2017 Speaking Faculty

REED BJERGO has been with UnitedHealth Group for 24 years, serving in a number of leadership roles during his tenure. Reed currently is Vice President, Next-Generation Network-Based Products, for UnitedHealthcare’s Employer & Individual line of business, which provides a comprehensive array of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services nationwide to large national employers, public sector employers, and mid-sized and small businesses, as well as individuals.

In his current role, Reed is responsible for strategic planning and development of next-generation health benefits offerings, including accountable care organization (ACO)-based products. He previously held positions in strategic planning and development for the commercial business, innovative product development, and sales operations.

Reed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois. He is a graduate of UnitedHealthcare’s General Manager Program and Executive Development Program, and is a Pinnacle President’s Award winner, which recognizes UnitedHealthcare employees for exemplary performance and leadership.

Chris Botts is the Care Delivery and Payment Manager within the Professional Satisfaction & Practice Sustainability group at the American Medical Association (AMA). In this capacity, he supports the AMA’s multi-year journey identifying effective care delivery elements that help support high-quality patient care, physician satisfaction and practice sustainability. He manages the development and implementation of tools and resources that assist physicians in the adoption of new commercial and governmental payment and care delivery models. Additionally, he works with external partners such as coalitions, commercial payers, employers, patients, health care systems and hospitals, and electronic health record vendors in promoting new payment model concepts.

Prior to joining the AMA, he worked at the Health Care Reform and Innovation Administration within the District of Columbia’s Department of Health Care Finance designing and implementing new, innovative health information technology (health IT) programs. These programs worked to improve data integration and provide actionable information to reduce health disparities, enhance health care quality and outcomes, and promote wellness in DC. He also helped lead DC’s State Innovation Model grant from CMS charged with designing the District’s strategy for health care transformation. Mr. Botts also worked at the Center for Health Policy (formerly known as the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform) within the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC where he supported the Center’s strategic planning and project coordination of payment and delivery reform initiatives including those related to Medicare alternative payment models and health plan innovations. Mr. Botts earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Neuroscience with a concentration in Premedical Studies from the College of William and Mary.

Barrie Bradley’s career spans over 30 years in healthcare, business development, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and architecture. He started his professional life as a licensed Architect, and practiced architecture for about a decade in northern Canada. He then transitioned, through a full-time MBA, into finance, business strategy, and business development. During this stage he achieved notable success in technology commercialization and new business start-ups, growing two enterprises from concept to mature operations. In the mid-2000s Barrie pursued further education, with graduate studies in Health Administration / Epidemiology (MHA), and Biomedical Informatics (PhD), and is now firmly rooted in the US healthcare industry. Barrie currently leads a diverse team in a large integrated healthcare system. For the past decade Barrie’s focus has been on population health management. He is a published author in several medical peer-reviewed journals.

JOHN B. BULGER, DO, MBA is the Chief Medical Officer of Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) and the Chief Medical Officer for Population Health for Geisinger. The Geisinger Health System has a clinical presence spanning central Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. GHP serves over 500,000 members throughout central Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maine. He is tasked with improving the quality of care and adding value for the people and populations that Geisinger serves.

Dr. Bulger served as the Chief Quality Officer for Geisinger from 2011 to 2015. Prior to that, Dr. Bulger founded Geisinger Medical Center’s hospitalist program with six physicians and lead the program’s development to include six hospitals and over 100 physicians and advanced practitioners.

Dr. Bulger is a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Juniata College, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Pennsylvania State University. His wife Michele is a pediatrician and member of Geisinger’s faculty. They reside in Danville with their children Ethan, Ben, and Ava.

Ms. Wendy Cofran has been Chief Information Officer for Century Health Systems, Inc., the parent company of Natick Visiting Nurse Association (Natick VNA) and Distinguished Care Options (DCO) for over two decades. In this executive management role, Cofran has developed, and managed with unparalleled success cutting edge technology that is focused on enhancing quality, improving safety, reducing costs and increasing efficiency across the healthcare system.

As the national conversation turns to using technology to solve the challenges of improving health care outcomes, providing a 360 degree patient experience and driving down escalating costs Ms. Cofran's innovative, collaborative and “out-of-the-box� approach has set Century Health Systems and its affiliates apart from the crowd. In 2012 she developed and launched a Referral Management application wholly built on the Salesforce platform. This application allows Century's Care Transition Coordinators to update critical referral information, track patients as they are cared for by the healthcare team, and work closely with family members on coordinating care for their loved ones.

