Michael Abramoff, MD, PhD is the founder and executive chairman of Digital Diagnostics, the autonomous AI diagnostics company which was the first in any field of medicine to get FDA authorization for an autonomous AI. In primary care, the AI system can instantaneously diagnose diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema at the point of care. Dr. Abramoff has developed an ethical foundation for autonomous AI that was used during the design, validation, and regulatory and payment pathways for autonomous AI. As a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, he continues to see patients and has mentored dozens of graduate students, ophthalmology residents, and retina fellows.

Bracken Babula, MD, is a clinical assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University and a board-certified internist with Jefferson Internal Medicine Associates. He trained at Weill Cornell Medical College, completed his internal medicine/primary care residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and obtained a masters in science in population health from the Jefferson College of Population Health. At Jefferson, he serves as an associate quality officer for the department of medicine and a medical information officer for the office of clinical informatics. He is a member of the NAACOS quality committee and the Delaware Valley ACO value oversight committee. 

Daniel L. Bair is executive director of Trinity-Health Mid-Atlantic's Clinically Integrated Network (CIN), including Mercy Accountable Care, Quality Health Alliance, and Delaware Care Collaboration. He formerly served as executive director of Mercy Accountable Care, LLC. He currently leads the Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic accountable care organizations' efforts to collaborate with physicians to improve quality, achieve better outcomes and patient satisfaction and reduce healthcare costs, ultimately providing patients with improved access to care along the continuum. Mr. Bair joined Mercy Health System in October 2008 as the administrative director for the cardiovascular service line and was appointed as vice president for cardiovascular and radiology service lines in February 2013.   During his tenure, he led the implementation of Nazareth Hospital's nationally accredited coronary angioplasty program, oversaw successful Chest Pain Center Accreditation for Mercy Fitzgerald and Nazareth Hospitals, and expanded and integrated employed Mercy cardiology groups at each of Mercy Health System's hospitals. Prior to joining Mercy, he served as chief operating officer for Westfield Hospital, a private acute care general hospital. Mr. Bair holds an MS in healthcare administration from St. Joseph's University and a BS in biology/respiratory therapy from Millersville University.  He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. 

Amy Bassano is the deputy director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Prior to assuming this position, she was the director of the Patient Care Models Group at CMMI leading CMS’s efforts on bundled payments including the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Initiative and the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model and the development of physician specialty models such as the Oncology Care Model. In addition, she was responsible for the Home Health Value Based Purchasing Model and the Medicare Care Choices Model. Ms. Bassano also held senior management positions in the Center for Medicare at CMS overseeing Medicare payment policy for a variety of areas including inpatient and outpatient hospitals, physicians, ambulatory surgical centers, clinical laboratories, and Part B drugs. Prior to her tenure at CMS, Ms. Bassano was a program examiner at the Office of Management and Budget where she was the lead Medicare analyst on Medicare Part B and D issues. She has an M.A. in policy studies from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in history from Tufts University. 

Nick Bassett is vice president of population health services at Castell and president of Intermountain Accountable Care. He began his career in 2008 at Intermountain Healthcare doing hospital operating and capital budgets. Since that time, he has held instrumental roles influencing change both within Intermountain Healthcare and across the country in the journey towards value-based care. As a founding member of Castell, Intermountains’ value-based platform company, he was asked to lead the population health strategy with accountability for the following areas: commercial and government value-based contracting, physician compensation, network operations, post-acute care operations and home-based services. Mr. Bassett earned his BS degree in business finance from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Southern Utah University.

Greg Baumer - As chief growth officer at naviHealth, Greg serves many of naviHealth’s external functions, including sales, marketing, partnerships, and new solution development. He has spent the majority of his career focused on health care, including prior roles in healthcare investing at Advent International and healthcare consulting at McKinsey & Company.

 

 

Donald M. Berwick, MD, is president emeritus and senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), an organization he co-founded and led as president and CEO for 18 years.  He is one of the nation's leading authorities on health care quality and improvement.  In July, 2010, President Obama appointed Dr. Berwick to the position of administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which he held until December, 2011. A pediatrician by background, he has served as clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at the Harvard Medical School, professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and as a member of the staffs of Boston's Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital.  He has also served as vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the first "independent member" of the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association, and chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine). Dr. Berwick served two terms on the IOM’s governing council and was a member of the IOM’s global health board. He served on President Clinton's advisory commission on consumer protection and quality in the healthcare industry.  He is the author or co-author of over 160 scientific articles and six books.  He also serves now as lecturer in the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.  

