Medicaid Never Ending Conference 9

Steven Hedgepeth, MBA has a strong operational and strategy implementation background with over fifteen years of experience working across the Human Service, Physical and Behavioral Health fields at both the local community and state/national levels.

As a founder and senior leader in multiple healthcare organizations, Steven is adept at setting a clear vision and strategy to navigate the challenges of a shifting healthcare landscape. He has led organizations through significant Medicaid policy and payor changes, acquisitions, merger integrations, and implementation of Financial and EHR information systems.

Steven has experience creating innovative public/private partnerships to adapt to rapidly changing models of care across both for-profit and not for profit organizations. His ability to quickly assess the needs of an organization and devise a plan for success has been honed advising a myriad of both public and private organizations.

Vern Smith is a nationally lauded expert in Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, state budgets and trends in the health care marketplace. He has authored numerous reports on current issues in Medicaid and CHIP, state strategies for containing health care costs and improving quality, and state preparations for the health reform.

Vern has presented 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, 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 is an often quoted public health policy expert for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and USA Today.

Vern had a distinguished 30-year public service career, serving as Michigan Medicaid director and as budget director for the human services agency.

Vern holds a PhD in economics from Michigan State University. He serves on the board of trustees of Anderson University, his undergraduate alma mater.

Kris has twenty years of behavioral health, health information technology and health policy experience.

Clients include information technology and pharmaceutical companies, state health and behavioral health departments, state Medicaid agencies, managed care organizations, federally qualified health centers, safety net hospitals, large health systems and community health providers to enact meaningful initiatives.

His past governmental experience includes supporting major state system transformation projects, planning for Medicaid Transformation, development of new behavioral health treatment standards, service definitions and leading large information technology system implementations. Prior to joining Mostly Medicaid, he was Director of Behavioral Health for Germane Solutions and the first Chief Information Officer for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Currently, as Partner and Chief Growth Officer for Mostly Medicaid, Kris leads the consulting and product sales team, serves as a senior project manager for key client engagements and a thought leader for behavioral health and health policy in the Medicaid space.

Ark Department of Human Services 1974-2003, Arkansas Medicaid Director 1986-2003, Chairman of National Association of State Medicaid Directors for five years. Client Industry Executive EDS/Hewlett Packard 2003-2010 doing sales support and consulting.....voted global Client Industry Executive of year 2007, President and CEO of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care 2003-present, a 40 year old, 200 employee healthcare quality improvement organization.

Author of 16 Arkansas history books

Len has done so much in the healthcare space its impossible to do it justice in a simple bio. Highlights include being State President of AARP of Arizona, the former Medicaid Director for Arizona, and 22 years of active duty in the United States Air Force. He is also a physician and regular on the Medicaid conference circuit.

Joel has led hundreds of consulting engagements that involve the design, development, improvement or evaluation of coordinated care programs, including Medicaid initiatives in 40 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Joel has worked extensively for Medicaid agencies and other state clients, for health plans, and for national and state trade associations. He has played a significant role in the design of many states’ coordinated care programs.