Formerly in Quality leadership positions for Blue Cross / Blue Shield health plans and as a Senior HEDIS® Analyst at Fortune 500 plans, Ms. Adams has spent her 22-year career focused on two things. The 1st is a passion for identifying with the customer and 2nd is the optimization of Quality teams – their processes & data – in order to deliver better outcomes for all stakeholders.
Terry Boch serves as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Diameter Health and leads all go-to-market activities to drive company growth through customer retention, expansion and strategic partnerships.
Terry’s career spans three decades of healthcare IT executive management experience. Prior to joining Diameter Health, Terry held executive level strategy, sales, operational, and marketing roles at IBM Watson Health, WellCentive (acquired by Amsterdam-based Royal Philips in 2016), Covisint (acquired by OpenText in 2017), Misys Healthcare Systems (merged with Allscripts in 2008), UnitedHealthcare, and a financial consulting role with KPMG.
Paul Cotton is the National Committee for Quality Assurance Director of Federal Affairs. He works with Congress, the Administration and other stakeholders to improve health care quality. Previously he was a lobbyist for AARP on Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, health reform, health IT and quality improvement issues. He has also worked at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services as Hearings & Policy Presentation Director in the Office of Legislation, and as a journalist for publications including the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Jatin Dave
Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical Affairs
Dr. Jatin Dave Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical Affairs
MassHealth
Dr. Jatin Dave joined New England Quality Care Alliance as Chief Medical Officer in 2016. Dr. Dave is an internist and geriatrician with more than 15 years of diverse health care experience in clinical, academic and managed care settings. He is board certified in internal medicine, clinical informatics, geriatrics and hospice and palliative care.
Before joining NEQCA, Dr. Dave served as the Medical Director of Geriatrics and Senior Care Options for Tufts Health Plan. He also practiced at Brigham and Women’s hospital for 12 years both as a primary care physician and consultant geriatrician. Dr. Dave completed his training in Internal Medicine at the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine and subsequently completed a General Internal Medicine fellowship at New York University. He then completed a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Harvard University where he received his master’s degree in public health. Jatin lives with his wife and two sons in Lexington, MA.
Dr. Shannon Decker is Vice President of Clinical Performance for Brown and Toland. Dr. Decker has more than 19 years of experience in healthcare--13 of which include working with risk adjustment and Medicare. Dr. Decker has a PhD. in Interdisciplinary Studies, dual MBA degrees--in Finance and in Marketing, as well as an M.Ed. in Secondary Education and a M.Ed. in Administration and Leadership. Dr. Decker is on the faculty at Arizona State University and is also an associate professor of Higher Education & Adult Learning (HEAL) and chief methodologist for Walden and Capella Universities where she chairs and oversees the dissertations of doctoral students. An author of two books and several peer-reviewed articles, she consults in both the fields of healthcare and education. Her interests include the study of human behavior and how theories on motivation and learning may be brought to bear on population health management.
His background is in management and operational processes for 15 years, and began working in the Risk Adjustment arena 12 years ago. Ryan has proven himself by helping Medical Groups raise their RAF scores to their proper levels. He directed the movement of a 10,000 member group up 43% over a two year period, and an 1800 member group up 53% in the first year. Ryan achieves these results through chart documentation audits, provider and staff documentation training, and provider relationship building. In his most current role Ryan works with multiple groups to optimize their RAF score, while at the same time achieving CMS 5 Star quality. Ryan explains to these groups that getting their RAF score to the correct level will not only drive revenue, but it will also lead to better patient care with improved documentation habits. Ryan is a Certified Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC) credential through the AAPC.
