RISE is now accepting nominations for the 2020 Dr. Martin L. Block Award for Excellence and Innovation. The prestigious award is given to an individual who has advanced the lives of America’s seniors through clinical leadership, policy vision, and by superior example.
Nominations will be accepted through Dec. 31, 2019 and the award will be presented at RISE Nashville 2020, the annual Medicare Advantage mega conference, at Music City Center, on Monday, March 16, 2020.
Eligible nominees must:
- Work within the clinical field as an MD, NP, RN, PA, DO or otherwise clinically credentialed
- Work for a health plan, provider, accountable care organization, or vendor/supplier to the health care marketplace
- Have fulfilled one of the following criteria:
- Contributed to significant process improvement in the quality of clinical care provided to health plan members
- Dedicated more than 10 years to clinical practice or the administrative support of related job functions that improve clinical quality outcomes
Nominations must be submitted by Monday, Dec. 31. Click here for nomination forms (scroll to bottom of the page).
About the Dr. Martin L. Block Award
The award is given in honor of the late Dr. Martin Block, pictured right, a regular speaker at the RISE Nashville Summit, and an expert in the risk adjustment industry who had a natural ability to engage and inspire audiences and a passion to improve patient care.
Dr. Block, or Marty, graduated from Northwestern University Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He completed his internal medicine residency in 1978 at Washington University in St. Louis and began his private practice in Riverside, Calif., where he was active in the medical community.
Dr. Block’s focus on delivering quality patient care led him into healthcare administration early on in his career. As doctor of 35 years, his dedication to improve medicine fueled his rise among the ranks of several major health plan management companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Aetna, and United Healthcare.
No matter his title–medical director, chief medical officer or vice president of clinical services–he stayed fixated on his mission to improve quality of care, and he worked long hours every day to develop and improve processes that benefit patients and healthcare professionals.
As a certified professional coder, Dr. Block gained critical insights into risk adjustment, quality and outcomes management. He eventually moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., and went on to earn several awards for his dedication and passion.
Dr. Block died in October 2013 of brain cancer at the age of 62. In recognition of his contributions to innovations in risk adjustment, and to honor his life’s work, the RISE Association named the award in his honor and posthumously recognized him with the first Martin L. Block Award in March 2014.
Previous award winners include Mark Dambro, M.D., senior vice president of health informatics for Signify Health, Dr. Manjusri Vennamaneni, chief medical director and chief quality director for Access Health Care Physicians, LLC.; Michelle Lupoli, R.N. vice president of medical management for Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island; and Dr. John Broderick, regional medical director of Landmark Health.