Maria Alexander is the senior director of government channels for Mount Sinai Health System, where she oversees Mount Sinai’s participation in the Medicare Shared Savings Program and advises on other government payer programs and policy. Prior to joining Mount Sinai in 2018, she spent six years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), most recently as a division director in the Innovation Center. During her time at CMS, she helped develop the Pioneer ACO Model, the Comprehensive ESRD Care Model, and worked on several initiatives focused on dual eligible populations. She holds a BA from Tufts University.
Andrew Allison is On Belay’s chief executive officer. He most recently served as Aetna’s head of next generation clinic strategy, where he was the enterprise subject matter expert on Medicare risk contracting and training Aetna’s 1,000+ network leaders. He was responsible for developing strategic relationships with the most advanced physician groups across the country, including his prior employer Iora Health. In his role at Iora, he developed the company’s growth strategy, led payer negotiations, and secured full risk, global capitation Medicare contracts with multiple national health plans. He started his career on Wall Street and has helped build multiple companies.
Laura Balsamini, PharmD, BCPS is the national vice president of pharmacy services at Summit Health. Dr. Balsamini specializes in medication therapy management, drug use and drug safety review, and continuing pharmacotherapy education for physicians. In her position, Dr. Balsamini advises physicians about drug use and control. She also develops and evaluates clinical guidelines for medication protocols. Before joining Summit Health, Dr. Balsamini was a clinical pharmacy specialist with the Veteran’s Administration Healthcare System of New Jersey. She has been a drug safety scientist with Novartis Consumer Health, a clinical safety manager with Medco, and a pharmacist with the Great Atlantic & Pacific (A & P) Tea, Co. Dr. Balsamini is a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, New Jersey Pharmacist Association, and American Pharmacists Association.
James Barr, MD, presently serves as VP of physician value-based programs at Atlantic Health System. His role includes chief medical officer of the Atlantic Health System and Optimus Healthcare Partner ACOs, providing value analytics and data science capabilities. His areas of expertise include population risk intelligence, clinical variance management, patient retention/growth, cost impact analytics and precision care. He manages physician engagement, clinical integration, patient engagement and overall performance for over 3,000 providers and 500,000 members in value-based arrangements. Dr. Barr is a family physician with 32 years of practice experience at Pleasant Run Family Physicians. He obtained his medical degree from Hahnemann University and is an expert in health care transformation models.
Mike Barrett is Collaborative Health Systems’ vice president of strategy and development. In his role, Mike works with provider organizations of every type to guide projects from concept to implementation, configuring relationships so that all stakeholders achieve success. These partnerships include Medicare ACOs and other business operating partnerships, producing industry-leading value for all CHS constituents. Mike brings more than 35 years of varied health care experience to the CHS mission. He has held leadership positions in hospital organizations and large physician groups, as well as with IPAs and even HMOs. Mike served as chair of the NAACOS board of directors from 2012–2015.
Henish Bhansali, MD, is a physician executive at Duly Health and Care, serving as their SVP and medical director of Medicare Advantage. Prior to Duly, he was the senior medical director of care navigation at Oak Street Health, leading strategy and operations for specialty care at 90+ clinics and 100,000+ MA patients in 20 states. Dr. Bhansali’s tenure in medical education includes serving as an APD for the University of Chicago’s IM program and CME lead for 300+ physicians. He trained in IM and was chief resident at Washington University-Barnes Jewish Hospital, serving as their director of global health.
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.
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’s 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.
David Clain presently serves as chief product officer at Health Data Analytics Institute (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. He 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.
Doug Clarke, MD, is a practicing internal medicine physician and medical officer in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation where he implemented and leads the acute hospital care at home waiver initiative at CMS. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia and completed his residency at George Washington University. He has practiced as a hospitalist at a small hospital in rural Virginia and on faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina. He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where he triple-majored in economics, finance, and strategy.