William C Biggs, MD, is the CEO and medical director of Amarillo Legacy Medical ACO, which has participated in the Medicare Shared Savings Program since 2013, and has contracted with BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, and United. He trained as an endocrinologist at UT Southwestern, UC San Diego, and Harvard Medical Schools. His clinical practice in endocrinology includes both patient care and clinical research. He is board certified in internal medicine and clinical informatics and serves as a clinical assistant professor at Texas Tech University School of Medicine. He has spoken previously at HIMSS, HIMSS Texas, AACE, and NAACOS on IT integration, use of analytics, and telehealth in accountable care organizations, and has multiple publications in this area. He is the past president of the Texas Chapter of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and is the AACE advisor and reviewer to the AMA CPT Editorial Panel.

Allison Brennan, MPP, is the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Association of ACOs in Washington, D.C. where she helps develop and advocate for policies to benefit ACOs. Prior to NAACOS, Allison was a senior advocacy advisor at the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) where she helped lead MGMA's advocacy efforts, focusing on federal regulatory and legislative issues and coordinating MGMA advocacy activities. Before joining MGMA, Allison worked as a program manager at the Brookings Institution where she designed and managed educational seminars focused on the policy process and federal leadership development. Allison began her career interning in the United States Senate and then worked at the National Patient Advocate Foundation, where she lobbied state governments on behalf of patients and managed grassroots. Allison has a bachelor's degree in government and economics from the College of William and Mary and holds a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University, with a focus on health policy. 

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, building and executing the essential capabilities required to achieve strong financial and clinical outcomes within integrated care models under value-based reimbursement, particularly for publicly insured populations. Her Medicare ACO team delivered year over year improvement in cost and quality, and the highest per-capita savings in an independent evaluation of the Pioneer model.  Prior to Atrius Health, Ms. Brower spent fifteen years in operational, financial, and contracting leadership roles at Urban Medical Group, a Massachusetts non-profit healthcare organization specializing in the care of medically complex, chronically ill populations across a community-based, long-term care continuum. During that time, she launched a PACE program and other innovative, capitated contracts for medically complex populations and served as Principal Investigator for a multi-year research project analyzing cost and quality outcomes to support payment reform.   Ms. Brower received her BA from Smith College and MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. 

Michael Chernew, PhD, is the Leonard D. Schaeffer Professor of Health Care Policy and the director of the healthcare markets and regulation (HMR) lab in the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chernew’s research examines several areas related to improving the health care system including studies of novel benefit designs, Medicare Advantage, alternative payment models, low value care and the causes and consequences of rising health care spending. Dr. Chernew is currently serving as the chair of Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) while previously serving as the vice chair from 2012-2014 and a member from 2008-2012. In 2000, 2004 and 2010, he served on technical advisory panels for CMS that reviewed the assumptions used by Medicare actuaries to assess the financial status of Medicare trust funds.  He is a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s panel of health advisors and vice chair of the Massachusetts Health Connector Board. Dr. Chernew is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior visiting fellow at MITRE. He is currently a co-editor of the American Journal of Managed Care.  Dr. Chernew earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in economics from Stanford University. In 1998, he was awarded the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators by the Association of University Programs in public health. In 1999, he received the Alice S. Hersh Young Investigator Award from the Association of Health Services Research.

Michelle Coon is president for the West Virginia Health Network, CAMC Health Systems clinically integrate network. The organization is physician lead and consists of value-based programs with various payers in the market, as well as an ACO that started July 1, 2019.   In addition to that role, she is the vice president of managed care for CAMC Health System, Inc., and oversees all managed care strategies and contracting functions for the health system. Prior to joining CAMC, Ms. Coon held the role of chief operations officer for Aetna Better Health of WV.  She was with Aetna for 20+ years serving in a variety of leadership roles for the organization.   She brings many years of health care experience in government relations, value-based contracting for physicians and facilities, system operations, and the development of integrated patient delivery systems.  She is a graduate of West Virginia Institute of Technology.

