Center to Promote Public Payer Implementation Leadership

Gary Jacobs, Co-Chair

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Universal American (gjacobs@universalamerican.com)

Gary Jacobs serves as senior vice president, corporate development for Universal American Corporation and was founder of CHCS Services. In his position he is responsible for the company’s government affairs and corporate development efforts. As founder and president of CHCS Services, which was acquired by Universal American in 2000, he has been instrumental in positioning the company as the leading third party administrator focusing on senior market products. 

Prior to founding CHCS Services, Jacobs was the executive director of Staff Builders Health Care Services, a Medicare-certified home health agency.  Previously, he was president of HMI, a national HMO management and consulting firm. Jacobs serves on the board of the Coral Springs Museum of Art as well as on the Business Advisory Board of the National Hispanic Council on Aging. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston University and a master's in public administration from American University.

 

 

Donna Lichti, Co-Chair

Donna Lichti

Pfizer Health Solutions (donna.lichti@pfizer.com)

Donna Lichti is senior director, customer marketing group for Pfizer Inc.  Her primary responsibilities include the strategic direction of operations management and partner development. In her prior role at Pfizer, she managed the development of health improvement programs in Medicaid, the employer market and internationally.  Prior to joining Pfizer, Lichti was director of business development, marketing and sales for United Health Care’s Evercare Division in New York. She was primarily responsible for the product focusing on the institutionalized frail elderly.

Lichti’s experiences in the health care arena range from software development, communications and marketing to development of specialty health care business models. She owned and operated home health care businesses and founded one of the first infusion- based nursing services in the country. Lichti is a graduate of Pace University Leinhard School of Nursing.

 

Terry McInnis, Co-Chair

MD, MPH, FACOEM

President

Terry McInnis

Blue Thorn, Inc

 tamcinnis@bluethorninc.com

As President and Founder of Blue Thorn Inc., Dr. McInnis interacts nationally with government, providers, payers, academia, patient advocacy groups, and plans to help forge a more financially sustainable and quality enhanced delivery system.  She Co-Chairs The Center for Public Payer Implementation and Co-leads the  Medication Management Taskforce for the Patient- Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) where she continues to lead strategies including benefit design changes aimed to successfully coordinate care, improve patient outcomes, and reduce overall healthcare costs.  In 2010, her leadership efforts were accredited for the successful compilation, launch, and wide-spread adoption of the PCPCC Resource Guide: Integrating Comprehensive Medication Management to Optimize Patient Outcomes where she and a large group of key stakeholders definitively defined medication management as a critical component for success in transforming to a coordinated care system.  She has suggested language and demonstration projects at the state and federal level that have become law or agency adopted policy by working with both legislators and their staffs, federal and state agencies, and multiple stakeholders, while continuing to work on meaningful reform. She continues to work extensively on the value proposition and practical implementation of patient-centric ‘coordination of medications’, including the uniform expansion of practice and documentation standards for pharmaceutical care, delivery system integration, and payment reform realignment.  As a key strategist and national spokesperson, Dr. McInnis presents at the request of government agencies, legislative bodies, professional associations, integrated delivery systems, health plans, business coalitions, and patient advocacy groups, and was featured in the Washington Redskins’ “Time-out for Your Health” segments. 

 
Prior to founding Blue Thorn, Inc. in 2010, Dr. McInnis served as the Medical Director for Health Policy and Advocacy in the U.S. for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company.  While there she worked in Government Affairs and was instrumental in shaping GSK policy and healthcare reform positions related to delivery system redesign, credible Rx benefit coverage standards, and presentation of the evidence to support the value proposition of appropriately used medications impacting outcomes.   Subsequently, she successfully helped craft legislative positions externally by serving with the US Chamber Benefits Committee, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (as a member of the Legislative Committee), and member- Rx Benefits Coverage Committee for PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s trade organization).   
 
She has over 20 years of senior executive and clinical experience in various employer, military (US Air Force- Flight Surgeon), and hospital/group practice health management segments.  Prior to joining GSK, she was the Corporate Medical Director for Michelin North America where she helped engineer the redesign of the healthcare benefits for nearly 50,000 beneficiaries and worked as a committee member of the National Business Group on Health’s-  An Employer’s Guide to Behavioral Health Services.   Earlier as GE Power Systems Assoc. Medical Director and Health Care Manager, Dr. McInnis was responsible for the occupational health and employee programs in addition to the successful re-bid and risk-reward contracting of the medical benefits for all GE beneficiaries in NC and SC (representing ~$40M in cost). 
 
Given this experience, the vision of Blue Thorn Inc. is to share best practices that align financial incentives and benefit design changes for payers, providers, hospital systems, and patients resulting in reductions in cost and improved quality outcomes.   Blue Thorn, Inc is committed to taking the guesswork out and offering practical solutions for her clients and affiliates including provider and professional organizations, government agencies, health plans, academia, think-tanks, integrated delivery systems, and pharmaceutical companies.  
 
www.bluethorninc.com
 

Lesley Reeder, Co-Chair

Leslie Reeder

Rocky Mountain Health Plans (lesley.reeder@rmhp.org)

Lesley Reeder, RN, BSN, is the Senior Manager of Government Programs for Rocky Mountain Health Plans, a Colorado-based not-for-profit health plan. In her role with Rocky, she serves as a liaison to the state Medicaid agency, the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, on behalf of Rocky’s Medicaid, CHP+ and Medicaid Regional Care Coordination Organization (RCCO) members. 

Ms. Reeder is co-chair of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative’s (PCPCC) Center for Public Payer Implementation and serves as a resource for states interested in developing medical home programs. Topics of expertise include: state participation in multi-payer medical home pilots, developing outcomes-based payment incentive models for hospitals and managed care organizations and utilizing stakeholder groups to inform policy-making. 

Previously, Ms. Reeder worked in Quality Improvement and Long Term Care for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and before that, was a labor and delivery nurse at Avista Hospital in Louisville, Colorado and a clinical nurse instructor for Regis University in Denver.