Robert Daley is a senior policy advisor at NAACOS where he contributes to developing the association’s federal advocacy strategy on a wide range of legislative and regulatory issues. He is a public policy professional with over a decade of experience advising Members of Congress and private sector government affairs stakeholders. He draws on this experience to help manage the association’s relationships with lawmakers and administration officials to ensure ACOs’ interests are being represented during the policymaking process in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining NAACOS in January 2022, Mr. Daly spent five years as a legislative director at Polsinelli PC, an Am 100 law firm, representing the public policy interests of a wide range of health care clients, including working to secure favorable legislative changes on several value-based care initiatives impacting ACOs and advanced payment models (APMs). Before that, he spent six years working on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) where he gained a thorough understanding of the legislative process and the role stakeholders play in the development and implementation of public policy. His experience as a former Congressional staffer and government affairs advisor helps him effectively communicate the association’s priorities directly to policymakers in Congress and the Administration. Mr. Daly is a graduate of American University, and a member of the Society of Health Policy Young Professionals. He is also a member of several state society organizations and continues to develop and maintain an extensive bipartisan network of contacts across Washington’s policymaking landscape.
Tabita (Ta-bee-da) Delisca is a senior quality improvement specialist at Summit Health where she serves as a subject matter expert in identifying improvement opportunities, developing action plans, and educating key stakeholders. Tabita holds an MSN from Fairleigh Dickinson University and has extensive background in acute rehab nursing, prospective payment system, data collection and medical coding. As a lifelong learner, Tabita is passionate about gaining and sharing knowledge with a focus on improving healthcare delivery and optimizing patient outcomes.
Whitney Denin, MSN, RN, CCM, serves as a clinical coordinator for Nebraska Health Network, the accountable care organization for Methodist Health System and Nebraska Medicine. She joined the NHN team in 2019 after numerous years of clinical experience. As a clinical coordinator, Whitney specializes in MSSP and Medicaid contracts. Her expertise surrounding Medicare Annual Wellness Visits has helped increase completion rates by educating clinics and providers on the patient and operational benefits of the visits. She obtained her bachelor of science in nursing from Clarkson College and went on to complete her master of science in nursing administration and management at Aspen University. In 2011, she was licensed as a registered nurse and became licensed as a certified case manager in 2016. Before joining the NHN, Whitney worked in level one trauma, medical-surgical, and as a director of nursing specializing in traumatic brain injury as a certified brain injury specialist. She spotlighted as a hospice nurse for three years, which enhanced her understanding of the Medicare population.
Meghan Elrington-Clayton is the director of the division of financial risk in the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Innovation Center, which tests innovative payment and service delivery models in the Medicare and Medicaid Programs to reduce program expenditure while preserving or enhancing quality of care. She manages Accountable Care Organization (ACO) models such as the Next Generation ACO Model and the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model, which strive to drive high quality, affordable, patient-centered care for Medicare beneficiaries by encouraging providers to coordinate services across multiple clinicians and care settings.
Mrs. Elrington-Clayton joined CMS in 2005 as a health insurance specialist in the Center for Medicare, where she developed and implemented payment policies for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program including policies regarding bidding, reinsurance, risk corridors, and the low-income subsidies. During her tenure at CMS, she also supported the implementation of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act related to private health insurance and the new Health Insurance Marketplaces as the division director for the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program and the Division of Reinsurance within the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. Prior to her arrival at CMS, she worked with the Envision Consulting Group, where she assisted pharmaceutical manufacturers with developing and reporting drug pricing for federal government programs. She is a graduate of Yale University and holds a master’s degree in public health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Robert Fields, MD, 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, he 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. He came to Mount Sinai in March of 2018 as the SVP and CMO for population health. He 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. Dr. Fields 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. He earned his master of health administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elizabeth Fowler, Ph.D., J.D., is the deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). Dr. Fowler previously served as executive vice president of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and vice president for global health policy at Johnson & Johnson. Liz 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 also played a key role drafting the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Liz 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 Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Liz is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Matt Gitzinger is the system director of population health operations for UNC Health Alliance, UNC Health’s clinically integrated network and population health services organization. Matt’s team is responsible for value contract support services, such as data abstraction, gap closure patient outreach and preventive appointment scheduling. In 2021, his team supported CIN providers and served all UNC Health patients through the closure of 115,000 gaps. When COVID-19 vaccines became available, Matt’s team was tasked with implementing the equitable vaccine distribution across UNC Health locations. Matt is an active member and secretary of the Triangle Health Executives’ Forum (THEF) and a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). He received his bachelor of science in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his master of health administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Jim Giordano is currently executive director of St Joseph’s Health Partners Clinically Integrated Network and Mission Health ACO. He and his team support approximately 650 physicians in value-based pursuits that include an MSSP Basic E ACO, BPCI A Bundles, Medicare Advantage agreements and a Commercial ACO. He has more than 25 years of healthcare management experience, including senior leadership roles in hospital systems, partner roles in healthcare consulting firms and most recently as a market development and strategy executive in a value based managed care organization. His expertise includes value-based care strategy, physician network development, payer contracting, population health technology and clinical infrastructure development.