Eric Cragun is the executive director of government programs for Castell, an Intermountain Healthcare company. In his role, he leads Castell’s efforts to succeed in risk-based contracts with government payers and contribute thought leadership to national and state policy discussions. Prior to joining Intermountain and Castell, he led health policy research and consulting for Advisory Board, serving as an advisor to executives at health systems around the country. He earned an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

 

Jay Crosson, MD, is the immediate past chairman of the Congressional Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). MedPAC advises Congress on ways to promote high quality coordinated care for beneficiaries and preserve the fiscal integrity of the Medicare program. Previously, Dr. Crosson completed 35 years of clinical and executive experience with Kaiser Permanente. He was the founding executive director of The Permanente Federation, the national organization of the Permanente Medical Groups, the physician component of Kaiser Permanente. He served in that role from 1997 to 2007. Subsequently he was a senior fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy. He currently is senior lecturer at the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. Dr. Crosson is past chair of the governing board of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).  In 2003 he founded the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP), which promotes integrated delivery systems. From 2012 to 2014 he was a group vice-president of the American Medical Association, where he founded a department dedicated to improving physician practices. He also served on the National Advisory Committee of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) from 2012-2015. He is a member of the editorial board of JAMA-Internal Medicine. Dr. Crosson received an undergraduate degree in political science and, in 1970, a medical degree from Georgetown University.  He completed a residency in pediatrics at the New England Medical Center Hospitals and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. He is a graduate of the Kaiser Permanente executive program at Stanford Business School. 

Melody Danko-Holsomback has more than 26 years of practice experience in nursing, 20 of which have been within Geisinger. She has served roles in community practice and inpatient care, information technology, and population health consulting before entering her current roles as CAO and director of operations for Keystone ACO, and as a SNFist for Geisinger Clinic. She attended Ohio University for her BSN and Wilkes University for her MSN as an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner.

 

Jasmin Danso serves as the director of ACO operations and ambulatory population health for the Richmond Quality ACO and Richmond Health Network.  In this role, she oversees the MSSP ACO, DSRIP/PHIP programs, as well as all clinical and population health informatics for the network. Under her leadership, a team of nurses, analysts, and health navigators work to integrate care coordination and population health strategies within the network and community practices.

 

Rushika Fernandopulle is a practicing physician and co-founder and CEO of Iora Health, a healthcare services firm based building a new high impact, relationship-based model of health care.  He was the first executive director of the Harvard interfaculty program for health systems improvement, and managing director of the clinical initiatives center at the Advisory Board Company. He serves on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the board of Families USA, and faculty of Harvard Medical School. He earned his A.B., M.D., and M.P.P. from Harvard University. 

Robert Fields, MD, is a family medicine physician and the senior vice president and chief medical officer for population health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. As CMO, Dr. Fields leads a network of almost 4,000 physicians managing 400,000 lives across multiple risk contracts and all lines of business. Dr. Fields began his career by establishing Vista Family Health in 2003 providing primary care for all ages including a large number of underserved Latino patients in Western North Carolina. Dr. Fields was an early adopter of the patient-centered medical home model as well as new technologies for patient engagement and practice efficiency.  He was part of the community and system leadership team that designed the first ACO in that region and was asked to serve as its first medical director.  Under his guidance, the network grew from 200 primary care physicians to more than 1,100 providers of various specialties and three health systems.  The ACO was able to achieve over $11 million in savings in the Medicare Shared Savings Program in its second year as well savings under multiple Medicare Advantage contracts using a clinical model which incorporated social determinants of health along with clinical care management.  Dr. Fields came to Mount Sinai in March of 2018 as the Chief Medical Officer for Population Health and has overseen the redesign of the clinical model including care management, provider engagement, quality programs and other aspects of the system’s population health strategy. Dr. Fields serves on the boards of directors of the National Association of ACOs and America’s Physician Groups.  He earned a medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine, and he completed a family medicine residency at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, N.C., where he was chief resident.  Dr. Fields earned a Master of Health Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

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. 