Following her passion of identifying, developing and executing solutions that improve both patient and clinician experience, Ms. Cofran partnered with Natick VNA's EMR vendor, Brightree, LLC to launch the homecare industry's first disconnected iPad EMR application that allows clinicians to document care in the home regardless of the presence of an internet connection. This application increases clinical staff efficiency, provides more timely clinical documentation, and leads to improved patient outcomes and experience with the homecare agency. As the federal government moves to Value Based Payment for all health care providers, these positive results are also helping decrease the overall cost of providing care. These technology innovations, coupled with a strong Telehealth solution are major factors in Natick VNA continually achieving the homecare industry's coveted, double 5-star rating by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Natick VNA is one of only 30 Agencies in the country to receive the 5 Star rating for both Clinical Outcomes and Patient Satisfaction!

A frequent and engaging presenter at industry related conferences, Ms. Cofran's recent presentations include:

• CIOHEALTH Boston-A moderated health panel where select CIOs take a tell-all position on a panel that explores the direction of health IT, the successes, failures, and celebrations that defined their paths as ultimate IT leaders.
• Congressional Home Health Caucus-Innovations in Home Health Care
• SINC Health IT Leaders Forum-Technology Advancements for Improved Patient Outcomes
• Boston Premier CIO Forum-Disruptive Technologies: An Innovator's Dilemma
• Salesforce-HealthForce Boston -"Innovation in Post-Acute healthcare"
• Featured in the Remington Report

In addition to her day to day responsibilities Ms. Cofran serves in leadership roles in the following organizations:

• Visiting Nurse Association of New England (VNANE)-Technology consultant
• Brightree, LLC Executive Advisory Committee-Home care product consultant
• Providence College-A member of the Boston President's Council

Ms. Cofran is a graduate of Providence College holding a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science.

Over her more than thirty years of experience in Home Health Care, Judy as held positions at the local, regional and national level for both for profit and non-profit corporations. She has extensive experience in quality and safety, performance improvement, regulatory and accreditation preparation and compliance across multiple health care domains including certified home health, infusion, respiratory, and durable medical equipment. In addition, she has been involved in consultation with international home care enterprises in the United Arab Emirates, QATAR and Egypt.

For almost fifteen years Judy Flynn has been the Vice President Patient Care Quality, Compliance Officer at Partners HealthCare at Home, part of the Partners Health Care system, founded by Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals. In this role she has worked collaboratively with leadership within these flagships hospitals as well as the full spectrum of post acute care providers that are part of the Partners Health Care System. In her role she has oversight of patient care quality and safety, performance improvement, regulatory compliance and education for the company serving over 9,000 patients across its multiple service lines.

Prior to this role Judy was an Executive Consultant for The Corridor Group a national health care consulting firm. During her tenure Judy provided consultation on program development, regulatory compliance, Joint Commission survey preparation as well as leading several due diligence and merger and acquisition efforts. While she worked with agencies across the country her primary client was the largest VNA in the United States.

Prior to becoming a consultant Judy was Vice President of Clinical Operations for NMC Homecare, Inc. a national Home Health, Infusion, Respiratory and Durable Medical Equipment company. There she had oversight responsibility for development of local and national strategic plans for field operations, ensuring compliance with regulatory and Joint Commission accreditation requirements. In this role she led the development of several disease management programs, patient care pathways, national clinical, operations and finance audit tools, and policies.

Judy is a registered nurse who holds a Bachelors in Nursing, an MBA in Computer Science and is Certified in Healthcare Compliance. She has multiple publications and has presented at local and national venues. She has served on the Editorial board of Home Health Care nurse, and as Courtesy Faculty, Yale School of Nursing and Clinical Instructor for the MGH Institute of Health Professions.

Barbara has a strong background in managing population health initiatives and ambulatory care networks. She has worked to advocate and assure the health and well-being of a variety of populations in the public and private sector. Her unique background of experience as a clinician and administrator providing care to adults and children ensures a comprehensive understanding and skill in effectively managing care throughout the continuum of care. Recently, she accepted a position with Maricopa Integrated Health Services (MIHS) as Senior Vice President, Ambulatory Care and CEO Maricopa Health Centers Governing Council, with oversight and management of MIHS’s Federally Qualified Health Centers. Prior to accepting this position, Barbara served as Senior Director Post-Acute Care for Dignity Health, overseeing the development and management of system-wide value based models of care in support of Dignity’s 39 hospitals in Arizona, California and Nevada. This included management of Dignity’s Bundle Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative at 25 Dignity Health hospital and development of the system’s post-acute care preferred provider network. Before moving to the west coast, Barbara served as Director of Virginia Coordinated Care for the Uninsured (VCC) for the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (VCUHS) leading population health initiatives employing innovative care management strategies for an indigent care population.

