Knock Out Waste in Healthcare Spending: Employer Strategies That Pack a Punch!

Dr. Cunningham-Hill is an employee health expert known for his ability to create, identify and implement high-quality workplace health programs including prevention and screening, chronic illness interventions, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives. His broad occupational medicine and public health experience encompasses addressing chronic diseases impacting employers, employees and communities within the context of  social, cultural and racial determinants of health.

Mark has served as the Medical Director for Northeast Business Group on Health since early 2018. Until 2017, he served as Senior Director, Global Solutions Center and Head of Occupational Medicine at Johnson & Johnson, Inc . At J&J, Mark led a team of experts covering occupational medicine, health and wellness, personal energy management, EAP and mental wellbeing, and work-life effectiveness, and supported regional operational groups delivering health services to 135,000 employees in 120 companies. Prior to seven years at J&J, Mark spent 17 years at GlaxoSmithKline in both London and Philadelphia, including as Head of Global Operations, Employee Health Management.

Mark received his MB ChB, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Manchester University in the UK. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, London.

Marty Makary, M.D., is a leading advocate for healthcare innovation, writing in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He has written extensively on organizational culture, patient safety, and healthcare reform. He is the creator of The Surgery Checklist, developed at Johns Hopkins and popularized in the book The Checklist Manifesto. Makary has been named to America’s 20 Most Influential People in Health Care and Smartest People in Healthcare List by Becker’s Review. Makary is the author of Mama Maggie — a book about his aunt, a Nobel prize nominee — and Unaccountable, a book about healthcare transparency and Library Journal Book of the Year. He leads the national “Improving Wisely” project to lower healthcare costs in America. Makary is a cancer surgeon and teaches health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Craig Anderson is regional president-northeast at UnitedHealthcare Networks, where he is in the UnitedHealth Networks (UHN) organization and has responsibility for managing the provider networks and relationships across the northeast region. He serves as the UHN Executive Partner for the UHC E&I business nationally, and is also responsible for UnitedHealthcare’s provider network relationships, contracting, and service in the northeast. He has held previous roles as CFO for a number of UnitedHealthcare businesses, and has served in operations and M&A. From 1990 to 2002 Anderson was with Arthur Andersen LLP in the audit, business advisory and M&A practice. His industry experience at Andersen included insurance (life, health and P&C), asset management and broker/dealers. Anderson graduated cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Gandhi holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and finance from Harvard University. He has authored several articles on ACOs, payer/provider partnerships and physician engagement, and has served as a conference speaker on a variety of issues related to population health and value-based care.

Simeon Schindelman is CEO of Brighton Health Plan Solutions, leading the design and delivery of Create^®, a new marketplace for plan sponsors in which integrated health delivery systems compete to gain members at open enrollment. As CEO, he is also responsible for all aspects of the company, including performance and establishing and implementing strategic priorities that will enhance future success. Prior to BHPS, Schindelman served as chairman and CEO of Bloom Health, a Minneapolis-based leader in designing, building and operating private exchanges. Over the years, he has held senior level management positions at several high-profile healthcare companies including UnitedHealthcare. Schindelman earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Dartmouth College.

Adam R. Stracher , M.D., is chief medical officer at Weill Cornell Physician Organization and associate dean of clinical affairs of the Weill Cornell Medical College. Prior to being named to those posts in October 2017, he had served as assistant dean for clinical affairs since 2014, and director of Weill Cornell’s Primary Care Division since 2003. As associate dean of clinical affairs, Stracher serves as a critical bridge between the dean’s office and the physician organization to ensure that the institution continues to innovate and adapt to an ever-changing healthcare landscape. He leads Weill Cornell Medicine’s efforts to encourage and support new healthcare delivery models, such as NewYork Quality Care, the Medicare ACO of Weill Cornell, Columbia and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Stracher joined the faculty of Weill Cornell Medicine in 1995. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and doctorate from the State University of New York Health Science Center.