Clif Gaus, Sc.D. is currently president and CEO of the National Association of ACOs which he helped found in 2012. NAACOS is the only national organization owned and managed by ACOs. It advocates for ACOs on policy and offers shared learning experiences through conferences, webinars, forums and work groups. Dr. Gaus has a diverse background as a public servant, entrepreneur and health executive. He served in senior health positions under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton. In the 1970's and 80's, as associate administrator of HCFA (now CMS), he directed the development of a broad range of innovations in health care financing and delivery, including the DRG hospital payment system, RBRVS physician payment system, Medicare Hospice Programs and Medicare payment of Physician Assistants. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now AHRQ).

In the late 90's Dr. Gaus held the position of executive vice president and chief administrative officer of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. Prior to WellPoint, he was senior vice president of the national Kaiser Permanente Health System in Oakland, California. From 2002-10 he served on the Board of Directors of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University. In recent years he has consulted for a number of prominent organizations, including a six month engagement with the Administrator of CMS working on the ACO regulations and the start-up of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). He holds a master's degree in health administration from the University of Michigan and a Doctorate of Science in health care management from The Johns Hopkins University.

Laura Gontz is the director of care coordination for the department of population heath at Jefferson Health. She previously served as the manager of care coordination for Mercy Accountable Care. While at Mercy, she helped to author the paper Holistic Care Coordination: Caring for the Mind, Body and Spirit to Create a Healthier Pennsylvania which received the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania Living the Vision Award for advancing work in combating social determinants of health. Ms. Gontz sits on the board of the American Case Management Association’s Eastern Pennsylvania chapter.

 

Tim Gronniger is the CEO and president of Caravan Health. He joined Caravan Health in 2017 as the senior vice president for strategy and development, becoming the company president in 2018 and CEO in 2019. In those roles he oversaw the company’s delivery and operations as well as marketing and its strategic growth plan. He is the former chief of staff and director of delivery system reform at CMS where he led the agency’s work on drug spending issues, significant elements of the agency’s implementation of the new physician payment system created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, creation of new payment models, and other topics. He was previously a senior adviser for health care policy at the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he was responsible for coordinating administration activities in health care delivery system reform. Before joining DPC he was a senior professional staff member for ranking member Henry Waxman at the House Committee on energy and commerce, responsible for drafting and developing elements of the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Gronniger began his career in Washington at the Congressional Budget Office. He holds a master’s degree in public policy and health services administration from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.

Kimberly Kauffman has served on the board of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOs) since January 2013. Year-to-date, she has worked with two primary care groups to apply for participation in the direct contracting model and is currently working with Cano Health toward implementation period participation.  Through late 2019, Ms. Kauffman was the chief value-based care officer for Summit Strategic Solutions and Summit Medical Group, a respective MSO and primary care group with over 300 providers across 54 offices. At Summit, she led the care coordination, health education, integrated programs, quality reporting and improvement, risk adjustment and provider engagement teams in support of value-based contracts with CMMI, Medicare Advantage, commercial health plans, and Medicaid managed care. Prior to joining Summit in 2012, she served as the executive director of Physicians’ Care Network, an independent physicians’ association with 660 physician members in Florida and a mix of fee-for-service to capitated contracts across all payer categories.  She also has experience working with hospital systems, having built five physician hospital organizations which were then merged to create a super PHO.   Ms. Kauffman received her M.P.H from the College of Public Health at the University of Florida, and is a regular participant in NAACOS, Advisory Board and American Medical Group Association activities.

Peter Kelly serves as chief value officer at CareMount and executive director of CareMount ACO, the group’s full-risk Medicare Next Generation ACO.  In his role, he is responsible for managing CareMount’s Value Business and the financial performance of risk-based contracts covering 50,000 Medicare patients.  Previously, he served as executive director of market operations for Universal American with responsibility for Medicare Advantage and ACO plans in New York State.  He also served as director of strategy for UAM.  Mr. Kelly was named “Top 10 Up-and-Coming Industry Leader” by Managed Healthcare Executive in 2019.  He graduated from Princeton and has an MBA from Wharton.