Josh Gray presently serves as VP of analytic services at Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI), a predictive analytics company based in Boston, MA. He 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.
Louisa Holaday is a primary care physician and health services researcher whose work focuses on the effects of neighborhood and community on health, including the spillover effects of mass incarceration. She is also interested in increasing diversity in the physician workforce. She completed medical school at the University of Michigan, where she did her undergraduate work with a focus in metropolitan studies. She was born and raised in New York City and returned home for residency in primary care/social internal medicine at Montefiore, where she was chief resident. Following residency, she did a research fellowship at the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale University.
Daniel Hyman, DO, wears many hats at Cooper University Health Care where he is medical director, population health and primary care, internal medicine physician, primary care physician and CEO of the AllCare Health Alliance. Dr. Hyman is also an associate professor of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. He is board certified by theAmerican Board of Preventive Medicine in public health & general preventive medicine and by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine – general. Dr. Hyman completed medical school at the Philadelphia College Osteopathic Medicine and did residencies at St. Joseph Medical Center and Cooper University Hospital.
Gary Jacobs currently serves as the executive director of VillageMD’s Center for Public Policy. The Center manages the companies national and grass roots advocacy efforts, coordinates the VillageMD Political Action Committee and represents the company’s interests through the various trade associations and coalitions it is engaged in as well as before Congress, the Administration and before state governments. He is a seasoned health care executive with a wide breadth of experience in the government program’s market and 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 health care companies. Recognized for quickly assessing the big picture and implementing workable plans to increase revenue and profitability targets, he has a keen understanding of public policy and its role in influencing a program’s profitability and ultimate success.
Kimberly Kauffman is vice president of clinical performance at Aledade, Inc. In this role, she supports value-based care (VBC) contracts with CMS/CMMI, Medicare Advantage, commercial health plans and Medicaid managed care by working with teams that specialize in clinical documentation integrity, quality reporting, pharmacy, clinical outcomes improvement, patient outreach and post acute coordination. Prior to joining Aledade, Ms. Kauffman was the chief VBC officer for MaxHealth, a primary care group based in Florida with 120+ providers, and, before that, was chief VBC officer for Summit Medical Group, a primary care group with 300+ providers based in Tennessee. Her background includes a leadership role in a large independent physicians’ association (IPA) in Florida and in a multi-hospital physician hospital organization (PHO). She received her master’s degree from the college of public health at the University of Florida.
Thomas Kim received his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School and then completed his training at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Kim started his career as a hospitalist in 2003 and eventually became the medical director for the hospitalist group. He has since served as a regional medical director with Sound Physicians and currently serves as the value based care medical director with Sound. Dr. Kim is passionate about delivering the highest quality of care to the communities that they serve with the greatest efficiency and at the greatest value.
David Klebonis is chief operating officer of Palm Beach ACO (PBACO). PBACO is a physician owned and operated independent network of approximately 400 primary care physicians and 200 specialist physicians. He is a part of the original executive team that lead PBACO to save Medicare a total of $544M over 8.5 performance years, the most in program history. He is a former practice administrator and consultant specializing in value-based contracting, program advocacy, value-based analytics, EHR and workflow improvement. He has a BS and MS in business from the University of Florida.
Thomas Kloos, MD, is vice president of Atlantic Health System, president of the Atlantic ACO and 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 76,000 attributed Medicare beneficiaries and over 370,000 commercial attributed beneficiaries Over 30%% of those beneficiaries are in at-risk contracts. Both ACO’s have been in the MSSP programs since inception. He was a NAACOS board member and past chair. He is a board member of Optimus Healthcare Partners, a physician established ACO. He has served as past president and medical director of Vista Health System IPA. 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.
