Fritz Scheuren                                                                                                                                                                                                       return

Fritz Scheuren, Ph.D., is a statistical consultant for HRDAG. Recently, Dr. Scheuren consulted on the methods of statistical analysis for Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and reviewed the report of the analysis. In late August of 2003, he visited Peru, along with Dr. Ball and Jana Asher, to meet with representatives of political, military, and civil society groups to explain the technical basis of the findings detailed in the report. In recent years, Dr. Scheuren has advised on the overall direction and approach to the statistical analysis for several HRDAG projects, including Guatemala and Kosovo. As a top statistician in the field, he has also provided critical peer-review of HRDAG work. Dr. Scheuren is currently the Vice-President for Statistics at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and President of the American Statistical Association (ASA). Dr. Scheuren has received numerous awards and honors including: the ASA Founders Award (1998); Shiskin Award for contributions to U.S. Economic Statistics (1995); Finalist, Senior Executive Association Executive Excellence Award, (1992); Elected Member, the International Statistical Institute (1988); Elected Fellow, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1984); Elected Fellow, the American Statistical Association (1981).

2005 - ALEXANDRIA, VA- The American Statistical Association (ASA) is pleased to announce that Fritz J. Scheuren, VP Statistics at NORC, a survey research arm at the University of Chicago, has assumed the office of President of the American Statistical Association, the nation's preeminent professional statistical society.

"Statistics is a unified discipline because it joins scientifically rigorous ideas to well-considered actions," said Scheuren. Scheuren has had a long career of public service and presently focuses as much as possible on human rights activities, working right now on projects for the Commission on International Religious Freedom, on Native American Trust Fund issues, and, most recently, on improvements in vote counting for the 2004 presidential election.

Scheuren received his Ph.D. in Statistics from The George Washington University (GWU) in 1972. He has been a statistician at the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Social Security Administration where he rose to become its Chief Mathematical Statistician. He went on to head, for many years, the Statistics of Income Division at the Internal Revenue Service, which supports tax policy research. Scheuren has also been a Principal at Ernst and Young, LLP and, before joining NORC, a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute working on welfare reform.

Dr. Scheuren is a Fellow of ASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Additional professional activities are: Member AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, 2001-2003; Scientific Secretary, International Association of Survey Statisticians (1997). Member, Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics, National Academy of Sciences (1994 to 1997). Associate Editor, Survey Methodology (1986 to present). He has had service roles for the last 25 years at the ASA. These include ASA Vice President (1999-2001), Chair of Section on Survey Research Methods (1994) and the Social Statistics Section (2002), President, Washington Statistical Society (1991-92).

Patrick Baier                                                                                                                                                                                                       return

Dr. Baier holds a D. Phil. in mathematics and has a substantial experience both with statistical programming, sampling, statistical analysis and the use of cryptography, especially as it applies to HIPAA compliance. He has been working as a statistician for the National Opinion Research Center (“NORC”) as well as for several other clients.

In several HIPAA certifications over the past five years, Dr. Baier has assisted Dr. Scheuren in carrying out statistical analyses, reviewing policies and procedures surrounding HIPAA compliance, and implementing tools for de-identification that meet the requirements of HIPAA. Together, Dr. Scheuren and Dr. Baier have worked for approximately three dozen differenct clients in the HIPAA field, many of them large healthcare companies operating on a national level, sometimes with several hundred employees.

As a mathematician and cryptographer, Dr. Baier has been actively engaged in cryptographic research and co-authored papers on various topics in applied cryptography with the computer security group at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Dr. Baier has applied this cryptographic experience to the review of protocols and source code. Moreover, Dr. Baier has designed a number of encryption and de-identification tools from scratch and assisted in the implementation from the vewpoint of cryptography and software engineering.

In 2006, Dr. Baier has spoken about the HIPAA Privacy Rule in an invited session and published a paper at the Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM), the annual assembly of the American Statistical Association (ASA), in Seattle.