Thomas Kloos, MD, is executive director of the Atlantic Health MSO, a management services organization which supplies management services to both the Atlantic ACO and Optimus Healthcare Partners ACO. The two ACO's serve both the MSSP program and commercial relationships and encompass over 90,000 attributed Medicare beneficiaries and over 200,000 commercial attributed beneficiaries. He is a NAACOS board member. He was past president of Optimus Healthcare Partners, a physician established ACO and has also has served as past president and medical director of Vista Health System IPA. On the payer side, he is board member and past board vice president of the Affiliated Physicians Health Plan, a self-funded Multiple Employer Welfare Association (MEWA). Dr. Kloos is a board-certified internal medicine practitioner and has been a NCQA recognized level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). He graduated from the University of Louisville Medical School in 1979 and from Rutgers University in 1975. 

Kent Locklear, MD, is the chief medical officer at Lightbeam Health Solutions where he provides over 3 decades of experience in physician leadership and operational healthcare change. He has a passion for healthcare transformation and an in-depth understanding of today’s challenging care delivery environment. He is skilled in leveraging the power of information technology in ways that are both innovative and results oriented. Dr. Locklear is a proven leader with a 25-year track record of success leading teams in a variety of disciplines including clinical transformation, business management and clinical practice. Strategic thinking and a commitment to excellence translate to exceptional results. Change management and communication skills enable relationships with executives and physicians in facilitating technological advancement and clinical transformation. Extensive medical practice and management experience, including both Federal system and private practice, translates to subject matter expertise in a broad range of areas of clinical practice, healthcare technology and workflow. Dr. Locklear holds an MD and MBA from the University of Virginia. Double boarded in family medicine and clinical informatics.

Ryan Mackman is an ACO Business Consultant where he acts as a solution trainer, marketing and sales consultant, and as a Value Based Payment strategist. His skillset helps augment Salient’s efforts at the ACO and physician practice level. Prior to joining this organization, Mr. Mackman spent four years as the Business Administrator and Project Manager for a Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home near West Palm Beach. Mr. Mackman holds a Master’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in Health Administration from Florida Atlantic University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, and currently holds a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification. Mr. Mackman is very involved both professionally and personally. He is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). As a community leader, Mr. Mackman participates in the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County’s ELP program and also is a board member of the Palm Beach County chapter of the University of Florida Alumni Association. He looks forward to eventually acquiring his Six Sigma Black Belt and FACHE certifications. As part of Salient’s Thought Leadership group he frequently contributes to our blog, you can read his latest posts below.

Jessica Martensen is the senior director of population care management for Essentia Health. She has a broad range of experience spanning inpatient, public health, and post-acute settings and is passionate about quality, patient safety, and operational efficiency. She graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing and Spanish from Dickinson State University and a master’s in business administration from the College of St. Scholastica.

 

Richard Martin, MD, is chief medical officer for the Keystone Accountable Care Organization. He also serves as medical director for LIFE Geisinger, a program with specialized services designed to support seniors in living independently, and serves as the medical director of Convenient Care, Geisinger’s urgent care services. He is a family physician and primary care doctor with more than 30 years of experience. Previously, Dr. Martin has also served as associate chief medical officer for population health at Geisinger and as Geisinger’s systemwide chief medical officer for care continuum, and as department director for community medicine. In these roles, he has been responsible for initiatives in value re-engineering of the care continuum and other population health initiatives at Geisinger, including primary care delivery transformation and post-acute efficiencies. Additionally, he partners with the leadership of Geisinger Health Plan on systemwide population health delivery, with a primary focus on improving service and value and increasing the connectivity between payor and provider in the continuum of care. Dr. Martin received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. He completed his residency in family medicine at Geisinger Medical Center, is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice.

Jomy Matthew, MD, is the executive medicaldDirector of value-based care at naviHealth. In this role, he has served as the medical director for BPCI nationally, and several Medicare Advantage plans. Passionate about transitions of care, Dr. Mathew’s background includes 12 years as a hospitalist, palliative care physician and medical director in skilled nursing facilities in the state of Delaware. In 2019, he was recognized by the Delaware Chapter of the American College of Physicians for the “Excellence in Hospital Medicine” Award. Nationally, he has become a thought leader in post-acute care presenting at the National Society of Hospital Medicine and submitting innovative clinical programs in transitions of care that has been recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, is director and professor of business, medicine and policy at the Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. He is a physician-economist who focuses on quality and value in health care, including payment reform, real-world evidence and more effective drug and device innovation. His current work on responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency spans virus containment and testing strategies, reforming health care toward more resilient models of delivering care, and accelerating the development of therapeutics and vaccines. He is former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. Dr. McClellan is an independent board member on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Alignment Healthcare, and Seer; co-chairs the Guiding Committee for the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network; and serves as an advisor for Blackstone Life Sciences, Arsenal Capital Partners, and MITRE.

