The 2024 Advisory Board Members and Speakers

Abhishek Mandal, PhD

Abhishek has 5+ years of experience in the healthcare industry in Risk Adjustment, Quality, Enrollment and Finance. He also has 10+ years of experience in working on multidisciplinary projects where utilizing various kinds of data, including imperfect data is the key to success.

Adele L. Towers, MD, MPH, FACP

Dr. Towers is the Director of Risk Adjustment for UPMC Enterprises and is also a geriatrician on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. At UPMC Enterprises, she is directly involved in the development of healthcare related technology, with emphasis on use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Risk Adjustment coding and use of Clinical Analytics to optimize clinical performance. Dr. Towers has presented the experience at UPMC with use of NLP and Clinical Analytics at multiple regional and national conferences.

Alan Bratton

Alan has over 38 years of experience in managing large projects, payer operations, information technology, and consulting. He served as COO for a multi‐plan ISNP Medicare Advantage organization for 6 years and assisted in the development and launch of MA PD organizations in over 10 different states. As COO for Medicare Advantage plans, Alan had responsibility for Risk Adjustment operations, Provider Network Management, Quality, Compliance and Plan Oversight. For the past 3 years Alan has been consulting with Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid plans, and Provider Organizations.

Amy Page

Amy Page is Vice President of Growth at Greater Good Health, where she is focused on developing and executing innovative and effective partnerships with risk-bearing entities across the spectrum of value-based care. With 15+ years of experience across the healthcare industry, Amy has built workflows and programs for Medicare, Medicaid, commercial insurance, and corporate enterprises in a variety of disciplines, including medication adherence, women’s health, musculoskeletal care, and caregiver support. Throughout her career, Amy has focused on member engagement, improving clinical outcomes, and delivering an excellent experience for partners, providers, and patients. Amy received her Bachelor of Science in Economics at Quinnipiac University and Master of Arts in Economics at Kent State University.

Andrew Loewer

Andrew Loewer started his career as an actuary who liked data better than accounting.  After being assigned a consulting project about risk adjustment, he was hooked and has spent his career using data to help plans & providers succeed under value-based contracts.  Recently, he led the Risk Adjustment & Quality Analytics team at Evolent Health, providing services to over a dozen plans & ACOs and now leads the Risk Adjustment & Quality Analytics team at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Minnesota, a mission- driven, nonprofit health plan and one of the largest such Medicare Advantage sponsors nationwide.

Carrie Horn, MSHA, BBA, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CHFP, CRCR, CPC, CRC

Carrie Horn, MSHA, BBA, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, CRC, CPC is the system director for Outpatient CDI at Baylor Scott & White Health in Temple, Texas. She has 27 years of nursing experience, 14 of those spent in CDI leading high quality, cost- effective programs while standardizing process improvement across inpatient and ambulatory CDI operations. Prior to joining BSWH as the Outpatient CDI director in 2022, she spent 12 years building and transforming Inpatient CDI, Outpatient CDI and Provider CDI Education at a large academic health system in Michigan. She has expertise in developing, monitoring, and auditing compliant Inpatient and Outpatient CDI infrastructure, risk adjustment, provider coding education, clinical denials, and post- payment audits. Her leadership fosters relationships to support full burden of illness documentation and coding capture across the health system and health plan. She continues to serve the ACDIS community as a member of the Leadership Council and has presented at MACDIS, MHIMA, the ACDIS Outpatient Symposium, EPIC UGM, 3M, and annually in the ACDIS exhibit hall.

Charles Baker

Charles Baker is a distinguished leader in the healthcare industry, known for his strategic expertise in health plan compliance and operational excellence.

As the Director of Health Plan Performance and Medicare Compliance Officer at Priority Health, Charles led the transformation of the Medicare Advantage Compliance Program. Overseeing a membership exceeding 260,000 beneficiaries, his commitment to compliance and quality excellence resulted in Priority Health’s attainment of a 5-star rating — the only Medicare plan to achieve this distinction in Michigan for 2023.

Charles’ expertise extends across diverse healthcare environments. His role as the Practice Leader at Trinity Health underscored his ability to translate healthcare guidelines into practical strategies. In his tenure with Allina Health, Charles played an instrumental role in revenue enhancement through innovative program initiatives and streamlined operational management.