Matt Kramer is a principal and consulting actuary with Milliman. He assists ACOs with growth strategies and financial monitoring. His work focuses on original Medicare risk programs, including ACO REACH / Direct Contracting and the Medicare Shared Savings Program. He has also been a leader in Milliman’s research regarding the cost of COVID-19 hospitalization. He has been with Milliman since 2013 and previously worked as an actuary at two large health insurance companies.
Jim Lancaster has served as Main Street Health’s chief medical officer for the Southeast region since January of 2022. In his role with Main Street, Dr. Lancaster is focused on revolutionizing rural healthcare by building relationships with primary care practices and implementing an innovative model that provides in office resources and reliable revenue. The current emphasis of his role is on Medicare and Medicare Advantage populations. Earlier in his career, he worked in Tennessee as a primary care (internal medicine) physician and has held multiple hospital leadership positions. After departing practice, he worked as an executive with Cigna in several roles, including regional medical executive with Cigna Medicare, value-based agreements lead, and provider relationships lead. Outside of work he enjoys getting involved in his community. Dr. Lancaster is currently a participant in Leadership Tennessee and serves as board chair of the American Cancer Society’s TN chapter.
Pauline Lapin is the director for the Seamless Care Models Group (SCMG) in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She 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 Plus, Next Generation ACO, and the Comprehensive ESRD Care models, as well as the recently announced Primary Care First and Direct Contracting initiatives. Her group also manages health plan innovation models in Medicare Parts C and D, including the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design, Enhanced Medication Therapy Management, and Part D Modernization models. She has been in federal service at CMS for over 25 years, previously serving as deputy director of SCMG, and as a division director in the office of research, development and information, where she oversaw the design and implementation of a variety of demonstrations, including those related to medical home/advanced primary care practice and prevention. She holds a master of health science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a PhD dropout.
Anders Larson is a principal and consulting actuary with Milliman. Since joining the firm in 2010, he has provided actuarial consulting services to provider organizations, state Medicaid agencies, commercial and Medicaid health plans, and self-funded groups. His experience includes a variety of opportunities supporting accountable care organizations, such as review of shared risk contracts, financial monitoring and projections, provider performance analysis, distribution of shared savings, and assessing health care expenditure savings opportunities. He has also worked with state Medicaid agencies to design, operationalize, and monitor their alternative payment models. He has diverse experience with other healthcare areas, include Medicaid capitation rate setting, actuarial support for health plans, and contribution rate setting for self-funded employers. He has a wide range of experience with predictive analytics applications, from traditional risk adjustment models to modern machine learning algorithms, and he previously served as the chair of the Predictive Analytics and Futurism Section Council of the Society of Actuaries.
Michelle Leslie currently serves as the senior vice president of population health for MaxHealth as well as the executive director for 2 DCEs. Michelle has over a decade of experience working with providers to improve the quality of healthcare while lowering the cost of care. Michelle 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 Michelle’s tenure with Optum, Michelle lead the implementation of Optum’s first Florida Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO. Michelle joined MaxHealth last year, which at that time was awarded 2 DCE contracts. Michelle assisted with developing initial processes for the DCE and recently assumed the role of executive director for both DCEs. Michelle 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.
Jessica Martensen is the vice president of population care management for Essentia Health. She is responsible for the development and oversight of care management programs for over 180,000 beneficiaries 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. Growing up in North Dakota, she has a special interest in rural healthcare and promoting health equity. Ms. Martensen graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing and a bachelor of art in Spanish from Dickinson State University. 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.
Melanie Matthews is the 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.
Robert Mechanic is executive director of the Institute for Accountable Care, where he is responsible for leading its research agenda, data analytics, and health care learning and improvement activities. The Institute for Accountable Care is an independent 501(c)3 organization with a mission to build and disseminate evidence on the impact of accountable care delivery strategies on both quality and cost. He is also a senior fellow at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, where he serves as executive director of the Health Industry Forum. His research focuses on health care payment systems and the adaptation of organizations to new payment models. He has helped hospitals, physician groups and integrated delivery systems evaluate financial, strategic and policy considerations under risk-based payment models. Mr. Mechanic was previously senior vice president with the Massachusetts Hospital Association and was vice president with the Lewin Group, a Washington D.C.-based health care consulting firm. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs. He is a trustee of Atrius Health, an 800-physician multispecialty group practice and Next Generation ACO in Eastern Massachusetts, and he is a senior fellow of the Estes Park Institute. Mr. Mechanic earned an MBA in finance from The Wharton School and a BS in economics with distinction from the University of Wisconsin.
