2022 Speakers

Steven Carleton

Steven Carleton is Vice President of Customer Experience for Premera Blue Cross. Much of his career can be summed up as “making things work better.” He has been a leader in nearly every business function across a variety of industries. Prior to joining Premera in April 2019, Steven spent 15+ years in Silicon Valley building and leading teams at eBay, Apple, Genentech, and Sun Microsystems.

Carleton’s passion for creating meaningful and memorable experiences is equaled by his commitment to letting the data guide decision making. Finding the right story in a sea of information while honoring the human side of business have been key differentiators in his career. Striking this balance has allowed him to bridge the gap between technologists, sales, marketing, finance, and product teams to best serve customers.

Carleton is a graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Following his first shipboard assignment in Seattle, he spent the remainder of his Coast Guard career as a rescue helicopter pilot. He dreams of mastering the seaplane so he and his wife can explore the inside passage of Vancouver Island.

Mark R. Anderson, LFHIMSS, CPHIMS

Mr. Anderson is one of the nation's premier IT futurists dedicated to health care. He has 45 years’ experience in Healthcare as a CEO, CFO and the corporate CIO at 4 IDNs and has worked with over 250 hospitals and over 26,000 physicians. Additionally, since 2010, Mr. Anderson has worked with 28 ACOs regarding moving from FFS to VBR, has created over 20 Care Coordination and Patient Engagement programs, and has developed the 7-Stages of VBR functionality matrix. Finally, Mr. Anderson has served as an Expert Witness on numerous legal cases dealing with Healthcare Technologies, hospital protocols, and malpractice cases.

Lee Barrett

Lee Barrett is the Executive Director of The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), a federally recognized, standards development organization designed to improve transactional quality, operational efficiency and data security in healthcare, where has served in that capacity since the commission's inception in 1993. He has 10 years of experience leading healthcare professional services organizations including PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAIC, Covansys and Virtusa and 20 years in senior management roles in payer organizations including Travelers and Aetna. He has held senior leadership positions with the American Dental Association Business Enterprises Inc. (ADABEI), the for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the ADA, a provider organization and has led several healthcare software/services development companies including: MBEXX, Claredi, HealthEC and others in which for many he facilitated their growth and acquisition. He has served as chairman of WEDI, and ASCX12N Insurance Subcommittee and currently serves on the eHi Leadership Council and DirectTrust Board and has been on many other industry boards.

A member of both the HHS Cybersecurity Task Force (405d) and ONC Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Tiger Team as well as Chair of the National Trust Network Data Sharing and Cybersecurity Task Group, Barrett works on key HIT industry initiatives that lay the foundation for health information technology – including support and implementation of important healthcare legislative mandates. He speaks nationally regarding security, privacy, ransomware and cybersecurity risk management/assessment and mitigation strategies, tactics and best practices and is a continued go-to resource for industry media.

Bob Bowman

W. Christopher Johnson, FHFMA

Chris Johnson has been employed in the healthcare finance field for more than 30 years. During this time Chris has worked in multiple environments including sole community providers, an academic medical center and in integrated healthcare delivery system. He is current employed by Atrium Health in Charlotte as Vice President Revenue Cycle Management Regional Facilities and Unified Business Office. In his current role, Chris oversees the Unified Business Office which is responsible for “patient facing” billing functions for both hospital and professional billing operations for the Atrium Health Owned facilities. In addition, Chris leads the Regional PFS Team which supports revenue cycle operations for the regional healthcare facilities affiliated with the HealthCare System. Chris is a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association and an active member of the North Carolina Chapter of HFMA where he has served in numerous leadership positions including Chapter President. Chris has also worked with National HFMA on the Board of Examiners, National Advisory Council, Regional Executive for Region IV, and the Chapter Advancement Team. In 2017 received the Fredrick C. Morgan Award, the highest service award presented by National HFMA. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Montreat College in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and is certified in Epic Resolute Hospital Billing and Single Billing Office Administration.

Charles Stellar

Kurt Gallagher

Kurt Gallagher joined the Healthcare Business Management Association in 2018 as its executive director and quickly revitalized HBMA’s Data Science Committee to complete the organization’s first HBMA Billing Fees Survey later that year. Kurt has led efforts to develop new performance benchmarks for the revenue cycle management industry and plans to launch a new benchmarking survey in early 2021.