He holds a Master of Healthcare Administration and a Master of Social Work from the University of Minnesota, as well as a Bachelor of Social Work from Eastern Michigan University. He earned certification as a LEAN Practitioner from Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Charles is deeply engaged in community initiatives. He serves on the city council for the City of Rockford, Michigan, and contributed his expertise as a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Detroit Mercy in Population Health and Epidemiology. He volunteers as a Health Equity Council Member at the Kent County YMCA and has held past board positions at Urban Roots Community Market and the Merriam Park Block Nursing Association.

Christopher G. Bresette, CPA

Christopher G. Bresette is the Director of Medicare Part C Audits with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General, Office of Audit Services. Mr. Bresette is responsible for the implementation and coordination of all audits of the Medicare Advantage program. Based on more than 30 years of experience, he provides expert advice to other auditors about the design and execution of those audits. In addition, Mr. Bresette has a wealth of knowledge regarding other HHS programs, including traditional Medicare and Medicaid, and has conducted several audits designed to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Mr. Bresette also provides training to new and experienced auditors about the Medicare Advantage program. Mr. Bresette graduated with honors from Rockhurst University with a BSBA in Accounting and is a certified public accountant, licensed in Missouri. Mr. Bresette has received numerous exceptional achievement awards and was previously bestowed with one of the agency’s highest honors when he received the Inspector General’s Bronze Award for the outstanding auditor of the year.

Colleen Gianatasio, MHS, CPC, CPC-P, CPMA,CRC, CPCO, CDEO,CPPM, CCDS-0, CCS, and AAPC Approved Instructor,

Colleen Gianatasio MHS, CPC, CPC-P, CPMA, CRC, CPCO, CDEO, CPPM, CCDS-0, CCS, and AAPC Approved Instructor has over 20 years of experience in the health insurance field. She has experience in customer service, claims, quality, and coding. As Director, Clinical Documentation Integrity and Coding Compliance, Colleen’s primary responsibilities are provider engagement and clinical documentation improvement for accurate coding and reimbursement. Colleen specializes in developing innovative coding curriculum and instruction to support compliance with federal guidelines and appropriate reimbursement processes. She is a certified AAPC instructor and enjoys teaching a variety of coding, documentation, and auditing classes. Colleen serves as President of the AAPC National Advisory Board.

David Meyer

Dean Ratzlaff

Dean brings the perspective of an Actuary to risk adjustment. Prior to working in Risk Adjustment he did claim processing, Medicare Advantage bids, set various accounting items, and ACA rate filing.

He has over a decade of Risk Adjustment experience that spans Medicare, Medicaid and ACA. He has worked in risk adjustment at both for-profit and non-profit insurers.

After years of doing chart reviews off the side of his desk, he convinced his company to create a risk adjustment department that has since grown to over 16 people. His experience building a risk adjustment department spans hiring, RFPs, communicating to executives, forecasting, HEDIS collaboration, writing regulatory opinions, and much more.

One of his current efforts involves capitalizing on interoperability. Nationwide standards such as FHIR APIs and USCDI have recently become codified in regulations, accelerating the country to EMR 2.0 – where EMRs communicate with each other and with other systems. This opens up new possibilities for risk adjustment at a Health Plan.

Dean’s presentations pair in-depth understanding with practical tips, spanning both theory and application.

Deb Curry, MBA, RHIA, CCS-P, CRC

Deb joined Paramount Healthcare in May 2013 and oversees the Risk Adjustment, Coordination of Benefits, and Subrogation departments. Prior to her position with Paramount she had 21 years’ experience working with the State of Ohio workers’ compensation program, both for the government and a contracted managed care organizations. She came to Paramount with extensive knowledge in medical coding, provider billing and education, Medicare payment methodologies, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance.

Deb attended The University of Toledo for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees and currently holds a Masters of Business Administration with major in Healthcare Systems Management. She is an active member of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and is a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA), and Certified Coding Specialist, physician based (CCS-P). Deb is also an active member of the America Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and is a Certified Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC). Also, Deb is a member of RISE and holds certificates as a Risk Adjustment Practitioner (RAP) and Advanced HCC Auditor (AHCCA).

