Rise

Jereme Ayers Client Partner

T E G Healthworks AI

With successful engagements in both healthcare and direct-to-consumer retail, Jereme brings an innovative and contemporary approach to the challenges of his clients. Leveraging data science, consumer behavior knowledge, and operational delivery, Jereme works with his clients and internal teams at HealthWorksAI to implement technology-based analytic solutions to meet their unique needs and deliver reliable results. 

Jamie Benedict Chief Strategic Growth Officer

MediGold

Jamie Benedict is a leader at MediGold, a Medicare Advantage Plan, serving approximately 45,000 Ohio and Idaho members. She oversees the Product, Sales, and Marketing departments and leads the organization's long-term growth plans.

Prior to her current position, Mrs. Benedict gained valued experience in her roles with MediGold as Senior Director of Medical Delivery Systems, Director of Support Services, Manager of Operations and Quality Control and Medical Data Analyst.  She improved the Plan’s performance through developing and maintaining value-based physician arrangements and maximizing risk adjustment and Star improvement initiatives.  She was accountable for provider and vendor contracting, contract oversight, as well as increasing member and provider engagement.  Ms. Benedict also managed Plan Operations, the Part D benefit, CMS financial audits, RADV audits and contributed to bid strategies.  

Mrs. Benedict earned a bachelor’s degree in health care administration from Ohio University and remains a proud Bobcat!

Paul Cain Senior Advisor Medicare Advantage

Cigna

Paul is a career product management professional, having worked in many industries including consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, healthcare information and Medicare Advantage. Currently he is AVP for Medicare Advantage products at Cigna Medicare where he oversees product management across all markets.

Paul has experience in new product development, product strategy and planning, competitive analysis and data and analytics. He has an MBA from St. Joseph’s University and lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his family.

Ryan Conran Associate Director of Insurance Product, Medicare Advantage

Oscar

Ryan Davis PAHM Manager, Pharmacy Medicare Programs

Kaiser Health Plan

Ryan Davis is the Manager of Pharmacy Medicare Programs for Kaiser Permanente of Washington. In the past six years that he has been with Kaiser/Group Health, he has supported the Medicare portfolio by providing oversight of benefits administration, ensuring compliant operations of required clinical programs such as the Medication Therapy Management Program, and overseen the successful implementation of multiple large-scale projects. As a Medicare aficionado with over twelve years of managed care experience; Ryan has also held government program roles with other large industry players such as CVS Health where he worked in the Member Communication Office to resolve some government imposed sanctions and at Express Scripts where he managed client needs as the point-of-contact for multiple large employer groups. He is a Pacific Northwest transplant having relocated from Ohio in 2014.

Shannon Decker Executive Director, Risk Adjustment

NAMM California

Dr. Shannon Decker is the Vice President of Clinical Performance for Brown & Toland. Dr. Decker has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare--14 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.   

Danica Holliston Medicare Product Manager

Regence BCBS

Dani is a Senior Medicare Product Manager for Regence (Cambia Health Solutions). She has been working within the health insurance industry since 2005. Dani has been working primarily with Medicare products since 2014, with a focus on Medicare Advantage plans. Regence covers the four states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah, and includes HMO, PPO, and PDP types of plans. Dani has an MBA from George Fox University, and a BA from Willamette University. Prior roles in the health insurance industry include sales, marketing communication, benefit management, and product management. She has worked with all lines of business including large group, small group, individual, and government programs, as well as ancillary products such as dental, vision, and hearing products.

Romy Hussain Senior Director, Healthcare Economics and Data Science

Johns Hopkins Healthcare LLC

Romy Hussain is the director of Healthcare Economics and Data Science. She graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2005; received an M.Phil from Cambridge University in 2007; and an MBA from Yale University in 2017. Her area of expertise revolves around machine learning applications in healthcare econometrics; by bringing advanced computation principles to healthcare settings, her work is geared toward solving healthcare strategy questions. She sits on the scientific review committee of the American Journal of Healthcare Economics reviewing submissions on the payer/provider integration track. Previously, she worked in provider profiling and growth strategy at Oscar Health in New York City, and started Yale-New Haven Health Systems first healthcare analytics unit. Her first introduction to the healthcare industry was as a senior analyst for a private equity firm specializing in the buyout and turnaround of distressed hospitals and providers. She lives in Washington, DC and is from California originally.

Lucretia Hydell Director of Actuarial Services

Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC

Lucretia Hydell, MS, MFA, ASA, MAAA, is the Director of Actuarial Services at Johns Hopkins HealthCare.  

