operational efficiency. Jessica graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing and a bachelor of art in Spanish from Dickinson State University, ND. She has her master’s in business administration in rural healthcare from the College of St. Scholastica and is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Sara McElroy, PharmD, MS, serves as the director of pharmacy programs for HarmonyCares, which is a leading national provider of home-based primary care services to care for complex and fragile individuals. In her newly developed role, Sara leads the development and implementation of clinical pharmacy services to support cost-effective and high-quality care for these complex patients. Prior to her current role, Sara was national director for pharmacy strategy and programs with OptumCare, where she advanced pharmacist practice by establishing and expanding integrated clinical pharmacist models that improve health outcomes. Her practice foundation is in ambulatory care, having worked for 8 years as a care team, quality, and regulatory pharmacist at The Polyclinic. Sara received her doctor of pharmacy from University of Washington and completed a post graduate community pharmacy residency with an emphasis on ambulatory care, also at UW. She has served on multiple committees and as a national leader with the American Pharmacists Association.
Kevin McNeill, MD is an associate medical director for the Lehigh Valley Accountable Care Organization as well as the Lehigh Valley Physician Hospital Organization (LVPHO). His work with the ACO includes serving as the chair of the quality committee and assisting with operations and strategy for the MSSP population. His work with the LVPHO includes outreach and support of clinician members on population health and value-based care performance. He is a practicing family physician, faculty member of the Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG) Family Medicine Residency Program and assistant clinical professor for the USF Morsani College of Medicine SELECT Program. Dr. McNeill received his MD from UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and completed his family medicine residency at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
Robert Mechanic, M.B.A, is executive director of the Institute for Accountable Care, a non-profit research institute dedicated to studying innovative health care payment and delivery models and federal health policy through health care claims data analysis. He is also senior fellow at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University where he worked extensively on design and analysis of bundled payment models. Mr. Mechanic was previously senior vice president with the Massachusetts Hospital Association and vice president with the Lewin Group. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs. From 2011 – 2022 Mr. Mechanic was a trustee of Atrius Health, an 800-physician multispecialty group practice in Eastern Massachusetts. He earned his MBA in finance from The Wharton School.
Nathan Moore is the medical director of Barnes Jewish Hospital’s ACO, a practicing primary care physician and co-authored the widely successful book, The Health Care Handbook: A Clear and Concise Guide to the United States Health Care System, which is a useful handbook for physicians. Dr. Moore is a leader in VBC and will lead our conversation on clinical documentation – both on compliance and clinical management of documented HCCs.
Alyssa Neumann, MPH is senior analyst of regulatory affairs at NAACOS, where she works on a variety of regulatory issues related to ACOs and value-based care. Prior to NAACOS, Alyssa served as program coordinator at the Primary Care Collaborative, writing and managing grant projects related to primary care transformation and providing support for policy work and communications. She is an active volunteer in the community, working as a mentor with the Big Brother Big Sister program and a teaching fellow with Girls Health Ed, providing vital health information to vulnerable youth.
Other prior experiences include work as a graduate teaching assistant in Biostatistics at the George Washington University, a Federal Affairs internship with the National Association of Community Health Centers, and university research focused on topics such as behavioral health, health literacy, and the social drivers of health. Alyssa earned her Master’s in Public Health in Health Policy and Management at the GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health, and she holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Sociology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of South Florida.
Stephen Nuckolls is the chief executive officer of Coastal Carolina Health Care, PA, and its 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. They currently participate in the MSSP’s Enhanced Track and have value-based contracts with Medicare advantage as well as commercial plans. Mr. Nuckolls facilitated the formation of the group 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 in a number of roles on the executive committee including board chair from 2016-2017. In addition to these responsibilities, he serves on the board of Community Care of NC as well as several advisory boards and committees for the North Carolina Medical Society and is a frequent speaker on ACOs and related topics.
Margarita Ollet, RN, MBA, is the chief operating officer of Health Choice Network, Inc. (HCN) and Health Choice Network of Florida (HCNFL) and chief executive officer of Health Choice Care (HCC). Ms. Ollet has more than 25 years of experience in South Florida’s dynamic health care arena. Ms. Ollet employs her vast expertise in the clinical and managed care arenas to guide her in directing HCN’s managed care activities and the development, oversight and operations of the network’s MSO infrastructure. Ms. Ollet joined HCN after serving as vice president of managed care for Jessie Trice Community Health System. Prior to assuming this position, she worked in similar positions at Management Utilization Review Associates and Jackson Memorial Hospital Health Plan, having launched her clinical nursing career by serving as a clinical registered nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Ms. Ollet received an MBA in health services administration from the University of Miami and a bachelor of science in nursing from Florida International University. She is a certified health care risk manager and holds a certificate from the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Providers.