Additionally, Deb is a Board Member of the University of Toledo Health Information Administration Advisory Board, Health and Human Services Alumni Affiliate at The University of Toledo, and Health Information Technology Advisory Committee at Owens Community College.

Jackie Edison, MPP

Jackie Edison leads the Risk Adjustment Program Management team at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Her team is dedicated to having an accurate picture of members’ health which enables affordable coverage and management of health conditions. Prior to Blue Cross, Jackie held roles in health policy and program development at the U.S. Senate, MN Department of Health, MN Department of Human Services, and MNsure.

Jenna Jansen, CCS, CRC

Jennifer Hayes, DNP, CPC, CRC, CDEO, AAPC Fellow

Dr. Jennifer Hayes has over 30 years’ experience in the healthcare industry, spanning roles from provider to payer strategy.  She has lead teams and programs in clinical quality, documentation improvement, risk adjustment and HEDIS/Stars.

Jessica Columbus

Jessica Columbus, LVN, CCS-P, CRC, CPHQ is currently the Vice President of Value Based Care for Apex Health Solutions. Her expertise in physician performance engagement and value based care best practices are built on a foundation of more than 18 years experience in managed care focusing on end to end health plan operations related to Risk Adjustment and the CMS Star Rating Program. 

She began her healthcare career in direct patient care as a Pediatric/NICU nurse and in 2005 took an opportunity at a managed care company in their Referral/Pre Cert Department where she was first exposed to quality and risk adjustment concepts. Once promoted into a leadership role that allowed her to own and create both risk adjustment and HEDIS programs from scratch she discovered those to be her true passion.

For 15 years her career has concentrated on innovative provider engagement strategies and implementing real world solutions that positively impact provider and contract performance. Her enterprise-wide physician education programs that aim to improve understanding of clinical documentation requirements have proven successful through accuracy of HCC recapture, increased year round closure of HEDIS gaps in care and strengthened positive health plan experiences among both providers and members.

  Prior to joining Apex in August of 2020, Jessica worked at Universal American/WellCare for 6 years as the Sr. Director of Quality Improvement directly overseeing all quality improvement programs, HEDIS, Stars operations and prospective risk adjustment activities for their Texas and Louisiana markets. During her tenure at WellCare she was able to consistently deliver solid Star Ratings for all contracts under her responsibility, including achieving a 4.5 STAR in 2019 for their flagship MAPD plan in Texas.  Jessica’s continued career journey is centered on improving clinical outcomes for patients through advancing provider and payer partnerships that will revolutionize value based care. 

Jessica enjoys spending her free time traveling with her husband Brandon and their 3 daughters (Gabriella, Alexis and Jordan) in Houston Texas.

Josh Weisbrod

Mr. Weisbrod currently serves as the Vice President – Risk Adjustment and Payment Integrity at Network Health in Menasha, WI. Mr. Weisbrod brings over 20 years of health insurance, healthcare analytic and human service experience to Network Health. Mr. Weisbrod specializes in government programs, health plan operations, risk adjustment and data analytics. Prior to his work at Network Health, Mr. Weisbrod served as Director of Government Programs for a regional Wisconsin health plan serving the state’s Medicare, Medicaid and Marketplace participants. Mr. Weisbrod previously served as the Director of Operations for the Wisconsin Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP), the state’s high-risk insurance plan. HIRSP also administered the federal high-risk insurance plan in Wisconsin prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care act.

Mr. Weisbrod has taught part-time at the college level for over 11 years and has extensive experience training health insurance and human service professionals.

Josh lives in Neenah, WI with his wife and three school age sons.

Dr. Julio Perez, AHCCA,

Julio Perez, MD, is UHP’s Medicare Risk Adjustment Director with over six years dedicated to clinical roles. Before his current position, Julio was a Senior Risk Adjustment Analyst with Aegis Medical Group, engaging in the review and analysis of both acute and chronic disease conditions following CMS guidelines. He played a vital role in educating providers about risk adjustment and was instrumental in employee training programs. A graduate from Santo Domingo Institute of Technology Medical School, Julio also proudly holds an advanced HCC auditor certification. With a deep commitment to improving healthcare through meticulous risk adjustment practices, Julio brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the conference. We are delighted to have him share his insights with us.