Barbara holds a Master of Public Administration from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in Nursing from St. Catherine University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is a Professional in the Academy of Healthcare Management and holds a certification in Case Management.

Dr. Harkaway joined Trinity Health in January, 2012 to help lead the efforts around clinical integration and population health management. As SVP of Clinical Integration and Accountable Care, Paul was instrumental in the development and construction of Trinity's Clinically Integrated Networks and Accountable Care Organizations.

In February 2016, Dr. Harkaway transitioned from overseeing ACO/CIN work at a national level and is devoting his time to work in standing up Michigan ACOs and CINs. His expertise in this field and his experience as a physician in Michigan makes him a perfect fit for this new role.

In his life prior to joining Trinity Health, Dr. Harkaway spent more than 25 years caring for patients with pulmonary disease and critical illness at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Dr. Harkaway has been involved in medical management and leadership in several capacities and served as the President of the Huron Valley Physician Association (a large Independent Physician Association in Ann Arbor, Michigan) for over 10 years. In this role, he successfully led the independent physician community in their efforts to perform as a valued and respected virtually integrated group.

Alycia Harris is associate vice president of managed care contracting and alternative payment models for the Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic Regional Health Ministries where she is responsible for providing strategic oversight and direction to the ACOs on alternative payment models maximizing the value of payer contracts. Ms. Harris is also responsible for negotiating and implementing commercial and government fee for service agreements. Ms. Harris has spent 15 years in a variety of Provider and Payer managed care roles with increasing responsibility. She holds a BSN from West Virginia Wesleyan College and an MBA.

Chief Health Innovation Officer – Independent Health, Buffalo, NY Physician Entrepreneur – Provider, Payer, Community and Consumer Integration

Dr. Haughton is the CHIO/Quality Officer at Independent Health plan in Buffalo, NY and the Innovation Officer for the Chautauqua ACO. In both roles, he is responsible for leading integration, innovation and information for coordinated care. John has over twenty-five years of experience as a clinician and entrepreneur in health research, patient care, clinical workflow and informatics – pursuing a better, faster, easier and more satisfying healthcare system by integrating information-supported team based care across place, time and organization. Past work and research initiatives include clinical practice, running startups and leading teams pursing care management, evidence-based clinical measures, population analytics, and pay-for-performance activities. Results include driving sustained decrease in medical costs within 12 months of 6-10%/yr and sustained quality improvement from 15-50%.

Background: Prior to founding CogniMed and DocSite in the ‘90s and ‘00s (first cloud-native patient registry/care coordination/longitudinal record system – improved chronic disease care 25-50% in 3 to 6 months; cut medical cost by 6-10%), Haughton was CMO and senior vice president for product for the company that created HCC risk adjustment - DxCG, Inc; senior vice president of Clinical Integration and Product Development with ActiveHealth Management, Inc; and vice president of Medical Affairs and practicing rehab physician in a New England-based integrated post-acute provider focusing on inpatient and outpatient geriatric rehabilitation. Dr. Haughton earned his MD and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and finished his training at the University of Washington as Chief Resident in his PM&R; residency and there pursued an MS in Rehabilitation Medicine Research.

Personal: Married to Jennifer, blessed with three wonderful daughters – Sammie, Maddie & Lindsey Interests: Sailing, Learning, Fixing, Friends, Chautauqua, Developing Community

Advisory/Boards: Patient Advisory Committee, NIH. Chautauqua Institution Trustee.

David brings almost 20 years of experience within the healthcare industry with focus in the areas of analytics, reimbursement methodologies and alternative payment methodologies. The majority of David’s time has been spent on the vendor and consulting side of the healthcare ecosystem providing services both to Health Plans as well as Providers.

David joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana in June of 2015 in the role of Vice President of Provider Reimbursement and Payment Innovation. He now holds the position of Interim SVP of Medical Economics with responsibility for Alternative Payment Strategy, Reimbursement Methodology and Strategy as well as Provider Contracting, Credentialing and Communications. Prior to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, he worked at Trover Solutions as the SVP of Payment Integrity, Accenture as Healthcare Analytics Senior Manager, and OPTUM/Ingenix as VP/General Manager Payment Integrity, VP Hospital Solutions, and VP Data Analytic Solutions. Prior to OPTUM David worked at HSS, Inc., eHealthFirst and Health Process Management.