Andrea Osborne has been working in the healthcare field for over 20 years. Ms. Osborne works for VillageMD having had multiple roles including managing director of operations for the Indianapolis market and the national vice president of post-acute care. She currently serves as senior vice president of delegated services overseeing operations of Medicare CMMI models, claims payment and utilization management for multiple commercial and MA payers. In her tenor of operating models under CMMI, she has managed multiple at-risk programs across the nation including MSSP, Next Generation ACO and DCE programs. Currently, Ms. Osborne manages six Global Direct Contracting models with over 70,000 Medicare beneficiaries.
Wayne Pan, MD, is the chief executive officer of Semler Scientific and has served as a member of the board of directors of Semler Scientific, Inc since May 2014. He has over 20 years of broad healthcare industry experience from clinical medicine, to managed care, health information technology and biotechnology. He is currently medical director at Banner Health, insurance division, responsible for all of Banner’s Medicare Programs, including HMO, PPO and D-SNP. Prior to Banner, he was co-founder and chief medical officer of Salusive, Inc., a technology-enabled healthcare services company, providing chronic care management and remote patient monitoring services to help physicians manage older adults with chronic conditions, leveraging a proprietary NLP/AI platform that enhances the effectiveness of clinical coaches in real-time as they connect with their patients. Dr. Pan holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MD and PhD from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and a BS in biology from Johns Hopkins University.
Ashish Parikh, MD, is the chief quality officer at Summit Health, where he is responsible for helping providers implement value-based care strategies in clinical practice through reduction in practice variation, evidence-based clinical care delivery, and provider engagement. Dr. Parikh oversees the Universal Provider Incentive Program helping drive providers to achieve optimal patient outcomes and success in value-based contracts. Dr. Parikh went to the University of Miami as part of the honors program in medical education. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and continues to practice primary care internal medicine at Summit Medical Group.
Yubin Park, Ph.D., is chief data and analytics officer at Apollo Medical Holdings, Inc. He oversees value-based care analytics, remote patient monitoring, and partnerships with third-party data vendors in his current position. Yubin started his career by founding a healthcare analytics start-up after obtaining his Ph.D. degree in machine learning at the University of Texas at Austin. His first start-up, Accordion Health, provided an AI-driven risk adjustment and quality analytics platform to Medicare Advantage plans. In 2017, Evolent Health acquired his company, and there, he led various clinical transformation/innovation projects. In 2020, he then founded his second start-up, Orma Health. The company built a virtual care and analytics platform for payers and providers in value-based care, e.g., direct contracting entities and accountable care organizations. At Orma, he worked with many sizes of risk-bearing primary care and specialty groups, helping them connect with patients through virtual care technologies. ApolloMed acquired Orma Health in 2022.
Kathy Parsons serves as the vice president of population health for CentraCare as well as serving as the executive director for the Central Minnesota ACO. In addition to focusing on internal strategy to drive improvement, Kathy is also responsible for several strategic programs including a coordinated care clinic for high risk/high needs populations, correctional care services, employer strategy and community wellness at CentraCare.
Jennifer Perloff, PhD, is director of research at the Institute for Accountable Care and a senior scientist at Brandeis University with over 15 years of evaluation and health services research experience. In addition to supporting ACO analytics for IAC, Dr. Perloff directs a variety of research projects analyzing population health models including beneficiary attribution, nurse practitioner/ACO staffing and low value care. She is a national expert in episode-based payment and led the design of analytic reports for health systems participating in CMMI’s bundled payment for care improvement (BPCI) model. Dr. Perloff helped lead the team that developed the Episode Grouper for Medicare (EGM), a comprehensive system with over 800 chronic, acute and treatment episodes. She has done extensive research on the cost and quality of nurse practitioner led primary care. Dr. Perloff currently sits on the National Quality Forum’s Scientific Methods Panel and the Heller School Information Security Committee.