Kacey Holman

Kacey Holman is a Manager for Risk Adjustment Consulting at Pareto Intelligence bringing over 18 years of healthcare experience in areas including HCC compliance, medical record auditing, provider engagement, coding education and operational strategy. Kacey has worked on both the plan and provider sides implementing and managing risk adjustment program capabilities. In her current role, Kacey focuses on providing guidance to health plans and value based care entities on risk adjustment best practices for government programs including MA, PACE, ACA and Medicaid.

Keslie Crichton

Keslie is the Chief Sales Officer for Benelynk. In her role, she is not only responsible for new business development but also works on innovative partnerships to improve outreach strategies and health outcomes for our client’s members. At the core of BeneLynk’s services, Keslie and her team work to identify, document and solve member’s social determinant of health (SDoH) challenges by “leading with help”. This increases BeneLynk’s engagement rates across our integrated services while also providing our clients with crucial information they need to deliver care and improve their quality metrics. Keslie has worked in managed care for over 25 years with a focus on SDoH solutions that improve members lives but also provide a return on investment for our clients. Keslie's passion lies in working on strategies that put members at the center while ensuring we deliver accurate risk-adjusted revenue, quality performance, and member retention.    Keslie holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Regis University and worked toward her MBA and Masters in Healthcare Administration at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.

Khush Singh, MD, MHA, CRC, CPMA, CPCO, CDIP

Khush Singh, MD is a trained clinician & an experienced healthcare executive with 18+ years of Health Information Management (HIM), Medicare, and managed care & regulatory experience. As a seasoned clinician, Khush is always determined to meet higher goals with a commitment towards improving the health of the patients & helping medical providers manage health information data, minimize errors & reduce waste. He drives healthcare forward everyday with his focus on improving the overall quality of healthcare delivery to patients. Khush has helped several IPAs structure their risk adjustment programs, optimizing their risk score recapture strategies, enabling them to succeed in their risk-sharing value-based care arrangements. He is continuously helping to drive a culture of excellence & is committed to improve the quality of healthcare, with a focus on Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim. Having a passion for Value-Based Care & Risk Adjustment, Khush has a passion for finding ways to leverage the hidden power of healthcare data and to help physicians deliver better care and report diagnosis data accurately. He has helped several providers identify successful strategies and pathways to serve their patients in a meaningful way every day through value-based care principles.

Khush started his HIM career by managing clinical data for industry-sponsored FDA clinical trials in various phases. Before coming into the Medicare/managed care world, he served as a business liaison between the providers and the healthcare business world. More recently, he worked extensively in leading the efforts for the clinical care pathway modeling for the cardiac and other inpatient episodes of care within the CMMI BPCI-A program model years. Having worked with risk adjustment data for several years, Khush brought clinical and coding knowledge to the providers to help them succeed in the value-based care programs and alternate payment models involving codified diagnostic health information data. Over the past several years, Khush has worked as an external consultant fulfilling the needs as a subject matter expert for risk adjustment for encounter data submissions, risk adjustment operations & process improvement, HCC suspect analytics, and other coding compliance expertise. Khush has worked with entities ranging from Medicare Advantage health plans and ACOs, EMR companies, risk adjustment vendors developing NLP-based solutions, AI-companies developing advanced HCC analytics solutions, and several billing, coding & revenue cycle management entities. He has also engaged with physician practices, providing them with risk adjustment education, quality and value-based care focused managed care expertise. He has helped several clients clean up their HCC coding recapture workflows, resolve RAPS & EDPS submission-related problems, and leveraged the clinical documentation improvement process to recapture appropriate & accurate HCC risk scores.

Khush Singh is also the CEO and Founder of Bulwark Health – healthcare tech start-up that provides a SaaS based healthcare coding compliance and analytics platform to support medical providers (IPAs, MSOs, ACOs) succeed in their risk-sharing programs. Bulwark Health platform helps it MA plans clients optimize & monitor their Medicare risk adjustment programs efficiently & compliantly and report diagnosis data accurately. The clinical AI-enabled SaaS platform assists risk adjustment programs in meeting their regulatory and compliance objectives, monitor HCC coding submissions, monitoring fraud, waste & abuse, enabling its clients to adhere to coding compliance rules while protecting their revenue.