Nathan Moore, MD, is a board-certified internal medicine physician who focuses on cultivating meaningful relationships with his patients so they can work together to prevent and manage chronic conditions. Dr. Moore’s practice is part of BJC Medical Group of Missouri, a well-established, multi-specialty physician group, where he is medical director of the ACO. During his time as a medical student, Dr. Moore 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.
Cheryl Moses is chief nursing officer at Physicians of Southwest Washington (PSW). She has more than 30 years of healthcare experience. She leads via a mission-driven culture that consistently meets value-based contract performance metrics as well as patient health goals. Ms. Moses has comprehensive post-acute care experience including providing INTERACT training through Washington’s QIO program, supporting achievement of the Baldridge Award and receiving recognition for patient safety to post-acute providers around the state of Washington. Under her leadership, PSW has ranked within the top five NGACO programs nationwide for lowest cost of care for SNF utilization during all five years of participation
Alyssa Neumann serves as health policy analyst for the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), providing support for the government affairs team. Prior to NAACOS, she served as senior program associate at the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), providing support for grant projects, policy work, and communications. She is an active volunteer in the community, working as a chapter leader and teaching fellow with Girls Health Ed, providing vital health information to disadvantaged adolescent girls. Ms. Neumann earned her MPH in health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Other prior experiences include work as a graduate teaching assistant in biostatistics at GWU, a federal affairs internship with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), and university research focused on topics such as behavioral health and SUD, health literacy, and the social drivers of health (SDOH). She received her bachelor’s degree Summa Cum Laude in political sociology and cultural anthropology with a concentration in social disparities at the University of South Florida – Tampa.
Colleen Norris is a consulting actuary with Milliman. She has thirteen years of experience providing actuarial consulting services to provider organizations, as well as commercial and Medicaid health plans, and government entities. Her focus is providing analytic and strategic support to organizations engaging in new models of reimbursing providers. This includes analyzing changes to provider reimbursement contracts to ensure consistency with desired goals, modeling risk transfers in reimbursement contracts, and developing strategic approaches to manage transferred risks. She has also assisted large provider systems in developing models for the appropriate transfer of financial risk to smaller units of providers, as well as providing strategic and tactical planning for provider systems looking to optimize their long-term prospects in the era of increased risk-sharing. This includes experience with Medicare ACOs (MSSP & Next Gen) and MACRA risk impact assessments and strategic planning.
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. They currently participate in the MSSP’s Enhanced Track and have value-based contracts with Medicare advantage as well as commercial plans. The group has a large primary care base and their operations include an Ambulatory Surgery Center (GI Endoscopy), Sleep Lab, Urgent Care, and Imaging Center and 13 other practice locations. He 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, he 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.
Frank Opelka, MD, FACS, currently serves as the medical director for quality and health policy for the American College of Surgeons. He previously served as senior vice president of Louisiana State University (LSU) with oversight for two separate health science centers and ten safety net hospitals. During his time at LSU, he was instrumental in architecting the privatization of the public hospital system into multiple non-profits which are now “owned” locally in each community across the state. Prior to his work at LSU, Dr. Opelka was the vice chair of surgery for finance at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and served as a visiting professor in the Harvard Faculty Medical Group. He has also served as president of the medical staff at the Ochsner Clinic where he played the key role in framing the merger of the hospital and the clinical faculty practice into one business enterprise. Dr. Opelka has been instrumental in the American College of Surgeons public policies with regard to healthcare transformation, payment models, quality programs and value-based care. He is a published academic surgeon with several publications, book chapters and editorial positions in the field of surgery. He currently holds an appointment as a professor of surgery at the George Washington School of Medicine.
Kapil Parakh is a practicing cardiologist who serves as a medical lead at Google where he has pioneered partnerships with a range of organizations including the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association. He previously worked on Google search to launch products that disseminate high-quality health information to over a billion people. Before Google, he served as a White House fellow and was the principal health advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was also the co-founder of an award-winning non-profit on health innovation. Dr. Parakh was previously director of heart failure at Johns Hopkins Bayview where he developed novel care delivery models. As a clinician-scientist he has published a number of papers on psychosocial factors in heart disease. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology and advanced heart failure and holds a MD, MPH and PhD.