Mark L. Wagar is president of Heritage Medical Systems, an affiliate of the Heritage Provider Network and physician organizations. Wagar helps lead performance improvement and growth opportunities throughout Heritage that can improve health, care, access and cost. He is engaged in health policy on both the national and local level, educating elected and appointed officials and interest groups on fact based, sustainable health policy change. Previously, Wagar served as president and CEO of Empire BlueCross BlueShield based in New York City. He has also been an operating partner and advisor to private equity-backed healthcare firms, and held prior executive leadership roles in hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Wagar serves on the boards of the New York Academy of Medicine and TurningPoint. He has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus of The Ohio State University, and a recipient of the Dr. Jonas Salk Memorial Mentor in Medicine Award, as well as an honoree helping fund numerous charitable causes supporting healthy communities and diversity. In 1971, he was a member of the Big Ten champion basketball team of The Ohio State University.

Smita Mehta, M.D., is associate corporate medical director of Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems Inc., where her primary responsibilities are clinically-focused, providing convenient primary and acute care for the executives of Johnson & Johnson. For the past 13 years, Mehta has been with Johnson & Johnson working within the areas of executive health, occupational health and travel medicine. Throughout her tenure at Johnson & Johnson, she has been responsible for launching many health and wellness pilot programs for employees and representing Johnson & Johnson at the Employee Health Innovation Roundtable. Mehta was trained in internal medicine at the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City and worked as an attending physician at New York University Downtown Hospital. In addition, she served on the faculty at New York University Medical Center. She is also certified as a medical review officer.

Barbara A. Brickmeier has spent her entire career in Human Resources, and is currently Vice President, HR for IBM Corporation in Armonk, New York responsible for Global Benefits Design and Execution, Integrated Health Services and Wellness, HR Business Development (M&A), and administrative services for IBM’s global workforce of 380k. In her current role, Ms. Brickmeier oversees global benefits design and execution (retirement, health and welfare, wellness etc.), occupational health and safety, HR Business Development (acquisition and divestiture management as well as strategic outsourcing additions), and IBM’s administrative assistant organization. Barbara joined IBM in 1996 as Manager, US Health Benefits and has had a wide variety of HR roles since then.  After four years running health benefits, she was promoted to Director, Global Benefits overseeing all benefit plans in all countries.  From 2002 to 2008, she led IBM’s internal HR transformation strategy and execution to create COEs and employee service centers across the globe. In 2008, she became the HR leader/generalist for IBM Global Technology Services business unit (100k employees worldwide).  She has also been the HR leader/generalist for Corporate functions (Finance, Legal, Strategy, Research, etc. 30k employees in total).  In 2011, she once again became responsible for IBM’s global benefits design and execution organization. Barbara participates on IBM’s Growth and Transformation Team, comprised of the top 300 executives of the company.  She is on the Board of Directors of the National Business Group on Health and the co-chair of their Health Care Costs and Solutions Institute, and is on the Board of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC).  She also serves on the Board of Governors for the HRPA’s Health Transformation Alliance, a group of large companies creating the employer health care strategy of the future, and chairs the Consumer Engagement Workgroup. Prior to joining IBM in 1996, Barbara was the Director, Health Plans at NYNEX (now Verizon) for eight years where she had corporate responsibilities for all health and welfare programs for employees and retirees.  Her previous experience includes several years as the Director of HR at a large teaching hospital in Boston.  Ms. Brickmeier has a BA in English from Long Island University and an MBA, with a concentration in Human Resource Management, from Adelphi University.

Peggy Snow Flores is the executive director of global benefits for Laureate Education Inc., a publicly held international higher education company headquartered in Baltimore, with over 70 campus-based and online universities in more than 23 countries that offer undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs to more than one million students. Prior to joining Laureate, Flores worked for Genesis Health Ventures/NeighborCare for over 12 years, directing all areas of employee benefits for an employee base of 48,000 nationwide — a $100 million benefit operation with significant acquisitions/divestitures. She has also administered healthcare benefits for General Electric, RCA, NBC and Hewlett Packard.