John Pilotte, MHPM, is the director of the Performance-based Payment Policy group (P3) within the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mr. Pilotte manages policy development and operations teams for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Medicare’s national ACO program with over 500 ACOs accountable for over 10.9 million Medicare beneficiaries. He also managed the development and implementation of Medicare’s Physician Value Modifier, the predecessor to the current Merit-based Incentive Program (MIPS), as well as resource use measures for physicians, hospitals and post-acute settings. Prior to joining P3, Mr. Pilotte served as the director of the division of payment policy demonstrations in the predecessor of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation where he managed the development and implementation of the physician group practice demonstrations and care coordination demonstrations. Prior to joining CMS, he was a senior healthcare consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers and part of the government relations team at the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. Mr. Pilotte has a master’s in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins University and a BS from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Aisha Pittman, MHP, is the senior vice president of Government Affairs. In her role, Pittman leads NAACOS’ work to promote legislative and regulatory policies that will advance ACOs. She has 19 years of experience in healthcare payment, alternative payment models, healthcare quality measurement, and health information technology. Pittman was previously vice president of policy with Premier, Inc., a group purchasing organization of more than 4,400 hospitals and 225,000 other provider organizations, since September 2019. During her eight years with Premier, she was responsible for working with policymakers, providers, and other healthcare stakeholders to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare. Prior to Premier, Pittman held senior management roles with the National Quality Forum, the Maryland Health Care Commission and CenterLight Healthcare, in addition to experience at the National Committee for Quality Assurance. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and a Master’s in Public Health from The George Washington University. Pittman received GWU’s School of Public Health and Health Services Excellence in Health Policy Award.
David Pittman is senior policy advisor at the National Association of ACOs, where he works on various regulatory policy and legislative topics involving ACOs and CMS Innovation Center models. He also works on communications matters for NAACOS. He joined NAACOS in August 2018 as health policy and communications advisor. Before that, he worked as a healthcare journalist for nearly a dozen years, including at POLITICO where he helped launch the website’s eHealth coverage in 2014. He was a fellow of the Association of Health Care Journalists in 2014, researching how states were adopting payment and delivery system reforms as budgets struggled to recover from the recession of the late 2000s. David holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and chemistry from the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 2006.
Arjun Prakash is the financial lead of the ACO REACH model at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He oversees policy, operations, and communications related to accountable care benchmarks, risk adjustment, and health equity. Previously, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York where he served risk-bearing provider organizations in developing value-based care strategies, arrangements, and capabilities; and additionally, was a fellow at the firm’s healthcare reform think tank. He graduated from the University of Michigan with concentrations in finance and accounting and minors in computer science and history.
Bob Rauner, MD, MPH, splits his time between two jobs, chief medical officer of OneHealth Nebraska ACO and president of Partnership for a Heathy Nebraska, as well as serving on the board of directors Lincoln Public Schools. Dr. Rauner received his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Creighton University, his medical degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, his residency training in family medicine at the Lincoln Family Medicine Program, and his master of public health degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Prior to his current roles he was a small-town family physician including obstetrics and inpatient care in Sidney, Nebraska from 1998 to 2003, then served on the faculty of the Lincoln Family Medicine Program from 2003 to 2010, and then transitioned into health leadership and policy roles after finishing his MPH in 2010. His wife Lisa is also a family physician.
Arshad Rahim, MD, serves as chief medical officer and senior vice president for Mount Sinai Health System Population Health and for the Mount Sinai Clinically Integrated Network, which includes 7,000 employed and community providers. Dr. Rahim has over 20 years of healthcare industry leadership experience at innovative organizations and companies including as vice president of quality for Essence Healthcare and Lumeris, a population health and analytics company. He also served as group vice president of quality improvement and innovation at Healthgrades. Dr. Rahim has a BA in economics from Duke University, an MD from the University of North Carolina, and an MBA from Emory University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University and Northwestern University. He is an actively practicing primary care internist and hospitalist at the Mount Sinai Hospital.
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 currently the board chair on the board of directors for NAACOS. 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.