Robert E. Mechanic, MBA, 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.  Rob 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. Rob 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. 

Farzad Mostashari, MD, is the CEO of Aledade, a start-up he co-founded aimed at helping primary care doctors transform their practices and form accountable care organizations (ACOs). He is the former national coordinator for health IT at the Department of Health and Human Services and served as a distinguished expert at the Brookings Institute’s Engelberg Center for HealthCare Reform. Prior to his work at the Office of the National Coordinator, he founded the NYC Primary Care Information Project, which equipped 1,500 physicians in underserved communities with electronic health records. Dr. Mostashari received his MD from Yale University School of Medicine and his masters in population health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Kristen Mucitelli-Heath is currently administrator of regional health initiatives at St. Joseph’s Health. While in this role she has led the development of the Concordia Healthcare Network - a statewide SuperCIN, the Medicaid value-based payment and innovation for the St. Joseph’s Health system and the population health management system development, as well as, facilitation of system strategy, regional system development and affiliations. She also leads government relations and advocacy in NYS on behalf of Trinity Health, St. Joseph’s national system parent. While at St. Joseph's, she has led the startup, oversight and growth from 0 to 4000 patients of the St. Joseph’s Care Coordination Network and acted as the interim executive director to startup and develop the regional performing provider system (PPS) under the NYS DSRIP/1115 Waiver program. Prior to her ten years at St. Joseph’s, she was the executive director of the upstate caucus in the NYS Senate leading Upstate NY policy development for the Majority, was chief of staff to two commissioners at Empire State Development Corporation and served two NYS governors in various roles for the executive chamber. She currently serves on the boards of the St. Joseph’s Clinically Integrated Network (CNYAIM), PACE of Central New York, The Plaza Corporation, Rome Memorial Hospital and the Concordia Healthcare Network SuperCIN, as well as, serving on the finance committee of the regional Central New York DSRIP PPS.

Sean Mullins is the chief operating officer at Olio. He oversees operations at Olio, a software solution that simplifies the way ACOs work with post-acute providers. He has an extensive payer, provider, and public policy background including prior roles with the White House, IU Health, Navigant (Healthcare Strategy) and, most recently, as director of corporate strategy at Anthem, Inc. He earned his undergraduate degree from Indiana University Kelley School of Business and his masters of health administration from Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.

 

Maria Nikol is a senior business consultant with 10 years of experience in healthcare operations and healthcare strategy. Her specialization includes process improvement and the application of emerging models of healthcare delivery such as patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations. She holds a master of jurisprudence in health law from Widener University and a bachelor of science in pharmaceutical marketing and management from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

 

Simeon Niles is a senior advisor in the Prevention and Population Health Group (PPHG) at the CMS Innovation Center. He advises group leadership and model teams in both PPHG and the State Innovations Group in the development and implementation of payment and service delivery models in Medicare and Medicaid. Mr. Niles has broad experience across the CMMI’s portfolio, with expertise in payment reform, population health and social determinants of health. He has developed model requirements for potential accountable care organization (ACO) participants in the ACO Transformation Track of the Community Health and Rural Transformation (CHART) Model. In addition, he led the initial design of the Direct Contracting Geographic Population-Based Payment model option (Geo-DC), which when launched will be the first-ever CMS Innovation Center model to delegate total cost of care risk to an accountable entity for all Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries residing in a geographic area. He was also the model lead for the Accountable Health Communities Model where he successfully led the team in the design, launch and implementation of CMS’s first-ever social determinants of health service delivery model. Prior to joining the CMS Innovation Center, he was a consultant where he provided legal, analytic and project management support to federal clients. He received his JD and MPH from Emory University and his BA from Hunter College.

