Establishing the Health IT Infrastructure for Health Reform

Paul Tang, M.D., is a board-certified practicing internist and Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), and consulting Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. Dr Tang is Vice Chair of the federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee and Chair of it's Meaningful Use Work Group.

Carmela Castellano-Garcia, Esq. is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the California Primary Care Association(CPCA), overseeing an organization of over 800 nonprofit, community-based primary healthcare clinics which serve over 4 million patients a year, over half of them Hispanic. Ms Castellano-Garcia has been committed to advancing multi-cultural health policy issues for over 17 years, focusing on areas such as cultural and linguistic competency in health care delivery, ensuring the viability of safety net providers, healthcare reform and access to care for vulnerable populations.

Regional Leadership: (RHIO/HIE Perspective)

James Ferguson is Executive Director of Health Information Technology Strategy and policy for Kaiser Permanante. He is responsible for health IT informatics standards priorities and policies and government and industry relations for IT. Prior to this assignment Mr. Ferguson was executive director of information management at Kaiser Permanente. Mr Ferguson serves on a number of national health IT organizations, including the HHS HIT Standards Committee. Previously in his career, Mr Ferguson was a research investigator at Yale University School of Medicine, an economist research investigator at Yale University School of Medicine, an economist in the Federal Reserve and a divisional chief information officer at Bank of America

Mr Hinkley has practiced in the healthcare industry for over 30 years. He represents clients throughout the industry and regularly serves as a general counsel for health care organizations, with responsibility for corporate law and board governance matters and manages the coordination of the broad range of services the firm provides for it's health care clients. Mr Hinkley counsels hospitals and physician organizations regarding management of legal affairs, governance, regulatory compliance, reimbursement, capital finance, joint ventures and clinic development. He advises health information exchanges regarding governance privacy, tax-exemption, user participation, consent and risk management.

Deven McGraw is the Director of the Health Privacy at CDT. The project is focused on developing an dpromoting workable privacy and security protections for electronic personal health information. Ms McGraw is active in efforts to advance the adoption and implementation of health information technology and electroninc health information exchange to improve healthcare. She was one of three persons appointed by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human SErvices (HHS), to serve on the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committe, a federal advisory committe established in the American Recovery an Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Dr. Bill Braithwaite has dedicated his career to improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare for patients and practitioners through information technology but is best known as the author of the administrative Simplification Subtitle of HIPAA and as a major contributor to the subsequent regulations for transactions, code sets, indentifiers, security and privacy of personal health information. An independent consultant on health information policy and strategy he is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Anakam Inc. a company that sells software tools that implement low cost authentication and identity proofing to enable secure remote access to sensitive information.

Joan Henneberry, Executive Director, Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing, leads the agency responsible for managing public health insurance programs and including Medicaid and Child Health Plus (CHP+). She is a senior health policy advisor to the govenor, developing and implementing health reform policies and inititatives. Prior to the cabinet appointment, she worked in the private sector after spending seven years at the National Govenors Association providing consultation to states on healthcare services and financing, cost containment and emerging policy issues. Joan spent 13 years at teh Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO), and serves on the Executive Committee for NASHP.

As president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Donna Lynne has overseen the implementation of electronic health record, KP HealthConnect. Kaiser Permanente is a pioneer in health-IT. Today, according to NEJM, only 4% of physicians in the outpatient setting have fully functional EHRs; Kaiser Permanente is marking more than 10 years of paper free health care. In 2006 the health plan took it's EHR to the next level when it launched MY Health Manager a tool that allows patients to manage their care online. MY Health Manager provides patients with access to online, schedule appointments, order prescriptions etc. Most recently, Kaiser Permanante Colorado received the 2009 Disease management Association of America Innovation Award for it's pioneering use of health-IT tools to reduce risk of mortality for patients with heart disease by 76%. KP has launched two major intraoperablity initiatives in Colorado - CORHIO and Careeverywhere both partnerships are between the health plan Kaiser Permanante and local hospitals to exchange electronic medical data with goals of improving safety, increasing quality, decreasing waste and redundancy and lowering costs.

Lori Hack is the principle and CEO of Object Health, a management consulting group that assists healthcare organizations and communities with leveraging health information to improve operational efficiencies and clinical health outcomes. Among her current projects, Ms Hack is leading the privacy and security efforts for the Long Beach Health Network which has recently received a Federal grant to develop a Health Information Exchange in Long Beach California. Additionally, Ms Hack is currently serving as Program Manager for the state technology initiative in the area of Mental Health information Technology throughout the California Mental Health Services Act. She also serves as Program Liaison for the California Privacy and Security Advisory Board on behalf of Implementation under the direction of Secretary Belshe.
Previously Ms Hack served as Interim CEO for the California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO) and Executive Director for Health Technology Center (HealthTech). She currently serves on the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) Privacy Expert Panel, directed by Secretary Leavitt of Health and Human Services.