Adele Towers MD MPH FACP CRC

Dr. Towers is the Director of Risk Adjustment for UPMC Enterprises, and is also a geriatrician on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. At UPMC Enterprises, she is directly involved in the development of healthcare related technology, with emphasis on use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Risk Adjustment coding and use of Clinical Analytics to optimize clinical performance. Prior to this role, she has served as the Medical Director for Health Information Management at UPMC with responsibility for Clinical Documentation Improvement as well as inpatient coding denials and appeals. She has been on the faculty in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh for over 25 years and continues to see patients at the Benedum Geriatric Center in UPMC. She is the former Medical Staff President at UPMC Presbyterian, and her prior positions have been as Vice Chair for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety for the Department of Medicine, Medical Director of UPMC Home Health, Medical Director of the Benedum Geriatric Center and Medical Director of Primary Care at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Dr. Towers has presented the experience at UPMC with use of NLP and Clinical Analytics at multiple regional and national conferences.

Erin Richter Weber

Jim Milanowski

Jim Milanowski has over 22 years experience in the management of mental health, substance abuse, behavioral health managed care and medical care coverage programs. Mr. Milanowski currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Genesee Health Plan (GHP), administering a community based indigent health care plan. The health plan has covered over 70,000 Genesee County residents since 2001. Since the start of enrollment into Affordable Care Act in 2013, GHP has conducted outreach and enrollment sessions with over 15,000 Genesee County residents. The health plan received the 2015 Pinnacle Award from the Michigan Association of Health Plans for this effort. As a strong advocate, his expertise includes working to reduce racial disparities, uncompensated care, and the impact of chronic disease. During his leadership, Genesee Health Plan has received the national quality award from URAC for Best Practices in Patient Empowerment and Protection, the Greater Flint Labor Council's Community Partnership Award and the Robert M. Pestronk Excellence in Public Health Award. He is a founding member of the Health Net Collaborative, and a member of the Greater Flint Health Coalition Access, Dental and Medical Group Visit Committees. He is the Treasurer of the Michigan Association of County Health Plans and is on the Board of Directors for the Genesee Community Health Center. Mr. Milanowski received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Spring Arbor University and his Master's of Science degree in Clinical Psychology from Eastern Michigan University. He is a limited-licensed psychologist in the state of Michigan, and has extensive counseling experience with adult, child, and adolescent populations.

Pam Grosze

Lisa Davis

Lisa Davis is Senior Vice President and CIO at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with $21 billion in revenue serving 4.6 million members in California’s commercial, individual, and government markets. She’s driving Blue Shield toward a future state of health care, transforming the IT business model and leveraging digital technology, data, and analytics to accelerate the delivery of capabilities to improve the member and provider experience.

An innovative IT and global business executive, Davis’ future-forward vision has improved business outcomes and customer experiences for organizations in high-tech, academia, and the federal government. She previously led a global P&L at Intel prior to being the CIO at Georgetown University. She was also a leader in the federal government at the Department of Defense as CIO of both the U.S. Marshals Service and Counterintelligence Field Activity.

Lisa holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Management from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University. She currently serves on the board of Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Julia Skapik, MD,MPH

Julia Skapik is the Medical Director for Informatics at NACHC and a board-certified Internist and Clinical Informaticist. She came to NACHC after a stint as the Chief Health Information Officer for Cognitive Medical Systems after 5 years as a Senior Medical Informatics Officer at ONC. Dr. Skapik is also an ongoing leader in HIT interoperability, governance and clinical content as the Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Logica Health and in standards development as a member of the HL7 Board of Directors. In her role at NACHC, Dr. Skapik is focused on broad HIT stakeholder coordination and engagement, common data definitions and measure harmonization, and HIT-enabled clinical quality improvement, care coordination, and patient engagement.

Kristine Stewart

Steve Mach

Michael Marchand

Jeff Nieman

Jason Petrasich

Mr. Petrasich drives revenue cycle solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that support healthcare providers’ operational, clinical and financial health. Petrasich brings over 25 years of RCM experience in revenue cycle process design, efficiency and resource optimization. Prior to joining Meduit, he served as national vice president of revenue cycle for Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc., vice president of operations for Navigant Cymetrix, and senior director of operations planning for Conifer Health Solutions. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.