 

Kathy Parsons serves as the vice president of population health and risk contracting for CentraCare. She also serves as the executive director of the Central Minnesota Health Network, a clinically integrated network that includes 13 regional health care partners, as well as for the Central MN ACO which is in Basic Track E and includes 7 regional healthcare organization partners.

 

 

Jennifer Pereur is VP of solutions at Apixio, where she leads the development of new provider-focused products. She brings 20 years of expertise in creating and managing government programs and analytic programs for risk-bearing provider groups. Most recently, she served as director of government programs at Hill Physicians Medical Group, a large IPA with over 4,000 physicians. 

 

 

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 joined the National Association of ACOs in August 2018 as health policy and communications advisor, bringing a dozen years of experience in health journalism to the organization. Prior to NAACOS, David covered health care at POLITICO, including the worlds of ACOs and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. 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. Before POLITICO, David served as the lone Washington reporter for the health news website MedPage Today, covering nearly all aspects of health policy from Medicare and Medicaid to the Affordable Care Act and Capitol Hill. David holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and chemistry from the University of Georgia, where he graduated in 2006. While in Athens, David worked as a staff writer of The Red & Black and eventually became editor-in-chief. 

Rahul Rajkumar, MD, is senior vice president and chief medical officer at BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina. He leads their healthcare division, which includes areas that involve contracting and relationships with health care providers, medical policy, corporate pharmacy, appeals, care management, health care quality and cost management. During his career, he has focused on health care innovation, particularly in promoting value-based payment models for doctors and hospitals and improving patient care. Before BCBS of NC he was chief medical officer at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. At CareFirst, he developed and led programs addressing costs and health care improvement. Before joining CareFirst, he served for four years as deputy director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In this role, he led many federal efforts to promote value-based payments for physicians and hospitals. He oversaw programs promoting primary care, the initial federal pilots for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), bundled payments for health care procedures and patient safety initiatives. During his work at CareFirst and the federal government, he worked as an attending physician at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Washington, DC. Dr. Rajkumar has a bachelor’s degree in history, a law degree and a medical degree – all from Yale University.

Sidney Raymond is the medical director of Ochsner Health Network and medical director and president of Ochsner Physician Partners. He was previously vice president of physician practice administrator and CMIO at East Jefferson General Hospital. He served on the steering committee and as a board member for Gulf South Quality Network, as well as being involved with medical staff committees and served as chief of staff. He is a past president of Jefferson Parish Medical Society. Dr. Raymond earned a bachelor of science in biology from Loyola University, medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine, and completed internal medicine residency at LSU-New Orleans.

Anthony Reed is the vice president of population health strategic solutions, clinical and network services at Ascension Medical Group (AMG). He has responsibility for all value-based health care programs and contracts for AMG. He also represents Ascension by serving as a speaker and member for several national organizations dedicated to accountable care and alternate-care payment models. Mr. Reed is on the board of directors for NAACOS and has presented at many conferences including the leaders board for population health management, NAACOS conferences, The Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania, xG Health Solutions, Inc and for the Marcus Evans Group.  He is in his 23rd year of work in health care industry and his previous roles include, chief administrative officer for the Keystone Accountable Care Organization, AVP of accountable care initiatives at Geisinger Health, director of business development for Geisinger Diversified Services and program director for VITALine Infusion Pharmacy Services. He also served for seven years as a product director for B. Braun Medical, Inc. with product development responsibilities and gaining FDA and Health Canada approvals for their lines of infusion pumps and accessories. 

Troy Reiff - As VP of post-acute development and managed care for American Senior Communities, Troy serves the business development and strategic growth in census along with strengthening and opening partnerships across Indiana hospitals, physician practices and payers. Prior to joining ASC, he was VP of clinical operations with a post-acute development company and had previously been COO at a large Indiana health system over LTACH’s, along with development of their SNF narrow network. He is an RN who started his clinical career at St. Vincent Hospital in cardiac medical and coronary intensive care.

 

Megan Reyna is vice president of government and value-based programs for Advocate Aurora Health. Under her leadership, her team leads clinical population health and value transformation projects to assist the organization in achieving national quality and financial targets. She oversees operations for three Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs. Her responsibilities also include bundle payment program operations, for both BPCI-A 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 University of Illinois Chicago. 