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.
Jennifer Perloff is the 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 NAACOS, Dr. Perloff is developing a number of new research projects focused on the policy and implementation of population health models including beneficiary attribution, nurse practitioner/ACO staffing and low value care. Dr. Perloff was also on the team that built the Episode Grouper for Medicare (EGM), a comprehensive system with over 800 chronic, acute and treatment episodes designed specifically to assess resource use. She is currently adapting this tool for use with military health data. In addition to bundled/episode payment work, Dr. Perloff has developed a methodology for assessing the value of Medicare Advantage plans, drawing on the principals of hospital value-based payment. In the area of primary care, she has done extensive research on the cost and quality of nurse practitioner lead primary care. Dr. Perloff currently sites on the National Quality Forum’s Scientific Methods Panel and the Heller School Information Security Committee.
John Pilotte, M.H.P.M., is the director of the Performance-based Payment Policy Group (P3) within the Center for Medicare at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He manages policy development and operations teams for the Medicare Shared Savings Program, Medicare’s national Accountable Care Organization 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, 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 bachelor of science from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
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. Mr. Pittman holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and chemistry from the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 2006.
Aucha Prachanronarong is the director for the division of electronic and clinician quality (DECQ) in the quality measurement and value-based incentives groups (QMVIG) in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS. She oversees policy development and implementation of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). She has been in federal service at CMS for over 20 years. She holds a master of health science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Sarah Quinn is a business development director with Milliman. She has twelve years of experience in the healthcare software industry. She has served in different roles across the industry prior to her time at MedInsight, from EHR build and implementation, to population health analytics consulting. Her work has focused on supporting primarily provider organizations going at-risk under value-based care contracts, helping organizations develop strategic growth objectives and targeted VBC performance goals.
Mark Reardon, MD, is chief quality officer at UpStream Care. He was formerly part of Medical Officer Team at Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). He is a physician leader with a background in healthcare strategy, process improvement, and leadership. He has a passion for new care model development, artificial intelligence strategy and health technology development.
Megan Reyna is system vice president of practice transformation and quality improvement for Advocate Aurora Health. Under her leadership, her team leads the field operations, government programs and quality improvement teams to assist the organization in achieving national quality and financial targets across Illinois and Wisconsin. In her role, she oversees the operations of three ACOs that continue to achieve significant taxpayer savings and provide high quality care through the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The three MSSP ACOs include Basic Level E in Illinois with over 105,000 beneficiaries, Enhanced in Wisconsin with over 23,000 beneficiaries and Track 1 in Wisconsin with over 48,000 beneficiaries. Her responsibilities also include Bundle Payment Program operations, for both BPCI-Advanced and CJR, and MACRA support and sustainment. Ms. Reyna currently serves as chair of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) Quality Committee. A registered nurse by background, she received her MSN from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Tony Rodriguez, MD, is a physician executive with UNC Health’s Health Alliance/Senior Health Alliance, serving as the medical director for their post-acute care network. He also serves as the medical director for UNC Medical Center’s continuing care services division, providing medical leadership for UNC Home Health and Home Infusion Therapy. He has served in numerous clinical roles in his 13-year tenure with UNC Health including as clinical faculty, physician advisor, and inpatient/ambulatory clinical care. He is trained as a family physician and served as chief resident of the family medicine program at UNC Chapel Hill.
Corey Rosenberg is the model lead for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model and Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) Model. As model lead, he is deeply involved in all aspects of Model policy development and implementation. Prior to joining CMMI, he worked as a director on the corporate strategy team at Fresenius Medical Care and at L.E.K. Consulting, serving a wide variety of payer and provider clients. Corey holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
Valinda Rutledge is chief corporate affairs officer at UpStream. She is the former executive vice president of federal affairs at America’s Physician Groups. She previously worked as a 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 models. Before joining CMS, Ms. Rutledge served as the chief executive officer of several systems including Bon Secours, SSM Health, and CaroMont Health.