April Todd

April Todd is the Senior Vice President for CORE and Explorations at CAQH. She is responsible for leading the CAQH CORE multi-stakeholder collaborative that is driving the creation and adoption of operating rules for healthcare data exchange. She also directs the Explorations functions for the organization including research for the CAQH Index and innovations in interoperability including the CAQH Endpoint Directory.

Mariann Yeager

Doug Dietzman, MBA

Doug Dietzman is an accomplished senior executive leader with a 30-year track record of success in the healthcare industry serving hospital systems, physician organizations, health plans, health information exchanges, and other healthcare environments with a specific expertise in interoperability and health information exchange. In his current role, Mr. Dietzman leads USQHIN, a company focused on solving U.S. health challenges through collaboratively rationalizing interstate data exchange at national scale. Prior to USQHIN, he founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Health Connect, a leading statewide health information exchange serving the state of Michigan since 2010. Doug holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration from Spring Arbor University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Biola University. Mr. Dietzman holds leadership positions with the following organizations:

• Board of Directors, MPRO
• Christian Living Services/Holland Home – Board Strategic Planning Committee
• Board of Directors, FHG Theater

Theresa Sheehan (MSW-Forte)

Karen Silgen

Karen Silgen is General Manager and Vice President of Virtual Care at UnitedHealthcare, where she focuses on developing the commercial strategy and virtual care programs for 25+ million consumers and hundreds of thousands of large and small businesses. In her role, Karen helps simplify members' health care experience including the ability to connect with a provider with the click of a button and to help improve access to quality care – no matter where people are. Prior to this role, Karen led the telehealth evolution as a result of COVID-19 for UnitedHealthcare’s provider networks by helping providers through best practices in telehealth billing, clinical scenarios, workflow management, technology procurement, digital security and more.

Karen has also served as a Vice President at Optum, where she developed programs that helped consumers with complex conditions such as end stage renal disease, sickle cell disease and infertility. Karen has a long and diverse history with UnitedHealth Group since 2005, and her career spans more than twenty years serving in leadership positions within product development and management, provider networks and marketing.

Recognized for her leadership and forward thinking, UnitedHealth Group awarded Karen the Innovation Leadership Shadow Award which is bestowed upon select leaders who make innovation a priority while demonstrating the company’s values. Karen was also selected by UnitedHealth Group executives to attend the Executive Development Program at Stanford in addition to numerous other innovation awards.

Karen earned a BA and MBA from the University of St. Thomas and is a certified Executive Coach through the Hudson Institute and the International Coaching Federation. Karen currently serves as a Board Member for the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota, serves as a mentor for executives at Menttium, and as a mentor to students from her alma mater.

Dr. Tim Pletcher

Dr. Tim Pletcher is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Velatura Public Benefit Corporation, an industry leader in providing HIT and HIE consulting, development, implementation, and operations services in states across the nation. Dr. Pletcher’s work has been instrumental in developing emerging solutions and improving the healthcare experience by making valuable data available at the point of care through statewide health information sharing.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Dr. Pletcher has done remarkable work in improving health care in both the public and private sector. He was the founding director for the Institute for Health and Business Insight at Central Michigan University (CMU), a not-for- profit consulting group that uses high-end data science to solve business problems. Clients included Dow Chemical, General Motors, Harley Davidson, Henry Ford Health System, Partners Health, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble, and Steelcase. Prior to joining CMU, he was the Chief Technology Officer at a start-up corporation funded by Oracle and PSI Net that specialized in electronic commerce and customized supply chain automation.

Dr. Pletcher is also an Adjunct Research Investigator of Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School. He frequently presents both regionally and nationally on topics such as Health Informatics and Data Science. He received a Doctorate of Health Administration and a Master’s Degree from Central Michigan University, and received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan.

Neil Wlodyka

Neil Wlodyka is Assistant Vice President for Patient Financial Services for Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina for acute care facilities, Urgent Care and physician practices in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Neil has been with Atrium Health for 27 years in April with a total of over 32 years of healthcare experience in revenue cycle operations. In his current role, Neil is responsible for effective and efficient management of the operational processes with patient cash posting, patient refunds, patient correspondence, Corporate Privacy Officer and Patient Experience/Complaint Relations. Neil has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Appalachian State University with a concentration in healthcare management. Neil and his wife, Amy of almost 28 years, are the parents of four children – Jack, Sam, Mary, and Ryan.