Megan Reyna is the system vice president of practice transformation and quality improvement for Advocate Health, Midwest. Under her leadership, Ms. Reyna’s team leads the value-based care practice performance support, government programs, quality improvement and condition management and documentation teams to assist the organization in achieving national quality and value-based care outcomes across Illinois and Wisconsin. In her role, she oversees the operations of two Medicare Shared Savings (MSSP) ACOs that continue to achieve significant taxpayer savings and provide high quality care and one ACO REACH, in addition to the performance of 1.3M lives in over 40 value-based care contracts. She has been a featured speaker and panelist on the topic of ACOs and value-based care at numerous national conferences and was the Past Chair of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) Quality Committee. A registered nurse by background, Ms. Reyna received her MSN from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Frank Richter, chief financial officer for ilumed since 2018, is responsible for all of the company’s financial functions and drives care-management reporting and analytics. His financial and operational expertise ensures efficient budget organization and exceptional profitability for all shareholders, while coordinating with partners to offer state-of-the-art solutions that streamline systems, coordinate better quality care and outcomes for patients and pioneers change in the healthcare industry. For six years prior to joining ilumed, Mr. Richter served as vice president of data analytics for Conviva Care Centers where he honed superior skills in financial analysis, data reporting, budget and forecasting on a massive operational scale. His leadership led to practice acquisitions and the identification of new business opportunities. He created new forecasting tools and educated staff on proper documentation and managing vendor relationships. During Mr. Richter’s eight years with Metropolitan Health Networks, he led both the information technology and financial functions. He ensured top-level security and functionality of all systems and was a key member of the project team which performed successful medical record migrations, seamless integration of newly acquired practices and business continuity policies. He was also responsible for spearheading the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance project including liaising with external auditors regarding controls, processes and compliance.
Rachel Roiland joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in April of 2022. Dr. Roiland’s current role is as a nurse in the division of specialty payment models within the Patient Care Models Group. In this role, she is focused on the implementation of the Innovation Center’s specialty care strategy and offering subject matter expertise on quality measurement. Prior to joining the Innovation Center, Dr. Roiland was an assistant research director on the health care transformation team at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy in Washington, DC. In this role, she led projects focused on the design and implementation of value-based care models for a variety of patient populations and care settings. She has also previously worked at the National Quality Forum leading projects on the review and endorsement of health care-focused quality measures. Dr. Roiland has clinical nursing experience working with older adults and their families in post-acute care settings. She has her BS, MS, and PhD in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Alejandro (Alex) Romillo, president and chief executive officer of Health Choice Network Inc. (HCN), oversees the strategic direction of the Florida-based, non-profit health center-controlled network. Alex has served in the CEO role since February 2016 and prior to that as the chief operating officer since October 2012, and chief information officer for HCN since September 2010. In addition, Alex currently serves as the chief operating officer for both ACOs, Health Choice Care, LLC founding executive team member, and Health Choice Community Partners, LLC. In 2008, he became a founding member of Prestige Health Choice, LLC., a provider service network majorly owned by health centers providing healthcare services to over 300K Medicaid Floridians. Until June 2003, Alex served as a member of the executive team of a FQHC — Community Health of South Dade, where he supported the organization’s information technology and business operations. Alex joined the health information technology trade in 1992 using his expertise and leadership strategies to implement cost effective and leading-edge technology solutions to reach the most vulnerable patient populations. His passion lies in community health, focusing on primary care integrated models supporting behavioral, oral, school-based health, and homeless health integration.