A farmer by birth and biologist by training, for the past two years Will Dukes has been the Director of Business Development for iCare Intelligence, a firm dedicated to Provider Engagement in Value Based Care. A former teacher of the year in one of the largest public school districts in the nation, Will’s advanced degrees in Education and Communication and Master’s in Global Business Administration has enabled him to lead communication campaigns and change initiatives in a variety of industries. Now in healthcare, Will’s unique experience and background allows him to combine skills in systems approach, data analysis, and education to improve communications not only between iCare and their payer clients, but between payers and providers as well. In his free time, will enjoys wood turning and amusing his wife by serving as a life-sized karate dummy for his two wonderful children.
Josh heads Medicare Star Ratings at Martin’s Point Health Care in Portland, Maine where he helped guide his company’s LPPO contract to its first 5-star Overall Rating in 2020. Martin’s Point’s HMO contract has achieved 5-stars five times since 2010, most recently in 2019.
Rhonda Farrar, RN, BSN Manager of HEDIS and Risk Adjustment
Health First Health Plans
Rhonda began her healthcare career in a Critical Care program beginning in the ICU and found her home in the ER. She transitioned to Home Health Care and found a passion in helping prevent the need for repeat ER visits. This guided her career with an ongoing passion in Quality and Care Coordination with a focus on preventive care and Population Health. Rhonda joined the Risk Adjustment department this year and is continuing the collaborate efforts to leverage the similarities between Risk Adjustment and HEDIS efforts. Rhonda lives in Brevard County, FL with her husband and spends her free time focusing on her husband, four children, and sweet puppy, Creek.
Ana Handshuh, Principal at CAT5 Strategies, is a government programs executive with expertise in creating and implementing corporate programs for the healthcare industry. Her background includes Quality, Core Measures, Care Management, Benefit Design and Bid Submission, Accreditation, Regulatory Compliance, Revenue Management, Communications, Community-based Care Management Programs and Technology Integration. Ms. Handshuh currently serves on the Board of the Resource Initiative and Society for Education (RISE), the preeminent national professional association dedicated to managed and accountable care financing and delivery. She is a sought after speaker on the national healthcare circuit in the areas of Quality, Star Ratings, Care Management, Member and Provider Engagement, and Revenue Management. Her recent consultancy roles have included assisting organizations create programs to address the unmet care management needs in the highest risk strata of membership, document their processes and procedures, achieve accreditation status, design and submit government program bids, institute corporate-wide programs and create communications strategies and materials. She possesses sophisticated business acumen with the ability to build consensus with cross-functional groups to accomplish corporate goals. Ms. Handshuh served as the Vice President of Managed Care Services at Central Florida Inpatient Medicine (CFIM). In this role, she provided leadership and strategy on CFIM projects and collaborations with physicians, risk entities, hospital health care systems, and health plans. CFIM is the largest Hospitalist group in Central Florida, with 70 providers discharging over 50,000 patients annually from multiple hospitals across two health care delivery systems and 24 skilled nursing facilities. At CFIM Ms. Handshuh previously served as the Vice President of Operations. Prior to those assignments, she worked with Precision Healthcare Systems as their Vice President of Quality Improvement. In that capacity, she led the IPA’s Quality efforts and collaborated with payers on implementing programs to move the needle on Quality and Star Rating initiatives. Ms. Handshuh also served as the Director of Corporate Program Development at Physicians United Plan. In this role, she led the Quality Management and Corporate Communications departments and spearheaded the development of innovative integrated technology solutions to drive business excellence and Star Rating achievement initiatives. For the past fifteen years Ms. Handshuh has taken an active role in redefining and implementing changes that have led to improvements and greater efficiency within Government programs and healthcare delivery. Prior to joining Physicians United Plan Ms. Handshuh was the founder of I-Six Creative. Under Ms. Handshuh’s vision and leadership, I-Six Creative provided expertise in the areas of managed Medicare benefit design, MSO/IPA operations, provider network strategy, new market launches, technology integration, corporate communications and quality improvement.