Sara Freitag is director of corporate benefit plans for Kroger Co., responsible for overseeing and collaborating with vendor partners on all company health and welfare benefit and retirement plan offerings and providing strategy and vision to the total rewards department, which is responsible for assisting division teams on benefit plans and developing strategies for all company-sponsored benefits. She began her career at Kroger in 1987 as a management trainee then co-manager in the southwest division. She has held the positions of co-manager, H.R. specialist, store manager, corporate HR administration manager, division talent manager and human resource manager. She also spent time in merchandising. In 2014, Freitag joined Kroger’s corporate total rewards team as the director of healthcare benefits, overseeing the coordination and implementation all company sponsored health and welfare benefits. In 2017, her role expanded to also oversee company sponsored retirement plans. Freitag attended Stephen F. Austin State University and majored in business administration.

Jane Gerhard is an experienced senior human resources generalist with proven success in developing and executing formal HR initiatives that deliver business results. A forward thinker and trusted advisor, Gerhard is driven to achieve organizational goals by promoting sound HR practices, facilitating change management and demonstrating the following competencies: talent acquisition, employee relations and leader development.

Al Lewis is the founder and “Quizmeister-in-Chief” of Quizzify, an organization whose mission is to help companies teach their employees to utilize healthcare services appropriately, using a format best described as Jeopardy^® meets health benefit education meets Comedy Central. Lewis has authored the best-selling Newsweek Presents the Ultimate Trivia Game and the critically acclaimed category-bestselling book on outcomes measurement, Why Nobody Believes the Numbers, which chronicled and exposed the innumeracy of the health management field and was named 2012 healthcare book of the year by Forbes. In addition, he wrote Surviving Workplace Wellness in 2014 and Cracking Health Costs: How to Cut Your Company’s Health Costs and Provide Employees Better Care in 2013. Lewis received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Marco Diaz is Senior Vice President, Global Head of Benefits for News Corp. He is responsible for setting the overarching US benefits strategy in conjunction with the various business divisions with oversight to UK and Australian operations as well. Benefits include a broad suite of Health & Welfare plans, retirement plans such as defined contribution, defined benefit and non-qualified.

Prior to News Corp, Marco worked for Thomson Reuters 2000 where he oversaw the Americas benefits function.

Andy Gregg is the vice president of Health & Benefits responsible for Prudential’s healthcare and well-being benefit programs. He is accountable for the design and administration of the benefits programs which include health plan offerings, the cash balance pension plan, and the Prudential Employee Savings Plan. He oversees customer experience, communications and vendor management. In addition, he has oversight of the benefits offered outside the U.S. in accordance with all legal requirements of the benefits programs under ERISA, the DOL and the IRS.

Prior to joining Prudential, Gregg worked at Coopers & Lybrand where he earned his CPA. He has held several senior leadership positions in accounting, financial analysis in retirement and benefits programs and human resources benefits program design and management. Before that, Gregg was the senior director of benefits at Medco Health Solutions.

Gregg is currently the co-chair of the Employee Benefits Council Conference Board. He is a board member of the Health Transformation Alliance, and a client advisor on Alight’s benefit administration council. Gregg also volunteers as the benefit advisor to the NJ Community Food Bank.

Gregg earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Connecticut.

Constance (Connie) Perry, Pharm.D., is senior consultant, national pharmacy integration leader at Willis Towers Watson. As senior consultant in the firm’s human capital and benefits line of business, Perry serves as the national pharmacy integration leader within the pharmacy practice, which oversees the firm’s Innovation Hubs, including areas that span clinical services, specialty pharmacy, audit and perspectives or points of view specific to the dynamics of the pharmacy benefit. Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson, Perry worked for two other national benefits consulting firms, where she held pharmacy practice leadership roles. She has published various articles and editorials on aspects of prescription drug management and speaks at local, regional and national conferences. Perry received her Pharm.D. degree from the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy and subsequently completed an accredited pharmacy practice residency in North Carolina. She holds an active Illinois pharmacy license and was active as a member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy where she was a past chair of the Schools of Pharmacy Relations committee. Perry also held the position of associate clinical professor at both the University of Illinois and Midwestern Colleges of Pharmacy.