Rich Roth serves as the Senior Director for Strategy and Business Development for Catholic Healthcare West, a multi-state healthcare organization serving more than 4 million patients annually. In addition to sharing the responsibility for developing and implementing system-wide strategies; Mr Roth leads efforts at advancing innovation within the CHW system. He has written and presented a number of thought leadership papers on the healthcare environment and is the principle author of the Community Need Index, a nationally recognized tool for community benefit planning. In 2003 Mr Roth was the annual recipient of the CHW's highest employee recognition: the "Values in Action" award for excellence.

Bill has been involved with the Santa Cruz Health Information Exchange since 1998 and joined Physicians Medical Group of Santa Cruz full time in 2001. Over that time the volume of clinical documents delivered across the HIE has risen six fold and the number of active electronic users recently passed 600.Continued>

Ms Leslie has over fifteen years of experience in the healthcare industry. She assists healthcare organizations with technology strategy, business development, government relations, product design and development and implementation. Ms Leslie advises region-wide initiatives to bring health IT to their communities, including electronic prescribing, remote access and disease management technologies. She works with technology vendors to develop and execute their product, marketing and sales strategies and advises a wide range of clients with respect to government relations. Ms Leslie works directly with the state government as an advisor to a state commission focused on health IT financing policies. In addition, Ms Leslie advises state and regional health information exchange efforts, including state and federal privacy and security programs.

Robert B. Keet practices at the Dominican Medical Foundation a 35-physician multi-speciality group, where he serves as Internal Medicine Lead. For more than thirty years, Dr Keet has practiced Internal Medicine and Geriatrics in California and he continues to do so. He also serves as Axolotl's Chief Medical Officer.

Steven S Martin serves as president and chief executive officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska and is a member of their board of directors. He currently serves on the board of Directors of Blue Cross and Blue Shields Association in Chicago, Illinois and serves as chairman of the BCBSA Federal Employee Program Board of Managers and other corporate boards.

DR Root's career has focused on the business aspects of brining electronic commerce practices into regional health care communities in ways that reduce costs for the entire community. Dr Root has worked at the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) since 1994 and now serves as the President and CEO. Through her work at UHIN Health Information, she has developed an in depth understanding of the importance of creating a sustainable business model for a successful community regional health care network. Dr Root was deeply involved in the development and implementation of many aspects of HIPAA at both national and local levels.

Ernie Hood is Vice President and CIO, Group Health Cooperative, one of the nations largest consumer-governed health care systems. He has been in information services for over 25 years and the healthcare industry for 18 years. In his role as CIO, he works to implement leading edge-technology that is seamlessly integrated with the work and goals of the organization. Group Health is well known for one shining example of this approach, it's leading edge patient portal. MyGroupHealth, which was one of the first to enable patients to email their doctor and get their lab tests online.

Tom Williams serves as Executive Director of the Integrated Healthcare Association promoting quality improvement, accountability and affordability of healthcare in California. He is engaged in management of HIA's programs and initiatives, including the statewide pay - for - performance program, medical technology value-based purchasing initiative:and healthcare affordability. Mr Williams has extensive executive-level experience in medical group management, managed healthcare and health insurance including 15 years as an executive at Aetna. He has served on numerous private company and non profit boards involved in healthcare and the environment. Mr Williams received a B.S in environmental biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara and earned his Masters in Business Administration and Public Health from the University of Hawaii. He is currently a doctorol candidate at the University of California at Berkeley in public health with a focus on quality improvement in healthcare.

Leigh Hutchins has over 20 years of progressively responsible healthcare management experience. She joined NAMM in 1993 and has held various positions in the areas of payor and provider contracting, network development, transactional services and IPA operations. Ms Hutchins is responsible for the company's business in both California an Arizona, where NAMM recently operationalized its 15th IPA client. One of the key 2010 strategic initiatives that she will oversee will be implementation of NAMM"s connectivity strategy, including the rollout of a HUB technology an PMS/EHR system. Prior to joining NAMM she was employed by FHP Healthcare and held several positions in both staff model and IPA operations.

Eileen Moscaritolo is the Executive Director of Information Services for CalOptima. Under her leadership, CalOptima has strengthened its information services and has increased collaboration with the provider community to expand the use of health information technology. Ms Moscaritolo has over 24 years of information management and consulting experience in the health care industry. Prior to joining CalOptima, she was the Director of Transaction Projects at Health Net, where she led their organization-wide systems consolidation effort.