Ashok Roy is a practicing board-certified internal medicine physician who joined Caravan Health as the chief medical officer in August 2020. Dr. Roy provides overarching clinical leadership and shapes the clinical vision for Caravan’s participating physicians and ACOs. With a passion for equal and equitable health care delivery, he oversees the development and implementation of innovative and effective clinical strategies and programs. Dr. Roy has more than 20 years of experience in population health, working as a consultant, administrator and provider for health care systems, payers, outpatient clinics and governmental and military organizations. He embraces the utilization of data to create patient-specific clinical experiences that improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, while decreasing unnecessary utilization and minimizing health care costs. Prior to joining Caravan Health, Dr. Roy was the chief medical officer of clinical solutions and analytics at Lumeris. He analyzed potential value-based opportunities among health care systems and designed clinical programs to address those opportunities. He helped operations teams implement the programs by adapting to the resources and culture of participating clinics, and made sure that timely, accurate and actionable dashboards were created to measure progress. Dr. Roy received his medical degree from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Medical Center in New York City. He also received a master of public health from Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, and a MBA from Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Valinda Rutledge is the chief corporate affairs officer for UpStream and responsible for planning, coordinating, representing and articulating the company’s strategic plan and mission across multiple platforms and stakeholders, aligning the corporate governance, government relations, public affairs and community relations with the Company’s corporate communications and corporate strategy. She was formerly the executive vice president of federal affairs for APG in which she was responsible for all federal government affairs activities in DC. She oversaw APG’s legislative and regulatory agenda, the political action committee and other aspects such as analyzing legislation regulations and new payment models. She previously worked as a founding member of the leadership team at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation (CMMI) where she helped build the Innovation Center from its startup phase and managed the design and launch of several of the Center’s Alternative Payment models. Ms. Rutledge served 14 years as the chief executive officer of several health systems within Bon Secours, CHI and SSM Health. Ms. Rutledge received the 2013 Becker’s Healthcare Leadership Award, which is given to the top 30 individuals in the nation who demonstrate leadership and impact to the industry on a national level. Ms. Rutledge holds two advanced degrees: an MBA degree from Butler University in Indianapolis and a MS degree in nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Naomi Senkeeto is a managing director of health equity policy at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) where she leads policy and strategy development for addressing health disparities and advancing equity through legislative and regulatory policy. She also serves as the policy and advocacy representative for BCBSA’s National Health Equity Strategy. Prior to this role, she led BCBSA’s policy development on ACA-related financial management and payment policy issues as well as the federal budget and appropriation processes. Prior to joining BCBSA, Ms. Senkeeto served as a senior analyst in the Office of Health Insurance Exchanges in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to CCIIO, she was the associate director for policy and strategic alliances at the American Diabetes Association. She has held policy positions with the American College of Physicians, Reproductive Health Technologies Project and the American Association of University Women. Ms. Senkeeto received her master’s in public policy from the George Washington University and has a BA in political science from Rutgers University.
Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, is an accomplished, strategic leader with a deep understanding of health economics and a heart-felt commitment to outstanding patient care. Her diverse background as a health care executive, health economist, physician and health policy expert has given her a unique perspective on how health policy impacts the real lives of patients. She most recently served as vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health, where she conceptualized, designed and implemented population health and value-based care initiatives and served on the senior leadership of the 10 hospital, 300+ outpatient care site health system. The care models and service lines under her leadership, including community health, geriatrics and palliative care, have been nationally recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others. She also cared for patients as an assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Seshamani also brings decades of policy experience to her role, including recently serving on the leadership of the Biden-Harris Transition HHS Agency Review Team. Prior to MedStar Health, she was director of the office of health reform at the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she drove strategy and led implementation of the Affordable Care Act across the Department, including coverage policy, delivery system reform and public health policy. She received her BA with honors in business economics from Brown University, her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her PhD in health economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar. She completed her residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and practiced as a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.
Brian Sims is the vice president of quality and equity, for the Maryland Hospital Association (MHA). At MHA he leads the association’s efforts to advance health equity throughout the field and leads the hospital quality policy advocacy efforts. He works in partnership with legislators, regulatory agencies, hospital leadership and various stakeholders to understand key issues and develop appropriate strategies to advance the fields priorities. Mr. Sims is the president-elect of the Maryland Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), and in 2022, he was appointed to the Maryland Commission on Health Equity: Health Equity Policy Commission.
Norman Storwick is the vice president of analytics and chief actuary for Lumeris. As a leader in analytics, he is responsible for the development and implementation of advanced analytics and business intelligence solutions. He was previously a director of data and analytics for Forecast Health. Mr. Storwick is passionate about using predictive models and other advanced analytics to improve healthcare outcomes and finances. Mr. Storwick holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago and holds actuarial certifications from the FSA and MAAA.
Nicholas Stine, MD, is a primary care physician and senior vice president for population health at CommonSpirit, one of the largest nonprofit health systems and Medicaid providers in the United States. His national population health team is accountable for 2.4 million attributed lives and $10 billion in total medical spending, driving key priorities to care for vulnerable populations and address health inequities, including national initiatives to address Hepatitis C, health-related social needs, and advance innovative care models. Previously, Dr. Stine was the founding chief medical officer for the New York City Health + Hospitals ACO at Bellevue Hospital. Under his leadership, it successfully reduced costs and improved quality in each of its first 8 performance years, generating over $40 million in MSSP savings to reinvest in primary care and prevention, making it the nation’s most successful safety net ACO. Dr. Stine is a practicing internal medicine physician and clinical faculty at the University of California San Francisco and St. Mary’s Medical Center. He was an assistant professor of population health at the NYU School of Medicine. He has published in prominent journals such as NEJM, JAMA, and Health Affairs. He was elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine in 2015, and named to the Crain’s New York “40 Under 40” list in 2016. He trained in internal medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, with clinical work in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, the Indian Health Service, Botswana and Haiti. Dr. Stine received his MD from Penn as a Gamble Scholar, and graduated from Dartmouth College as a Watson Scholar.