Dexter Shurney, M.D., MBA, M.P.H., is the chief medical officer and senior vice president of clinical affairs for Zipongo, a San Francisco-based digital health and wellness company that focuses on enabling healthy eating. Previously, Shurney served as chief medical director/executive director for global health benefits and corporate wellness for Cummins Inc. Prior to Cummins, Shurney was the chief medical director of the employee health plan for Vanderbilt University and Medical Center. During his tenure at Vanderbilt, he served as assistant clinical professor, division of internal medicine and public health and adjunct faculty at Owens Graduate School of Management. Shurney has also served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Healthways, senior health policy strategist in the division of government affairs at Amgen Inc., chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and editor of the Journal of Managed Care Physicians. Shurney is board-certified in general preventive medicine and public health and is a fellow in the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Shari Goldfarb is director of benefits for the Americas for Deutsche Bank. Her responsibilities include the planning and administration of all employee benefit plans including health and insurance, defined benefit and defined contribution plans and all work-life programs and related policies. She is an active member of the Aon Financial Services Roundtable, the Workplace Mental Health Summit and a board member of the Northeast Business Group on Health, where she is the chairperson of NEBGH’s Aetna Users Group. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Goldfarb worked for Merrill Lynch, where she was responsible for a variety of the firm’s employee benefit programs. Goldfarb holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The College of New Jersey.

Michelle Martin is senior vice president of total reward experience at ViacomCBS and is responsible for the strategy, design and performance of the company’s health and welfare plans, employee engagement and development of HR policies.

Michelle is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist with a certification in global benefits management. As a human resources professional with broad experience, Michelle taught a CEBS course at Hofstra University that emphasized key economic, accounting and financial concepts essential in the administration of employee benefit plans.

She holds an MBA from Adelphi University. Michelle is an active member of the human resources community and is on the board of directors of the Northeast Business Group on Health, HealthPass

New York and The Leapfrog Group. She also sits on an advisory board for Covenant House Mother Child Center in New York City.

Pam is an accomplished leader within Global Health and Well-being whose focus and mission is to create and lead enterprise-wide strategic initiatives that maximize individual and organizational health and performance. As Vice President of Global Health at Prudential, Pam led Prudential’s mental health initiative during the unprecedented challenges that COVID presented to the enterprise, it’s teams and employees. Within Prudential’s Health & Wellness leadership team, Pam was responsible for orchestrating all aspects of Behavioral Health programming, including the management, clinical oversight, and expansion of the internal, external, and global Employee Assistance Program (EAP), as well as Work Life and a full suite of Coaching services. In addition to coordination of Prudential’s Incident Oversight Team which addressed the immediate and urgent safety needs of employees, Pam served as a key advisor and consultant to managers, HR professionals and work groups on issues related to interpersonal behavior, mental health, substance use disorders and violence prevention.

Prior to her tenure at Prudential, Pam served as Global Director of Employee Assistance and Work Life Effectiveness at Johnson & Johnson, leading EAP and Work Life strategy and service delivery across the globe. Additionally, Pam has extensive experience and expertise in inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment programs, as well as in Career Counseling and Coaching. She has gained international recognition and respect amongst her colleagues, has served on the Board of Directors for the Employee Assistance Roundtable, and is a DMAX Foundation Advisory Board Member. Pam is committed to building and sustaining workplace cultures of health and well-being, benefiting employees, their families, and the organization for which she serves.

 

Debra Nussbaum is the Senior Director, Behavioral Health Product at Optum and the leader of Optum’s Substance Use Disorder initiatives and strategies. She holds a PhD in organizational psychology and a Master Degree in Social Work.  Deb is an expert in the field of addiction treatment with over 20 years of experience in a board range of roles from addictions therapy to leadership roles in inpatient and residential treatment settings.  More recently Deb has held various roles in the insurance and health services industry from network recruiting, to development of behavioral health clinical guidelines.