John L. Phelan, Ph.D.
Management & Technology Consultant                                                                                                                                     return

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITY
John is a management and technology practice leader with Milliman. He specializes in strategy, implementation, operations improvement, transaction processing regulatory compliance, and technology initiatives. He is responsible for the Milliman Security Management System (MS2), robust security administration software that supports state-of-the-art compliance, including HIPAA compliance.

EXPERIENCE
John works with organizations in the for-profit, not-for-profit, and government sectors. His clients range from the nation’s largest insurance carriers to state governments to ERISA plans serving several hundred participants.

An accomplished speaker and author, John came to Milliman with two decades of senior executive and consulting experience. This included implementing and leading a multi-state managed care organization for a NYSE- listed corporation that encompassed provider networks, medical management, customer service, and claims. He has also managed a national healthcare and workers’ compensation network with more than 300,000 providers. He has extensive experience with acquisitions, mergers and business turnarounds and e-health program development.

As an executive at Well Point/Blue Cross of California, John developed innovative reimbursement and provider contracting programs. At the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, he worked extensively with member plans on the impact of provider payment strategies, government initiatives and compliance. Prior to the Blues, John consulted with hospitals, physicians, health systems, and government on managed care contracting, marketing, and product development. He also drafted and helped implement state health and mental health legislation and started and managed several community psychiatric facilities.

EDUCATION
BA, University of California, Berkeley
MSW, University of California, Berkeley
PhD, University of Chicago

Andrew L. Naugle, MBA
Principal & Healthcare Management Consultant                                                                                                                                     return

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITY
Andrew is a principal in the Seattle office of Milliman. He joined the firm in 2000.

EXPERIENCE
Andrew’s area of expertise is healthcare operations. His experience spans more than 10 years in the healthcare industry. He specializes in the following:
-Benchmarking, evaluating, and improving administrative operations for both payers and providers
-Technical writing and proposal development services
-Conducting market research and surveys
-Writing requests for proposals and managing vendor selection processes
-Facilitating strategic planning and evaluation of strategic options
-Designing and implementing policies and procedures

Andrew’s current research is focused on administrative expense analysis for health plans. He maintains the Milliman Health Plan Operations Benchmarks, which can be used to evaluate the staffing and cost levels of health plans, insurance companies, and third-party administrators. He also has considerable experience with public-sector programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE. He has assisted clients in development of winning proposals for state and federal contracts.

PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
“Administrative Staffing and Cost Trends: Which Direction Do the Arrows Point?” Milliman Health Perspectives, Winter 2007
“Containing Administrative Costs in a Managed Care Organization,” Milliman Health Perspectives, Winter 2006

AFFILIATIONS
-Professional, Academy for Healthcare Management
-Member, American College of Healthcare Executives
-Member, Medical Group Management Association

EDUCATION
BA, English, Wabash College
MBA (cum laude), University of Notre Dame

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn                                                                                                                                     return

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is a health economist and management consultant who has worked with health care stakeholders for over twenty years. Focusing at the nexus of health care and technology, Jane’s projects focus on: scenario, strategic and business planning, forecasting, health policy analysis. Jane has assisted every segment of the health care industry throughout her career including technology and medical device companies; educational institutions; pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors; health care providers; payers and plans; consumer products companies; non-profits; and, financial services firms. Jane founded THINK-Health, a strategic health consultancy, in 1992 after spending ten years as a health care consultant in firms in the U.S. and Europe. Jane writes a column for iHealthBeat, an online publication of the California HealthCare Foundation. Jane holds a MA in Economics and MHSA in Public Health Policy, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Journalism, all from the University of Michigan. Jane is a frequent public speaker and writer on health policy, health economics, information and medical technology and scenario planning in health care.

Dave Garets
President and CEO, HIMSS Analytics                                                                                                                                     return

Mr. Garets is President and CEO of HIMSS Analytics and Executive Vice President of HIMSS.
 
Mr. Garets has 31 years of experience in information technology. He joined HIMSS Analytics in 2004 from Healthlink where he was Executive Vice President. Before that, he was Group Vice President, Healthcare Industry Research and Advisory Services at Gartner, Inc. Prior leadership roles included Senior Manager in Emerging Practices with the First Consulting Group and CIO of Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, ID. Before coming to the health care industry, Mr. Garets spent thirteen years in various management capacities for AT&T.
 
He was a course director and served on the faculties of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Information Management Executive Courses for 11 years. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of four health care information technology journals and magazines and the board of directors of HIMSS Analytics. He is an affiliate professor at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University.
 
Mr. Garets is a HIMSS Fellow, and was chair of the HIMSS Board for 2003-2004. He is an internationally known author and speaker on information technologies, strategies, benchmarking, and the future of healthcare.
 
Mr. Garets graduated with a bachelor's of business administration in marketing from Texas Tech University.

Newt Gingrich
Founder, Center for Health Transformation                                                                                                                                     return

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration of leaders dedicated to the creation of a 21^st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money.  He is also the founder of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm specializing in transformational change, and serves as a political analyst for FOX News Network, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.  

A highly sought-after public speaker and world-renowned strategist, Gingrich served as a Member of Congress for twenty years and as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999.  He is widely recognized as the chief architect of the Republican Contract with America and the key strategist and leader behind the 1994 Republican victory, which created the first GOP majority in Congress in forty years. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, and the first tax cuts in sixteen years.  So far-reaching was his impact that The Washington Times called him “the indispensable leader,” and Time magazine, in naming him Man of the Year for 1995, said, “Leaders make things possible.  Exceptional leaders make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional.” 

As speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and returning it to the American people. He ushered in reforms which dramatically cut government waste, reined in IRS abuse of citizens, and ended Congress’s ability to exempt itself from laws governing the rest of America.  Through new technology and systems, he gave ordinary citizens direct access to Congress, re-establishing the House of Representatives as “The People’s House.” 

Widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health for all Americans, Gingrich’s leadership helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initiated a new focus on research, prevention and wellness. His contributions have been so great that in 1998 the American Diabetes Association awarded him their highest non-medical award and the March of Dimes named him their 1995 Georgia Citizen of the Year. He currently focuses on health issues in the private sector as founder of the Center for Health Transformation and is a board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Newt also serves with former Senator Bob Kerrey as Co-Chairman of the National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care.  In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board for the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and for the National Library of Medicine.  A leading advocate of increased federal funding for basic science research, in 2001 he was the recipient of the Science Coalition's first Science Pioneer award, given to him for his outstanding contributions to educating the public about science and its benefits to society.

Most recently, for his dedication to bringing quality health care to all Americans, Gingrich  received the 2005 Health Quality Award from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve health care quality everywhere. He has also been honored with the 2005 National Minority Health Month Foundation Award for his outstanding contributions to the elimination of diabetes, and with the 2005 HIMSS Advocacy Award for leadership in advancing information and management systems for the betterment of human health (the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society).

A strong advocate of volunteerism, Gingrich has long championed the positive impact every individual can have on society.  He has raised millions of dollars for charity, donating both time and money to a wide array of causes, including Habitat for Humanity, United Cerebral Palsy, the American Cancer Society, ZooAtlanta and the Earning by Learning literacy program, which he founded.  He is widely recognized for his commitment to the environment and to the advancement of a new, commonsense environmentalism.  In 1998 he was named Legislative Conservationist of the Year by the Georgia Wildlife Federation.  

His experiences as the son of a career soldier convinced him at an early age to dedicate his life to his country and to the protection of Freedom.  Realizing the importance of understanding the past in order to protect the future, he immersed himself in the study of history, receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Emory University and a Master’s and Doctorate from Tulane University in Modern European History.  Before his election to Congress, he taught History and Environmental Studies at West Georgia College for eight years. He is recognized worldwide as an expert on world history, military issues and international affairs and is a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Policy Board.  Newt is the longest-serving teacher of the Joint War Fighting course for Major Generals.  He also teaches officers from all five services as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at the National Defense University.  Newt serves on the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is an Editorial Board Member of the Johns Hopkins University journal, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, and is an Advisory Board Member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

In 1999, Gingrich was appointed to the United States Commission on National Security/21st Century, the Hart/Rudman Commission to examine our national security challenges as far out as 2025.  The Commission's report is the most profound rethinking of defense strategy since 1947.  The report concluded that the number one threat to the United States was the likelihood over the next 25 years of a weapon of mass destruction -- nuclear, chemical, and/or biological being used against one or more major cities unless our defense and intelligence structures underwent a massive transformation.  That report was published six months before September 11^th.

Because of his work on the Commission, Newt Gingrich is credited with the idea contained in the report of a Homeland Security Agency with a Secretary to serve on the Cabinet level.  President George W. Bush has since created the Department of Homeland Security. 

Gingrich is the author of nine books including the bestsellers, Winning the Future, Contract with America and To Renew America, as well as Saving Lives and Saving Money, which describes the Center for Health Transformation’s 21^st Century Intelligent Health System. 

Mr. Gingrich resides in Virginia with his wife, Callista.  The Gingrich family includes two daughters, two sons in-law, and two grandchildren.

Miriam Paramore
Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Emdeon                                                                                                                                     return

As the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Emdeon, Miriam Paramore is responsible for solidifying strategic positioning and delivering the message to the public. Ms. Paramore has extensive healthcare experience, is a national speaker, has had several articles published in numerous industry trade journals, and recently joined the board of directors for CareSource Management Group. Ms. Paramore is also on the board of directors for the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), chairs the HIMSS Financial Systems Steering Committee, and serves on the eHealth Advisory Committee for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Ms. Paramore earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Belmont University.

Erik C. Swanson
Vice President, Corporate strategy Development
WellPoint, Inc.                                                                                                                                     return

Erik is responsible for corporate strategy development at WellPoint which includes management of the overall strategic planning process, oversight for enterprise strategic projects, and development of WellPoint’s management processes in support of strategy execution. He works closely with the management team in an advisory capacity on multiple business issues including mergers & acquisitions, investment priorities, product development, operational improvement, and innovation. Prior to joining WellPoint, Erik was a Partner at Accenture in its strategy practice where he advised health plan clients on key business issues including growth, merger integration, product design, new business launch, care management, and administrative cost reduction. Erik lives in New York and is a graduate of Duke University (BA) and Emory University (MBA).  

WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint, Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership in the United States. WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as Empire Blue Cross or Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.),Wisconsin; and through UniCare. 

Stanley Nachimson
Principal
Nachimson Advisors, LLC                                                                                                                                     return

Stanley Nachimson is principal of Nachimson Advisors, a health IT consulting firm dedicated to finding innovative uses for health information technology and encouraging its adoption. The firm serves a number of clients, including WEDI, Fox Systems, Cornichon Health Care, and the University of Maryland Physicians Group. Stanley served for over 30 years in the US Department of Health and Human Services in a variety of statistical, management, and health technology positions. His last ten years prior to his 2007 retirement were spent in developing HIPAA policy, regulations, and implementation planning and monitoring, beginning CMS’s work on Personal Health Records, and serving as the CMS liaison with several industry organizations, including WEDI and HITSP. He brings a wealth of experience and information regarding the use of standards and technology in the health care industry. In addition to his consulting work, Stanley serves on the Board of Directors of Foresight Corporation. He resides in Reisterstown, Maryland with his wife, 2 children, 2 dogs, and 1 bird.  

Greg Fisher
UnitedHealthcare                                                                                                                                     return

Greg Fisher has been involved in healthcare industry for over 25 years, both in the technical and business areas. He has worked at UnitedHealthcare for the last 14 years in a variety of positions, and is currently the Director of EDI Business Development. His IT experience ranged from systems development and management to business analysis. On the business side for the last seven years, he has worked in Operations, Vendor Management, Contracting, and Strategic Planning. His current duties also include 5010 and ICD10 project support. Over the past 10 years, he has worked to represent UHC in several capacities with AHIP, WEDI, X12 and a variety of industry organizations. Mr. Fisher serves as a Commissioner for EHNAC, the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission. He received his BA from Dartmouth. Away from work he enjoys golf, handbells, and the Appalachian Trail.

UnitedHealth Group (www.unitedhealthgroup.com) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.

Eric Wallace
Linxus / Greater New York Hospital Association                                                                                                                                     return

Eric Wallace is Executive Director, Linxus, a consortium of hospitals, physician groups, and commercial and governmental health plans working collaboratively to detail recommendations that reduce health care costs and complexities in payment administration. He has over 14 years professional experience in the health care technology industry, including positions with the Greater New York Hospital Association, Empire Blue Cross Blue (WellPoint), Ernst & Young, and helus, an eHealth start-up company that connected physicians, hospitals, and health plans.

Linxus' primary focus is on reducing national health care spending that is wasted annually on administrative inefficiencies. Linxus began as a pilot effort in 2005 and after several successful years in operation, the project formally incorporated in 2008 as a separate 501(c)(6) membership organization. Linxus workgroups consisting of technical and operations staff from its health plan and provider member organizations are identifying common situations where better information exchanged electronically could eliminate or significantly reduce unnecessary manual payment processing steps; and they are developing uniform data requirements across health plans, to standardize the way providers are responding to these electronic responses. These recommendations, or technical implementation specifications, are posted on the Linxus web site (http://www.linxus.net) for free public use and follow national standards that have been codified under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Eric is involved in several national groups that are focused on health IT standards adoption, and he’s a graduate of Lehigh University.

Richard Nelli
Cooperative Exchange                                                                                                                                    return

As Chief Technology Officer at CareMedic Systems, Richard Nelli leads the Product Management and Information Technology areas of one of the leading US healthcare revenue cycle solution organizations. Richard is a skilled healthcare IT solutions architect, with deep understanding of revenue cycle best practices, and strong standards-based integration and interoperability expertise. He has served in various product development and product management roles during his career, leading initiatives involving Patient Access, EDI, Claims and Remittance Management, ePrescribing, Health Information Exchange, and Medical Banking. Prior to joining CareMedic, Richard served as Vice President of Product Management at Quovadx, where he guided the company's healthcare interoperability solutions strategy. Prior to Quovadx, he spent 10 years at QuadraMed, leading their product development efforts.

Richard speaks regularly at industry events, and is active in such healthcare organizations as Cooperative Exchange, WEDI, HFMA, HIMSS, and The Medical Banking Project. Richard holds a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems with a minor in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Mississippi.

Fred Horowitz
Cooperative Exchange                                                                                                                                    return

Dr. Horowitz is chairman and CEO of Affiliated Network Services (ANS), a leading electronic healthcare transaction clearinghouse, where he is responsible for developing and implementing the company's strategic vision as well as its operations. He has held key roles throughout the dental benefits industry, serving as the president and CEO of TDC/The Dental Concern, a 200,000 member dental benefits company based in Chicago; president & CEO of Plan Administrators of Illinois, a third party administrator (TPA); vice president of dental products for Employers Health Insurance/Humana Inc., and executive vice president of business and market development for Dental Benefit Providers Inc. (now a United Healthcare Group company), at the time a two (2) million member dental benefits firm based in Bethesda, Maryland.

In addition to his corporate roles, Dr. Horowitz has had significant involvement in the both the healthcare transaction processing and health insurance industries. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Cooperative Exchange – the healthcare transaction clearinghouse industry trade association, and is the immediate past president of that organization. He was a founder and board member of the National Dental EDI Council (NDEDIC), was a member of the Dental Subcommittee for HIAA, and served as the WEDI (Work Group for Electronic Data Interchange) representative to the ADA Dental Content Committee for HIPAA transactions (DSMO). He has also served on the Criteria Committee for the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). A long serving member of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) he has served as vice chairman and treasurer of the Board of Directors, chair of several committees, and chairman of the NADP Research Foundation. Dr. Horowitz is a licensed dentist in Illinois and Michigan and currently a member of the American Association of Dental Consultants, the Academy of General Dentistry and the American Dental Association.

Dr. Horowitz received his BA and DMD degrees from Washington University and received postgraduate training at Webster University in information systems and served as a post graduate resident at Sinai Hospital of Detroit. In 1999, he was named the 1998 National Association of Dental Plans Gabryl Award recipient, the highest honor bestowed by that organization.

Robin J. Thomashauer
Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare                                                                                                                                    return

As Executive Director of CAQH, Robin Thomashauer leads a broad based coalition of health plans and trade associations dedicated to creating solutions that dramatically streamline healthcare administration. A recognized industry leader, Thomashauer has more than 30 years of experience in managed care operations and hospital administration.

Prior to joining CAQH, Thomashauer served as a Director in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Healthcare Consulting practice. She has also served as an executive manager in several health care organizations, including the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, overseeing a wide range of functions, including Medical Facilities, Clinical Services, Information Systems, Strategic Planning, Public Affairs and Alliances/Acquisitions. Thomashauer has also held management and administrative roles in several teaching hospitals, including Rockford Memorial Hospital in Rockford, Illinois, and Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Thomashauer is a Diplomate in the American College of Healthcare Executives and serves on the board for Adventist Healthcare. She holds an M.H.S.A in Hospital Administration from The George Washington University and a B.A in Social Sciences from Colgate University.

The Honorable Phil Johnston
Johnston Associates                                                                                                                                    return

Philip W. Johnston is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the successful public affairs consulting firm, Johnston Associates. Prior to founding the firm in 1996, Phil had completed more than three decades of public sector service. Elected to the state legislature five times, and having served as a Cabinet member under Governor Michael Dukakis and Regional Administrator under President Bill Clinton, Phil brings with him a deep understanding of both the state and federal government and is considered an expert on health and human service policy matters.

In 1992, Phil Johnston was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton to serve as the New England Administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to joining the Clinton administration, Phil had served as Secretary of Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Governor Michael Dukakis. He served as Secretary from 1984 to 1991. Phil was appointed by Governor Dukakis soon after he was elected to his fifth term as State Representative from the Fourth Plymouth District. Phil Johnston was also the Executive Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in Washington, D.C., an institution dedicated to improving social justice and human rights throughout the world.

Phil is the current Chair of the Board of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. He also sits on the Boards of the University of Massachusetts, the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, and Stop Handgun Violence.

In addition to holding several honorary degrees, Phil received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Arts Degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Phil and his wife Beverly have lived in Marshfield for nearly 40 years. They have two grown children, Ellen and Robert, and one grandchild, Priscilla.

Thomas L. Meyers
Executive Director, Product Policy Department, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)                                                               return

Tom has a proven track record of successfully implementing business strategies focused on market expansion and bottom line growth. He provides insight and direction from a perspective developed through years of experiences as and executive in the group benefits business. Process alignment, product development, product management, marketing, operations, and strategic and tactical planning have been key areas of focus.

He held a variety executive and management level positions at Travelers Insurance Company, Hartford Connecticut and Mutual of Omaha, Omaha Nebraska. Currently he is an Executive Director with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) located in Washington DC. AHIP is a national trade association representing nearly 1300 member companies providing health benefits to more than 200 million Americans.

Tom has a degree in finance from Siena College located in Loudonville, NY. He was a member of the Board of Directors for Medical Electronic Attachments (MEA) located in Atlanta GA until the end of 2008. Currently Tom is a member of the WEDI Board of Directors.