Dana Safran, Sc.D., is an internationally recognized health care executive, measurement scientist and health policy thought-leader with a unique blend of accomplishment in business and academia. She is now President & CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF). In addition to overseeing NQF’s longstanding function as steward for our nation’s portfolio of health care quality measures, Dr. Safran leads NQF’s public-private collaborations to advance the next generation of measures required for value-based payment and health equity. Previously, she has held executive roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), Haven – the joint venture of Amazon, JPMorgan Chase & Berkshire Hathaway, and WELL Health, Inc. Prior to joining BCBSMA, she led a research institute at Tufts University School of Medicine dedicated to developing patient-reported measures of health and health care quality. Dr. Safran has also previously served as commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). She has served in numerous advisory roles to local, national and international organizations and government agencies on the use of data and measurement to improve health care quality, outcomes and affordability through payment innovation, consumer engagement and provider performance improvement. Dr. Safran received both her master and doctor of science degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Meena Seshamani, M.D., PhD, is the director of the Center for Medicare at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She 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 B.A. with honors in business economics from Brown University, her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her Ph.D. 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.
Lynn Siedenstrang currently serves as the system vice president, care continuum for MultiCare Health Systems. She has over 30 years’ experience spanning inpatient hospital operations, case management and post-acute services. She has her master’s in speech pathology and audiology from Idaho State University. She has demonstrated success in achieving high quality outcomes and savings in value-based programs through collaboration with hospitals, physicians, post-acute and community organizations.
Brian Silverstein, MD, is chief population health officer at Innovaccer. A national healthcare thought leader with extensive operational and consulting expertise. He has worked with numerous health system executive teams to drive transformational initiatives in areas such as value-based delivery, patient access, governance, ACO strategy, clinically integrated network design, and population health management. Before joining Innovaccer, Dr. Silverstein served as senior vice president at CareFirst BlueCross Blue Shield where he implemented one of the early value care delivery programs. His consulting engagements include leadership roles with The Chartis Group, Geisinger Consulting Group, The Camden Group, and Sg2 Health Care Intelligence. He is a faculty member and advisor for The Governance Institute, and he holds appointments as a faculty member for The American College of Healthcare Executives, and the Thomas Jefferson School of Public Health QSLS. He serves on the editorial board for Population Health Management and is a system and ACO board member for OSF Healthcare.
Norine Tamborino is manager population health project management for the Triad Healthcare Network. Prior to her current position, she was a performance improvement specialist within Pinnacle Health System. She received her BSRN and her master’s in project management and leadership from Northeastern University.
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.
Norine Tamborino is manager population health project management for the Triad Healthcare Network. Prior to her current position, she was a performance improvement specialist within Pinnacle Health System. She received her BSRN and her master’s in project management and leadership from Northeastern University.
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.
Maria Wilson, M.D., M.Sc. is executive medical director of the central division at Oak Street Health. She completed undergraduate studies at Prairie View A&M University in Texas and then went on to the University of Louisville School of Medicine and IU School of Medicine where she trained as an internist. Outpatient primary care for those who struggle to get good care has always been her passion. After a stint in FFS medicine, Dr. Wilson started five years ago with OSH as a staff physician. She was drawn to the vision of emphasizing quality instead of quantity – it defined her “why” for going into medicine. Dr. Wilson’s current areas of focus involve integrating eConsults into our provider workflow as well as participating in our pharmacy excellence working group. Dr. Wilson also participates in the executive committee of Central Indiana’s Council on Aging’s (CICOA) Medical Advisory Council.
Phyllis Wojtusik is the executive vice president at Real Time Medical Systems. With 35+ years of experience in acute care, ambulatory care, and post-acute care, she has led the development of post-acute networks, participated in the Medicare Shared Savings Program and other value-based contract programs. Prior to Real Time, she led the development of a preferred provider SNF network for PENN Medicine Lancaster General Health. In this network she developed/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 non-owned SNF network.
Cindy Yeager serves as the care gaps and quality data manager for Keystone ACO, leading projects that drive improvement in quality and efficiency. Possessing more than 20 years’ experience in the post-acute arena, she played an active role in the implementation of the SNF 3-day waiver program for Keystone ACO and continues to guide operations of the waiver through contracting, education, utilization management communications and facilitation of day-to-day operations. She served as a contributor for the NAACOS quality reporting resource and recently agreed to lead efforts related to the BPCIA program’s quality metrics at four Geisinger hospitals.