As a Senior Consultant with Granite GRC consulting, Khush leads the risk adjustment consulting arm providing his clients with his expertise in operational, data analytics, coding, compliance and provider education components of Medicare Part C program. He has led variety of projects including risk adjustment audits of health plans, MSOs, & IPAs for mergers and acquisitions by private equity funding.. Previously, Khush has served senior leadership roles leading risk adjustment teams at several Medicare Advantage organizations and also supervised Medicaid and commercial risk adjustment efforts. He was also instrumental in improving the RAF score recapture by double-digit percentages, helping organizations achieve multi-million dollars in revenue gain, and also helped in improving the STARS rating from 3.0 to 5 stars. He focuses on merging risk adjustment operational processes with quality measure recapture initiatives. He served as a senior executive at an NLP vendor company as a risk adjustment SME engaging with its clients’ risk adjustment and finance executives at several large national Medicare Advantage, Medicaid & commercial health plans and large physician groups (MSOs & ACOs), helping them to improve their revenue streams while maintaining compliance with RADV guidelines.

Khush occasionally presents at national & regional coding and managed care conferences with AAPC, AHIMA & RISE on topics related to Risk Adjustment HCC coding, RADV Audit Compliance, Medicare Advantage Risk Adjustment operations, & technology solutions for risk adjustment. He is also a part of the AAPC national & regional conference and education committee, serving as the SME for the risk adjustment.

Kimberly Rykaczewski, RN, BSN, CPC, CRC

Kimberly manages a team focused on providing data quality solutions by monitoring regulatory coding content and providing diagnostic and procedural mapping sets.   

She has over 20 years of healthcare experience in the areas of nursing, case management, utilization review, overpayment recovery, vendor management, coding and billing, risk adjustment, and regulatory compliance. One of the biggest rewards of her profession is bringing providers and payors together to achieve regulatory and coding compliance.   

Kimberly holds a Bachelors of Science in Nursing and is an AAPC certified professional and risk adjustment coder.

Laura Sheriff, RN, MSN, CPC, CRC

Laura Sheriff, RN, MSN, is currently working as Vice President, Risk Adjustment Operations for Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR). She also works as a consultant with physician groups and health plans to capitalize on risk adjustment performance and operations.  Laura is an MSN with >13 years’ experience in Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace Managed Care and has led teams in risk, quality, telehealth, and population health analytics.  Laura demonstrates effective leadership, innovative problem-solving techniques, and goal-oriented focus to execute business objectives and meet performance metrics.  Laura has designed and coordinated activities including provider education, training, auditing, data mining, and data analysis to direct program success. Laura has a Master’s in Nursing Education and is also a certified professional coder and a certified risk coder.   Laura is also a frequent speaker for RISE, a best-in-class organization for all things related to accountable care and government healthcare reform.

Leah Hannum

As Director of Government Funding, Leah Hannum played a pivotal role in the planning, creation, oversight, and strategic objectives of the risk adjustment department at Blue Cross of Idaho. She is responsible for overseeing activities related to Medicare and ACA risk adjustment programs in support of payment accuracy. With 15+ years’ experience in government programs, Leah’s current focus is to understand and connect the health plan’s risk adjustment accuracy needs with efficient provider workflows for improved patient outcomes.

Megan Zakrewsky

Previous Experience:  Megan has over 15 years of diversified healthcare experience – starting within a multi-hospital health system in Philadelphia to multiple global health information technology companies. She is passionate about innovation within the healthcare informatics industry to improve patient autonomy, insight, and outcomes through clinical data exchange.

Education: MBA, Masters in Healthcare Quality and Safety, PMP

Michelle Mitchell, MHA, CRC

Michelle is the Director of Risk Adjustment at Moda Health in Oregon and oversees Moda’s Medicare Advantage, Summit Health Medicare Advantage and Moda’s ACA risk adjustment programs.  She has over 15 years of experience in the Medicare Advantage industry specializing in risk adjustment.  Prior to joining Moda in 2023, Michelle led the risk adjustment program at ATRIO Health Plans, an Oregon-based Medicare Advantage plan.  She also has a background in provider relations, marketing and pharmaceutical sales.  

Michelle received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon and her Master of Healthcare Administration from Bellevue University.