David did his undergraduate education at the University of Vermont graduating with two BS degrees, one in Mathematics and the other in Computer Science. He has a master’s degree from the University of Vermont in Mathematics and did PhD work in Applied Mathematics at the University of Arizona.

David lives with his wife Mitzi in Baton Rouge and enjoys golf and music.

Joe Kimura, MD MPH is Chief Medical Officer of Atrius Health and an internist at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a medical practice of Atrius Health. He has broad experience leading ambulatory care delivery system improvements with specialty expertise in clinical informatics and healthcare data analytics. Dr. Kimura has held multiple positions within Atrius Health including Medical Director for Analytics and Reporting Systems and Medical Director for Quality Measurement. Since 2014, he has served as co-chair of the ONC HIT federal advisory workgroup on Advanced Health Models and Meaningful Use. Dr. Kimura has been nationally recognized as a Top 25 Clinical Informaticists by Modern Healthcare in 2012 and one of thirty leading CMIO experts by Health Data Management in 2016.

Dr. Kimura was an undergraduate at Stanford University, received his medical degree from Washington University, and his public health degree from Harvard University. He completed his primary care internal medicine residency at the University of California in San Francisco and his health services research fellowship in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School. He completed the advanced management program at MIT Sloan School of Management with certification in Management, Innovation, and Technology.

Akil McClay is a System Director of APM Operations at Trinity Health. In this role, Akil is responsible for the implementation, deployment and operational CIN/ACO/APM activities across 7 states (Michigan, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York) with approximately 500,000 covered lives. Additionally, Akil serves as a lead for the Trinity Health Integrated Care MSSP Track 3 ACO. In Akil's prior role, he served as the System Director of Value?Based Care & Payment for SSM Health. Akil led operational oversight and implementation of population health initiatives across 4 states (Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin) and served as the lead for ACO and CIN operations. Some of Akil's experience includes the successful development and deployment of employee onsite clinics, primary care telehealth, ACO operations and CIN payer contract negotiations.

Prior to joining SSM Health, Akil served as the Administrative Officer of Research & Development for the VA St. Louis Healthcare System. In this role, Akil managed the daily operations of the Research & Development Department and Clinical Epidemiology Center. Akil was responsible for the budget, department operations, management of human research studies, animal protocols, and basic science studies as well as departmental standard operating procedures and personnel contracts. Akil also served the VA St. Louis Healthcare System in Extended Care and Rehabilitation Service, Budget Analytics, and Executive Office roles.

Akil holds a B.S. in Psychology from Southern University, a M.S. in Neuroscience from Tulane University, and a M.H.A from the School of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Missouri.

Amy Mullins, MD, CPE, FAAFP, currently serves as the Medical Director for Quality Improvement for the American Academy of Family Physicians. She most recently served as both a practicing family physician and as medical director at Trinity Clinic in Whitehouse, Texas, where she worked from 2002 to 2013. Current responsibilities with the AAFP include liaison work with other national organizations in the quality arena, as well as national-level policy and advocacy work regarding payment reform. A native of Texas, she is a graduate of Abilene Christian University and The University of Texas Medical Branch.

Crystal Pike RN, MSN is the Manager for Quality Performance and Clinical Informatics, of Triad Healthcare Network (NextGen ACO). Her team is responsible for quality metric outcomes for all ACO Medicare Advantage risk contracts, the ACO NextGen population of Medicare, and coding related to Risk Adjustment Factor (RAF). Her team also works with ambulatory practices regarding EMR (44) connectivity, workflows, processes, and development and deployment of web based quality tools for providers to utilize for quality outcome improvements and population health.

Crystal is a Registered Nurse and holds her Masters of Science in Nursing- Education from Grantham University in Missouri. Crystal has more than 21 years’ experience as a nurse. Prior to holding her current position, her career has consisted of providing patient care and management in multiple settings (inpatient and outpatient), and progressive leadership/management in hospice care.

Crystal provides education, monitoring, team building, and serves as a resource for multiple physician practices.