She is a healthcare actuary with many years of experience working with and for providers in Medicare, Medicaid and value based care delivery.  

Lucretia is a thought leader and subject matter expert with a deep understanding of Medicare Advantage analytics and bid strategy.  

As an actuary, she has worked for some of the largest healthcare organizations in America, including United, Wellcare, Coventry and Willis Towers Watson as well as for innovative solution driven companies, such as Evolent Health.  

As a Sr. Director at Evolent, she spent four years working with a wide range of clients across the country creating paths to risk, building out a Medicare Advantage strategy team and supporting strategic blueprints.  

Since joining JHHC as the leader of the newly formed actuarial department, her responsibilities include growing the actuarial team and developing the tools and capabilities to support JHHC’s 400,000 lives across four lines of business. 

Prior to starting a career as an actuary, Lucretia toured as a Dancer with Garth Fagan Dance, taught at Alvin Ailey Arts in Education and worked at Carnegie Hall in administration. 

Bill Jonakin Medical Director, Medicare Advantage and Risk Adjustment

St. Luke’s Health Partners

Dr. Jonakin has had a career spanning several areas: Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Urgent Care, and General Practice. He has always been interested in the business of medicine, and most recently the shift from volume to value. He is the Medical Director for Medicare Advantage and Risk Adjustment at St. Luke’s Health Partners, a financially and clinically integrated network in Southwest Idaho. He is also the principal in Clinical Discernment, LLC, a consultancy focused on the accurate representation of the illness burden of a population. Dr. Jonakin is board certified in Pediatrics and is also a Certified Professional Coder and Certified Risk Adjustment Coder.

Gary Melis Clinical Pharmacist

Network Health

Clinical Pharmacist for the past eight years at Network Health, a local health insurance provider in Northeast and Southeast Wisconsin. He is currently one of three pharmacists involved making MTM calls in-house. His responsibilities also involve NCQA, pharmacy appeals, P&T Committee, Member and Provider relations. 

 Gary’s also has experience as pharmacy manager for a national long-term care company, pharmacy manager for retail pharmacy chain, and Pharmacy Director for a National Health Care provider. He has also been a pharmacy instructor at local medical college family practice clinic. 

Hank Osowski Managing Partner

Strategic Health Group

Hank Osowski, a Founding Member and Managing Partnerof Strategic Health Group,is an experienced health care executive and strategist who has provided leadership to commercial, Medicare and Medicaid health plans for more than three decades. He has led several engagements for the firm’s clients on the key challenges of Medicare and Medicaid Managed Careprograms in diverse markets, such as California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, West Virginiaand Hawaii.He has also provided leadership to more than a dozenclient plan development undertakings for commercial,Medicare Advantage and Medicaidbusiness startups in multiple states.A frequent speaker and resource on critical issues facing the Medicare and Medicaid programs, including the opportunities for strengthening a Medicare Advantage plan’s market position,the challenges of supporting programs for the Dual Eligible populations, as well asthe principles for structuring effective long term care programs. His insights on some of the challenges facing the healthcare industry have been published in“Managed Care”, “Healthcare Marketing Report”,“Managed Care Contracting & ReimbursementAdvisor”, “Payers and Providers” and “Becker’s Hospital Review”among other publications. Formerly the senior vice president of corporate development for SCAN Health Plan, Hank was a key member of the senior leadership team that turned the company around from a “near death experience” into an exceptionally strong financial position and one of the largest nonprofit Medicare Advantage plans in the country. He led SCAN’s expansion into seven additional California counties and as well as its first out-of-state expansion into Arizona where Hank then served as CEOof SCAN Health Plan Arizona and SCANLong Term Care. He has also led the organization’s strategic planning efforts and initiated an innovation development regimen to seek improvements in care coordination practices and future care outcome protocols.Prior to SCAN, Hank served as a Principalin a national health care consulting organization providing a range of strategic, financial and development services for health plans, physician groups and hospitals. He also served as vice president International Operations for American Family Life Assurance Corporation where he directed the development of start-up operations in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, as well as the financial turnaround of the company’s Canadian operations. Hank began his California career as a member of the senior management team responsible for the turnaround and financial survival of Blue Cross of California. In this capacity, Hank led the financial improvement of the individual and small group division and provided leadership to the organization’s strategic planning efforts.

Rex Wallace Founder and Principal

Rex Wallace Consulting