Melissa James, CPC, CPMA, CRC

As a Senior Consultant and Risk Adjustment SME, Melissa supports the company's Health Language solutions with content maintenance, sales support, and product development.    

Melissa has more than 25 years of health care experience in coding, billing, physician and coder education, accounts receivable cycle management, consulting, and regulatory and compliance. Prior to working at Health Language, she spent seven years in the Risk Adjustment space performing RADV, IPM and OIG audits for a major Medicare Advantage Payer.  

She received her associates degree from Pueblo Community College. She is a Certified Professional Coder, Certified Risk Adjustment Coder, and Certified Professional Medical Auditor.

Rebecca Welling

Rebecca Welling is the Associate Vice President for SelectHealth, a not for profit Health insurance company serving over one million lives in the Utah, Idaho and Nevada regions. SelectHealth Plan is part of Intermountain Health, the largest healthcare provider in the intermountain West. Rebecca’s responsibilities include oversight of all risk adjustment programs pertinent to Medicare, Medicaid and ACA lines of business with focus on physician coding education, coder training and clinical documentation initiatives. Rebecca directs a team of highly trained HCC coders and educators that perform retrospective, prospective and RADV audits for all government related lines of business. This work entails a thorough understanding of financial implications associated with an efficient and ethical risk adjustment program. In addition, Rebecca’s team oversee encounter data submissions, and analytical analysis of related risk adjustment work. Rebecca also serves in a consultative role for Intermountain Health for risk adjustment related iniatiaves. Rebecca’s primary focuses is to ensure ethical, compliant and comprehensive risk adjustment programs.

Ryan C. Dodson, CRC

His background is in management and operational processes for 15 years and begun working in the Risk Adjustment arena 15+ years ago. Ryan has proven himself by helping Medical Groups and Health Plans to accurately improve their documentation with a solid track record of provider engagement. Ryan uses a unique blend of comedy, and deep risk adjustment knowledge to get buy-ins from providers to improve their documentation. His track record of results of improving documentation and thus improving revenue streams and patient care brings value to any group he works with. Having worked on the provider, payer, and now the vendor side Ryan is able to bring a unique perspective to the conversation and develop out of the box ideas to help any size group. In 2020 Ryan co-founded New Vision Healthcare Solutions to fill a niche in the market on providing provider education with data stemming from analytics, and provider chart data. Ryan is a Certified Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC) credential through the AAPC.

Scott Weiner

Scott is the Director of Government Programs at Sentara Health Plans. Prior to joining Sentara, Scott was the founder of Quadralytics, a data analytic, software, and finance consulting company. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, Analytics and Strategy, EMSI HEALTH where he was focused on expanding the company’s HEDIS, Medicare Stars, Medicaid Risk Adjustment and data analytics offerings to better meet the needs of health plans and other clients. He has extensive executive-level and health-plan consulting experience, having held managed care, risk adjustment and data analytics positions for more than 20 years. He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Seattle University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Central Washington University. He holds the Certified Risk Adjustment Coder (CRC) and Certified Professional Coder (CPC) designation from AAPC and CMA and CFM from the Institute of Management Accountants.

Sunita E. Varghees, MD, PhD, CHCQM

Dr. Sunita Varghees serves as System VP of Clinical Documentation Improvement for Baylor Scott and White Healthcare in Texas.  Dr. Varghees began her career in Hospital Medicine at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, and later went on to become Division Director of that group.  She moved into the Quality/Physician Documentation space in 2014 for the legacy Scott and White clinics and hospitals, allowing her to understand the intersection and interdependence of quality and provider documentation.

Dr. Varghees received her bachelor and medical degrees from Texas A&M University and completed an internal medicine residency at Scott & White in Temple Texas. She also holds a PhD in Bacterial Pathogenesis from Texas A&M HSC.

Susan L. Waterman

Susan Waterman is the Director of Risk Adjustment for Baylor Scott and White Health Plan. Baylor Scott and White is an integrated healthcare system with over 50 hospitals, research centers, and 800 + patient care sites across Texas. Susan’s primary focus is ensuring accurate risk scores by leading a team of auditors and focusing on provider engagement and education, working with other departments to achieve health plan goals, and a commitment to designing and implementing affordable, high quality health care coverage so customers, patients and team members are empowered to live well.

Wynda Clayton, MS, RHIT