Patt Richesin is the president at Kootenai Care Network (KCN), a clinically integrated network including Kootenai Health, two critical access hospitals, and 600 physicians and advanced practice professionals. She also serves as president of the Medicare Shared Savings ACO, Kootenai Accountable Care. Before joining KCN, she held senior executive positions in private and public multi-specialty practices, and health systems, academic centers, and management services organizations. Her focus on public health and population health initiatives has been recognized nationally following successful launches of management services, professional services, independent practices, and accountable care initiatives with a particular interest in rural and frontier medicine. Her career includes public health administration at Johns Hopkins University, Medicare and Medicaid accountable care leadership with Providence Health & Services, national consulting in transformation models and value-based program development, and more than 20 years in rural and frontier health care settings across Wyoming and Idaho. Ms. Richesin has served on the Medical Group Management Association Government Affairs Committee and Western Section Executive Committee. She currently serves as board chair for Idaho Health Data Exchange, as a governor-appointee to the Idaho Health Quality Planning Commission and a member of Healthcare Transformation Council of Idaho (HTCI). She co-chairs the Rural and Frontier Health Care Workgroup for the HTCI. She is published and a requested speaker on topics of integrated delivery system modeling, patient access to care, leveraging outpatient technology, and issues related to rural health care delivery. Ms. Richesin received her MBA with healthcare concentration from Excelsior College and is a fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives.

Dev Sangvai is executive director of Duke Connected Care, a Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) with 45,000+ Medicare Beneficiaries and 1800 providers, including the local FQHC. He is also associate chief medical officer for Duke University Health System and medical director of DukeWELL. Dr. Sangvai is assistant professor of family medicine, pediatrics & psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and vice chair for quality and safety in the department of community & family medicine. Prior to his role as associate CMO, he was chief of family medicine at Duke. Dr. Sangvai currently serves as president of the North Carolina Medical Society and has served in national leadership roles with the American Medical Association. He graduated from the Ohio State University and received his M.D. from the Medical College of Ohio. He completed his family medicine residency and chief residency at the Medical College of Ohio. Dr. Sangvai earned his MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. He is a certified physician executive with the American College of Physician Executives and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. 

Brad Smith is a successful healthcare entrepreneur with a proven history of improving care for some of our nation’s most vulnerable patients. He currently serves as the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Prior to joining the Administration in January 2020, he was the co-founder and CEO of Aspire Health, which he grew from an idea into the nation’s largest home-based palliative care provider operating in 25 states and over 70 cities. Aspire’s interdisciplinary care team of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and social workers has provided in-home visits and 24/7 support to over 100,000 patients facing a serious illness. Previously, Mr. Smith was the chief operating officer of Anthem’s Diversified Business Group (DBG), which included companies specializing in primary care, specialty benefit management, healthcare research, program integrity, and behavioral health. Prior to entering the private sector, he served as chief of staff at the Tennessee Department of Economic Development and as the founding executive director of the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a non-profit focused on bringing diverse stakeholders together to improve K-12 education in Tennessee. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and received an masters of philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. 

Erica Smuin is the director of the post-acute care team for Castell, an Intermountain Healthcare company.   She has been leading the development of operations and strategy for this new program since 2018.  Prior to joining Intermountain, she held leadership positions in medical group operations, business development, post-acute care, patient outcomes and care management in the acute rehab setting.  She is a registered nurse and board-certified case manager and completed her education at Weber State University.

 

Mark Vorherr is the president and chief operating officer of the Mount Carmel Medical Group. Mount Carmel Medical Group is a multidisciplinary physician group practice with more than 300 physicians practicing in more than 60 locations throughout Central Ohio. He has run physician group practices for 21 years, both in not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, as well as in private practice and within hospital systems. Most recently, he served as vice president of physician practices at Community Health Systems in its South Carolina market. Prior to that, he was vice president and chief financial officer for the physicians at Mercy Health Partners in southwest Ohio. Mr. Vorherr began his health care career in 1999 as a business director for Cincinnati Group Health Associates, a physician-owned multispecialty group. He received a master’s degree in health services administration from Xavier University and a bachelor of life sciences degree from Marquette 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.