Jason Pyle is an accomplished biotechnology executive with over fifteen years of emerging technology experience. He has founded and led successful biotechnology firms, including Triton Innovations, Fabric Media Inc., Sapphire Energy, Epoc Bioengineering Inc., and Pria Diagnostics.

Jason is committed to developing healthcare technologies and bringing science-backed wellness management tools to the masses. He has received numerous awards for both his contributions to biotechnology and his business leadership in the biological sciences, including Top 100 Green Executive by Forbes, Top Tech Executive by San Diego Magazine, and National Energy Innovator by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Jason holds a number of pending and issued patents in the engineering and biological sciences and has worked in diverse cross-discipline areas such as nanofabrication, optical engineering, and structural biology. He earned both his MD and PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

As the Senior Medical Director for Population Health at Mount Sinai Health System, Dr. Rahim is responsible for physician engagement of the 3000 physicians within the Mount Sinai Clinically Integrated Network (CIN) on key quality, processes and outcomes, and efficiency and cost benchmarks. He also has a leadership role in utilization management and cost control programs for Mount Sinai’s value-based contracts, including their 45,000+ MSSP ACO.

Dr. Rahim has over 15 years of healthcare industry leadership experience at innovative companies including as Vice President of Quality Improvement for Lumeris, a population health health and analytics company; a Group Vice President of Quality Improvement and Innovation at Healthgrades, where he currently serves on a Quality Advisory Board (6 members); and a Director at Sg2, a health care intelligence, analytics, and services company for many hospitals and health systems throughout the country.

Dr. Rahim has a B.A. in Economics from Duke University, M.D. from the University of North Carolina, and M.B.A. from Emory University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University and Northwestern University and is an actively practicing hospitalist at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Rahim delivered many presentations at national conferences and authored publications on topics including quality outcomes and improvement, value-driven healthcare, and consumerism and the business of medicine.

Christine Samples BSN, RN, CCM is the Manager of Telephonic Case Management at Signature Medical Group, the largest convener of orthopedic episodes under CMMI’s BPCI initiative. Christine has been with signature since the initiation of this program in 2014. She oversees a team of Telephonic Case Managers, is an integral member of the Software development team, and leads regular monthly educational webinars, and Case Management orientation sessions on Care Redesign, and Case Management in BPCI.

Erin Smith, J.D., is an expert on payment and delivery innovation, and currently serves as the Director of Public Policy at Cardinal Health. She recently served as Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs at naviHealth, a Cardinal Health company, and before that, she worked at the CMS's Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) where she led the team that implemented the Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative and other bundled payment models.

Caroline Rossi Steinberg joined the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation as the Vice President for Programs in October of 2016. Prior to this position, she served as the Vice President for Trends Analysis at the American Hospital Association (AHA) for 14 years. In this role, Ms. Steinberg oversaw teams of researchers, data analysts and consultants in conducting policy research, trends analysis and data analytics to support AHA’s advocacy needs broadly defined to include regulatory, legislative, legal and public/media relations activities. Prior to moving to the AHA, Ms. Steinberg was a vice president at The Lewin Group, where she spent nine years working with both public and private provider organizations to develop strategies to confront changes in the health care environment. She also led the intensive site visit component of the Community Tracking Study under contract with the Center for Studying Health System Change. In prior consulting positions, she has worked to improve the operations of hospitals and health systems and conducted data-driven redesign of the health care benefit packages for unionized workers for a Fortune 500 company. She holds a masters of business administration (MBA) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College where she was named an Edward Tuck Scholar and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Carol Vargo is Director of Physician Practice Sustainability in the AMA Physician Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability Strategic Initiative Group. In this role, Carol directs AMA development of resources to support sustainable physician payment and delivery reforms. She also develops external partnerships with hospitals, health systems, commercial payers, technology vendors and other key stakeholders to advance the AMA strategic agenda on implementation and adoption of new federal, state and commercial payment and delivery models, including the new Medicare Quality Payment Program.

Prior to this position, Carol worked at the AMA as an Assistant Director of Federal Affairs and Outreach, Advocacy Group. In this role, she developed and implemented internal and external policies and strategies to advance the AMA’s priorities with the Federal Executive Branch, including the White House, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the CMS Innovation Center, and the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS). She began her career in federal policymaking as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA). Carol is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a B.A. in Communications, and a recipient of a Masters in Health Sciences in health policy and administration from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband, Robert Blanchard, an electrical engineer and VP of Sales at Cisco Systems, have two sons, Gray, age 17, and Henry, age 11, and reside in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore.