Robert Damler is a principal and consulting actuary with the Indianapolis office of Milliman. His expertise is in the analysis of financial risks associated with the financing and delivery of healthcare services.

His experience includes both public and private pay healthcare. Mr. Damler consults with state Medicaid programs, managed care organizations, insurance companies, self-funded insurance programs, and employers on issues such as managed care resource allocation models, financial projections, mergers and acquisitions, disease management, and risk adjuster development for specialized populations. For Medicaid programs, he provides consulting services to several state agencies and Medicaid HMOs regarding budget and population forecasts, long-term financial analysis, waiver cost effectiveness, new program initiatives, and actuarial certification for managed care capitation rates.

Richard H. Dougherty, Ph.D., is president of DMA Health Strategies and over the past 22 years has consulted with businesses and government agencies to implement strategies designed to manage health systems change and quality improvement. He currently leads two strategic planning and implementation projects for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services; consults to the city of Philadelphia on a commission for children’s behavioral health; facilitates the eight county California Learning Collaborative for the California Institute of Mental Health, and oversees numerous other projects within the firm.

Prior to forming DMA in 1987, Dr. Dougherty was a senior manager at BDO/Seidman, manager of finance and board member of National Mentor, Inc., and program manager for the Department of Social Services, in charge of residential procurement. He has recently been treasurer and a member of the board of the American College of Mental Health Administration and is on the board of several other national and community organizations.

Neva Kaye, a Senior Program Director with National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), manages major programs on Medicaid and managed care and directs the Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) program. She provides technical assistance to states in such areas as purchasing, quality improvement, eligibility, and reimbursement strategies.

Before joining NASHP, Ms. Kaye served as director of Wisconsin’s Medicaid managed care program. Ms. Kaye is the author of NASHP’s biennial reports on Medicaid managed care and recently completed the 6th edition in that series: Medicaid Managed Care: Looking Forward,
Looking Back.

Ana López - De Fede, Ph.D., is a Research Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina Institute for Families in Society. Dr. López-De Fede has primary responsibility for providing strategic management consulting, evaluation, and policy analysis services to a wide range of public and private sector clients. Her work has emphasized issues related to health services research, publicly financed health care and patient-centered quality improvement initiatives with high-risk Medicaid populations.

Dr. López-De Fede currently directs the external evaluation of South Carolina’s Medicaid Managed Care Initiative. She has served on national and state committees addressing the needs of vulnerable populations resulting from chronic diseases or disabilities.

David L. Shern, Ph.D. is the president and CEO of Mental Health America and one of the nation’s leading mental health experts. Prior to joining Mental Health America, he was dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) at the University of South Florida. Dr. Shern has been the principal or co-principal investigator on projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, among others.

His research has included studies on the need for community services; the effects of differing organizational, financing, and service delivery strategies on continuity of care and client outcome for adults with severe mental illnesses; and the use of alternative service delivery strategies such as peer counseling and self-help on the outcomes of care. In 2006, Dr. Shern received the Carl Taube award from the American Public Health Association recognizing his distinguished career contributions in mental health services research.

Keynote Speaker
and
Concurrent Session Presenter:
"Issues With Creating a High Performance Organization"

Dr. Smith has spoken on these issues before many national and state audiences, including the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the National Association of State Budget Officers, the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, medical and hospital associations, the National Health Policy Forum, committees of the U.S. Congress, and Medicaid reform groups in several states. He has been a guest on National Public Radio and quoted on these issues In the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and USA Today.

Mr. Sorian also works closely with NCQA’s stakeholder partners including employers, consumer advocacy organizations, labor unions and others. Prior to joining NCQA in 2003, he was a Senior Researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, where he conducted research into local and regional health care markets in such areas as access, coverage, costs and quality improvement.