Katharine Iskrant, MPH, CPHQ, CHCA Katharine is the President of Healthy People, an NCQA-licensed HEDIS audit firm and CMS Data Validation firm. She is a member of NCQA’s Audit Methodology Panel and NCQA’s HEDIS Data Collection Advisory Panel. Katharine has been a Certified HEDIS® Compliance Auditor since 1998 and has directed more than two thousand HEDIS audits.
Previously, as CEO of the company Acumetrics, Katharine provided consultancy services to NCQA which helped their initial development and eventual launch of the NCQA Measure Certification Program.
Katharine is a frequent speaker at HEDIS conferences, including NCQA’s most recent Healthcare Quality Congress. She is featured on an NCQA podcast, discussing the HEDIS Electronic Clinical Data System Measures: https://blog.ncqa.org/inside-health-care-0032-katharine-iskrant-healthy-people-inc/
She received her BA from Columbia University and her MPH from UC Berkeley School of Public Health. She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality and is published in the fields of healthcare and public health.
Dr. Rebecca Jacobson is President of Astrata, a digital healthcare quality company, created through UPMC Enterprises. Astrata helps Health Plans use NLP and advanced analytics to transform their HEDIS quality measurement programs. Dr. Jacobson is also Vice President at UPMC Enterprises, where she oversees the analytics program. Prior to this position, Dr. Jacobson was Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Chief Information Officer for the Institute for Personalized Medicine. Over the past fifteen years, Dr. Jacobson’s work has focused on extracting meaningful information from electronic medical records to impact population health, precision medicine, and quality improvement, using NLP methods. She is an elected Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (since 2010).
Tejaswita Karveis the Director of Medicare STARS with the Johns Hopkins Health System. She has previously held roles at several Fortune 500 companies, including Accenture and CVS Health, as well as with Presbyterian Healthcare Services and most recently at UPMC Health Plan in Pittsburgh.
Karve holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology from Georgetown University.
Sara Ratner SVP Government Programs and Strategic Initiatives
Revel-Health
A proven leader in the healthcare industry, Sara was the CEO of HealthEHR where she helped venture-backed organizations develop Medicare and Medicaid program strategies for emerging markets leveraging CMS and state frameworks to generate opportunities for program development and expansion. She has also served as SVP, Corporate Systems and Compliance at RedBrick Health, President of NeoPath Health, and as General Counsel, VP of Strategic Partnerships and Human Resources at CVS CareMark (MinuteClinic division).
Sara serves on several Boards of Directors, including Proximal Health, a venture-backed health insurance company that she co-founded; she has also previously served on other for-profit and nonprofit Boards of Directors. Throughout her career Sara has received notable awards such as the Business Journal Top 25 Women to Watch, Top 40 under 40, and was named part of Twin Cities Business Real Power 50.
She earned a B.A, cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis, and her J.D. from St. Louis University graduating magna cum laude.
To foster her competitive spirit, Sara actively trains and competes as a triathlete, racing in international distance triathlons to Ironmans.
Noris has a Master's degree from the University of Miami and has spent her professional life in the healthcare industry, including academia, hospital and private sector settings. During her career in academia, Noris was intimately involved in research management as well as the management of graduate medical education.
Noris entered the arena of quality and value based care seven years ago, as a seasoned healthcare administrator. In this new role, Noris has been transforming the way medical practices understand quality and value based care with emphasis on moving from episodic care to life-based care. Noris strongly believes that empowering and educating patients and their caregivers is the key to quality care and healthier beneficiaries. When beneficiaries are educated about their health and made part of their care, they are empowered to make the right decision for themselves.
Noris is a firm believer that when an environment that promotes a culture of education, compliance, mutual respect is created, this becomes the driving force behind quality care, quality of life, stability or improvement of chronic conditions, and ultimately a reduction in healthcare costs.
Bahar Sedarati, MD, FCUCM National Medical Director
Humana
Dr. Bahar Sedarati is a physician executive with diverse experience across the continuum of care, including private medical practice, medical group management, integrated delivery system, and the payers.