In 2017, Beth Souder joined the DVACO as the director of post-acute care and currently serve as the vice president of clinical operations. She is responsible for the oversight and execution of the care coordination, quality improvement, and care-continuum strategies as well as serving as the clinical lead for payors, health-system leadership, and the community. Leveraging her post-grad course work in Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt, Beth applies a DMAIC, top of license, lean approach informed by clinical data analytics to our clinical operations strategy to eliminate waste, manage outliers, close operational gaps, reduce variability in practice, and increase efficiency to optimize our performance in all contracts. Prior to joining the DVACO in 2017, Beth served for 17 years in progressive executive operational leadership roles at Main Line Health. She hold a BA in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and an MS in physical therapy with active licensure in the State of PA.
Tiara Swindell is the Director of ACO Operations for Tandigm Health. Tandigm is a population health management company that aims to improve healthcare quality in the greater Philadelphia region while driving cost efficiency through validated health management tools, proprietary clinical support services and a value-based financial incentive model. In her role, she works cross functionally to ensure strategies which are implemented lead to multi-year growth and program success. She has industry experience from front-line operations to helping organizations expand the reach of population health services for hospitals and independent provider practices.
Fred Taweel, MD, is the chief medical officer of Privia Medical Group — Mid-Atlantic and the chairman of the board of governors for Privia Medical Group and Privia Quality Network–Mid-Atlantic. Dr. Taweel joined Privia in 2013, working closely with senior management to form the company as a member of Privia’s first practice. Along with practicing primary care medicine part-time, Dr. Taweel serves on several committees, including the payer and finance, clinical performance and compliance committees. He entered primary care practice in 1991, became managing partner of Internal Medicine Associates of Reston, LLC in 2001, and served on the board of trustees at HCA Reston Hospital Center from 2001 to 2009. Dr. Taweel received his medical doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1988 and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan Hospitals in 1991.
Annie Thomas serves as the senior director of implementation, leading a team on a mission to help Aledade’s 1500+ partner practices and community health centers leverage 60+ different EHRs to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and increase efficiency. Prior to joining Aledade, she gained experience in the clinical laboratory field and held several healthcare operations roles including managing primary care and specialty practices that were transitioning into value-based care and launching population health programs, as well as leading information technology, interoperability, and EHR support teams. She has a passion for aligning the utilization of technology with efficient workflows so people can focus on what matters most.
Merrill Thomas is the CEO of The Providence Community Health Centers, Inc. (PCHC). Merrill has over forty years of non-profit management experience with specific expertise in Community Health Center operations and management. Merrill joined PCHC in 1997 as the organization’s director of finance and operations. Prior to assuming this position, he served as the chief financial officer of the Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center in Massachusetts. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Merrill graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor of arts in economics. He has an MBA from Providence College. Merrill also graduated from the University of California’s John E. Anderson School of Management at UCLA Johnson and Johnson/UCLA Health Care Executive Program. Merrill sits on many boards and committees; he is the vice chair of Health Choice Network, Inc., and the board chair for two Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Health Choice Care and Health Choice Community Partners in addition to many others.
Alisha Thornton is an accomplished healthcare professional with a background in healthcare marketing and solution implementation. As the director of client success at Brilliant Care, Ms. Thornton is responsible for educating ACO leaders, providers and their care teams on the Brilliant Care program and helping to customize the program to best meet the needs and objectives of each. Before joining Brilliant Care, Ms. Thornton worked with Primary Care and Internal Medicine Physicians, helping them launch concierge medicine programs within their practice, and prior to that has over a decade of experience in healthcare marketing, mostly in cardiology.
Mike Van Scoy, MD, is currently the chief medical officer for Arkos Health-North Dakota. Dr. Van Scoy previously served as population health medical director at Essentia. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is board certified in internal medicine and hospice/palliative medicine. Dr. Van Scoy’s areas of experience include documentation and coding, facility and post-acute care. pharmacy care management. referral management, case management, and telehealth applications.
Jessica Walradt manages Northwestern Medicine’s government value-based care portfolio, which includes BPCI Advanced, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Oncology Care Model, and components of the Quality Payment Program. Prior to this, she led the Association of American Medical Colleges’ policy, advocacy, and data analytic efforts surrounding alternative payment models. She directly supported approximately 60 hospitals’ and provider groups’ efforts to implement Medicare bundled payment programs. Ms. Walradt holds an MS in health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health and a BA in political science from the University of Richmond.
Debbie Welle-Powell is a health care thought leader, educator, national speaker, and content expert in delivery systems models of care, population health and digital care. As the former chief population health officer at Essentia Health. She designed, built, and operationalized Essentia’s $2.5 billion dollar transition from a primarily fee-for-service model of care to one that focused on value, the patient and risk-based contracting with payers. Her twenty-five years of exceptional and national executive healthcare experience and background in multi-state, large integrated delivery systems, coupled with industry involvement and insights into emerging opportunities, trends, and challenges have been valuable to health systems and purchasers seeking to grow, diversity and promote its expertise in the development and implementation of data-driven strategies and solutions in population health and value-based care. Ms. Welle-Powell currently serves on many national and local boards including the National Association of ACOs, National Committee on Quality Assurance, Summit Community Care Clinic in Frisco, Colorado, and she teaches at the University of Colorado’s Executive MBA program. Her work has earned her many honors including being recognized as one of 58 Top Leaders in Population Health by Becker’s in 2022, Colorado’s Most Powerful and Influential Women Award, Outstanding Businesswoman Award from the Denver community, the Frances Wisebart Jacobs Award for Philanthropy from Mile High United Way, and Health Care Champion award from Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved.
Karen Wilding is the chief value officer and president of Nemours Children’s Health and Delaware Children’s Health Network. Working “well beyond medicine”, Karen’s areas of focus include the growth of strategic partnerships that support the value journey, clinical practice transformation, and emerging payment models. Karen also provides executive oversight for the Delaware Children’s Health Network (DCHN), the Nemours-owned clinically integrated network. The DCHN partners with practices and payers to ensure the most efficient, effective, equitable, and high-quality care; the foremost goal is improved population health outcomes and create the “healthiest generations”. A former first responder, she has over twenty years of experience in healthcare, with over ten years in senior leadership for accountable care, analytics, and quality. She holds a master’s degree in health administration, several professional certifications, and serves on the board of directors for NAACOS.
Phyllis Wojtusik
With over thirty-five years of health care experience, Phyllis draws on her experience as a Registered Nurse in acute care, ambulatory care, and post-acute care to bring vital input and client-side perspective into the development of Real Time’s Interventional Analytics solutions. A true expert in the field of long-term care, Phyllis is also an integral part of Real Time’s coordinated care effort, working to bring skilled nursing facilities and hospitals/health systems together for the benefit of the patient. Prior to joining Real Time Medical Systems, Phyllis led the development of a preferred provider SNF network for PENN Medicine Lancaster General Health. In this network she developed and implemented strategies that reduced total cost of care and readmissions while improving quality measures and patient outcomes. She utilized system approaches, clinical standards, and care management tactics to improve coordination and transition of care while reducing post-acute length of stay in a network of non-owned SNFs. Phyllis speaks nationally and regionally on transitions of care, care coordination, and post-acute network development and management. Phyllis graduated from Lancaster General School of Nursing and Franklin and Marshal College with degrees in nursing and science.
Shirley Wong, PharmD, APh serves as an associate professor at the UCSF School of Pharmacy in San Francisco and is the pharmacist lead for hypertension disparities efforts at UCSF. Throughout her career, she has implemented numerous pharmacist embedded ambulatory programs at UC and non-UC affiliated primary care clinics at UCLA, Zuckerberg San Francisco General and UCSF. Under her leadership and guidance, teams strive to achieve coordinated high-quality care, promote safe prescribing practices and close health inequities among underserved and marginalized populations. Ms. Wong is passionate about collaborating across disciplines to achieve shared goals, leveraging the role of pharmacists in multidisciplinary teams and using data tools to inform and guide decisions and interventions in the medically underserved population. She graduated from UCSF School of Pharmacy and completed residency training at Loma Linda University.