Sandi Stein is a managing director - global head of total rewards at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., the last privately held bank in the United States. At BBH, which she joined in March 2012, Stein is responsible for furthering the global rewards agenda to ensure that compensation and benefits align with the organization’s overall business strategy while designing meaningful and competitive programs that motivate and support the workforce.   She leads an award-winning, well-being program. Sandi is also the global chair of BBH’s Pride Network.

Prior to joining BBH, she was vice president of global benefits, including global mobility, at NYSE Euronext, and was responsible for delivering competitive, best-in-class benefits programs for the organization and related subsidiary companies.

Stein joined Securities Industry Automation Corp. in 1991 as a 401(k) benefits specialist. In 2006, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, where she assumed the lead HR/benefits role.

Stein earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from SUNY Albany and completed coursework as a certified financial planner from New York University.

 

Jared Lewis is Senior Director, Total Rewards at Curtiss-Wright, a diversified industrial company providing highly engineered products and services to the Aerospace, Defense, and Industrial Markets. With over 25 years of total rewards experience, Jared is responsible for the global strategy and administration of Curtiss-Wright’s compensation and benefits functions.  Prior to Curtiss-Wright, Jared oversaw the total rewards functions for other large corporations and managed outsourced benefits administration for many large and diverse clients.

Jared earned his B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Binghamton University and holds an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Caitlin Cirelli is director of client management for the eastern region at Cigna, where she is responsible for Cigna Global Health Benefits’ small group and travel segment nationally. Cirelli began her career with Cigna in 2007 and has held various client management and leadership roles, including a short-term international assignment in Dubai. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business from the University of Delaware.

Jeffrey Walsh is vice president of new business development for the eastern region at Cigna, having joined the Cigna Global Health Benefits sales team in 2010. Walsh is responsible for providing consultative health benefit solutions for clients and brokers in New York and New Jersey. With over a decade of health benefits sales experience, he also has domestic and international underwriting experience and has participated in many speaking engagements. Walsh is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.

Claire Levitt is deputy commissioner for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations where she is responsible for overseeing health care strategy for the 1.2 million employees, dependents and retirees of the City of New York.

Claire has extensive experience in health insurance, managed care, medical cost management, benefit plan design, population health and operations. Before joining the mayor’s administration, she was executive director of the Amalgamated National Health Fund and was concurrently the president of Alicare Medical Management, an affiliate company of Amalgamated Life Insurance Co. As executive vice president of Amalgamated Life, her responsibilities included oversight of all health-related operations. Claire was recently named a Notable Woman in Health Care by Crain’s New York Business. She received a bachelor’s degree with honors from Binghamton University and holds a master’s degree in management with a specialty in health management from New York University.

A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., is a professor of internal medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan and a professor of health management and policy in the university’s School of Public Health.

Fendrick conceptualized and coined the term Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID) and directs the V-BID Center at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on how clinician payment and consumer engagement initiatives impact access to care, quality of care and healthcare costs.

Fendrick is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, serves on the Medicare coverage advisory committee and is the co-editor in chief of the American Journal of Managed Care. He is also editorial board member for three other peer-reviewed publications and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan.

Fendrick received a bachelor’s degree in economics and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Suzanne Taranto is a principal, consulting actuary at Milliman. She joined the firm in 2005 and has more than 20 years of pension and employee benefits consulting experience. She provides advice in the design and delivery of comprehensive pension and welfare plans to domestic and international companies. Taranto is an expert in accounting for pensions and other post-employment benefits, and benefits-related matters in acquisitions, divestitures and mergers. She has held senior positions leading compensation and benefits units of Fortune 500 U.S. Companies and is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Taranto received her bachelor’s degree in biology and mathematics from Stonehill College, where she graduated magna cum laude.