She is a national expert and a physician trainer in both inpatient and outpatient clinical documentation (CDI), Medicare risk adjustment (MRA) coding as well as utilization management (UM) with an MCG Utilization and Case Management Certification. Her niche is in training clinicians on harvesting data to achieve precision in chronic disease management, cost savings, excellence in quality measures and pay per performance.
Dr. Sedarati provides guidance on administrative and clinical excellence, work-flow efficacy and electronic health records proficiency. She has created intelligent and innovative tools assisting clinicians to succeed in the value-based care as well as the on-demand care spaces.
Dr. Sedarati has over two-decade of experience in education, and academic medicine. She is the author of multiple nationally and internationally recognized medical review books and is a faculty at university of California, Irvine, UCI.
Dr. Sedarati is Board Certified in Internal Medicine (ABIM), and the Fellow of Collage of Urgent Care Medicine. She is a Certified Physician Executive and holds Six Sigma black belt and green belt certificates.
She is currently the lead medical director of clinical performance & operation for the Desert Pacific Region in Humana. She oversees the market acute and post-acute authorizations requests, conducts peer quality audits and education for the market medical directors on coding, clinical documentation, benchmarking and quality measures such as inpatient admissions and hospital length of stay.
Reva Sheehan Government Programs Strategic Market Executive
mPulse Mobile
With more than 15 years’ industry experience ranging from long term care and compound pharmacy management to health plan quality and operations, Reva excels in engaging internal and external stakeholders to improve processes for optimal outcomes while keeping the member’s experience at the heart of every conversation.
I started my career in healthcare in 2007, working in the mental health field, cardiothoracic intensive care then in the emergency department of a level 1 trauma center. In 2017 I left bedside nursing to work for Martins Point Health Care as a CDI nurse/HEDIS reviewer, then as the HEDIS Administrator in 2018. I live in Gorham Maine with my husband, two children, and dogs that keep me busy.
Melissa Smith
Executive Vice President, Consulting & Professional Services
Melissa Smith Executive Vice President, Consulting & Professional Services
HealthMine
Melissa Smith is the Executive Vice President of Consulting and Professional Services at HealthMine, bringing over 25 years of experience in Star Ratings, strategy, sales, and marketing for health plans, providers, pharmacy benefit managers, and industry vendors. Melissa has extensive experience developing strategic and tactical solutions to meet client needs and a strong background of building productive partnerships across internal teams and with external vendors to improve performance on clinical, medication, patient survey, and administrative quality measures.
Most recently, Melissa was Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, Strategy and Stars at Gorman Health Group. She is a well-known thought leader and healthcare strategist with proven success developing enterprise-wide solutions to improve Star Ratings, quality performance, health outcomes, and the member experience. Melissa’s team helps clients improve performance within quality ratings systems, evaluate market dynamics and opportunities, optimize distribution channels, and support our clients’ strategic planning needs.
Prior to Gorman Health Group, Melissa served in a leadership capacity at Cigna-HealthSpring. Before working in Medicare Advantage and quality ratings systems, Melissa was an Associate Director at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Melissa received her degree from Purdue University and began her career at KPMG, LLP. Melissa’s unique background of business process, regulatory compliance, and healthcare quality offers our clients unique access to healthcare strategy, quality performance, revenue optimization, and more.
Jim Techtmann
Senior Vice President, Entertainment Healthcare Team
Daniel Weaver VP Stars, Quality, & Risk Adjustment
Gateway Health Plan
Daniel Weaver is an established leader with extensive experience developing and implementing intervention strategies to improve Medicare Stars performance. With demonstrated success through innovative programs, Daniel led a Stars Quality team at Highmark for 6 years where they consistently delivered market-leading performance and forward-thinking engagement with providers and members. Daniel moved to Gateway Health Plan to help an underperforming DSNP plan achieve 4 Stars, boost Quality Improvement performance across multiple State pay for performance programs, and expand Risk Adjustment programs.