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2021

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8:00 am – 5:30 pm ET

The OPEN MINDS Mergers, Acquisitions, & Affiliations Summit: Improving Competitive Advantage In The ‘Next Normal’

Executive Summit

We saw a record numbers of mergers, acquisitions, and affiliations among organizations serving the complex consumer market in 2020 and 2021. The big question: did those collaborations improve competitive advantage? And what are the “tricks of the trade” for making collaborations work?

Join us for an information-packed day with executives who are making it happen—and gain perspectives on how to best leverage collaborations for improving market position.

Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to hear directly from the organizations leading the way.

Agenda

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Registration & Breakfast

9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.: Welcome & Introduction
State Of The Industry: Updates On Mergers, Acquisitions, & Affiliations During & Post Pandemic

Join us this morning as we start the day with a status update of the industry.

While there is no “roadmap” to successful partnerships for most organizations serving complex needs consumers, the leaders at the helm of those organizations will be better positioned to face that challenge after a clear look at the MA&A landscape including, who has merged with who, what acquisitions are making news, and what new affiliations have been formed.

Ken Carr, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS 

9:15 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.: Plenary Panel Keynote: The Future of Private Equity Investments In The Health & Human Service Space

Private equity investments in health care are changing the outlook for sustainability of traditional provider organizations—with new service offerings, investment capital for technology & marketing, pressure on fees, and the ability to accept value-based reimbursement. This increased competition creates challenges for traditional provider organizations. The weakened financial state of many provider organizations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic means private equity and other investment firms have presented opportunities by the financial breakdowns. Where does your organization stand and what will this mean going forward? Are you a potential target for private equity interests and if so, how can you leverage the opportunity to sustain and grow while preserving your mission? And if not, what can you learn from the competition and how to defend against them?

After this session expect to takeaway:

  • An understanding of current investments in the health and human service marketplace
  • How best to position your organization in this shifting space
  • An overview of what the future holds for private equity investments with the public health space

Todd Rudsenske, Partner, Webster Equity Partners
Jeremy Gelber, M.D., Senior Managing Director, Centerbridge
Ken Carr, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

10:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Thought Leader Q&A

Join the Plenary Panel participants, Joe Naughton-Travers, and Ken Carr, Senior Associates at OPEN MINDS, as they answer questions from the audience and invite robust discussion on the topic at hand.

Joe Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS
Ken Carr, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS 

11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.: Break

11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Best Practices For Mergers & Acquisitions Preparation: How Do You Use M&A To Gain Strategic Advantage?

Some studies have shown mergers to have a high failure rate – sometimes failing as often as 50% to 90% of the time. However, economies of scale and organizational size are an integral part of strategy for health and human service organizations. The question – how to develop a merger and acquisition plan that makes your organizational strategy successful. Don’t miss this engaging look at how to overcome the challenges of making mergers and acquisitions work – selecting the right organizations, the M&A process, developing governance and management structures for a newly-merged organization, as well as the challenges of managing a bigger and more diverse organization, through the lens of organizations who have made it work.

This session is designed to provide organizations:

  • Tools needed to build a successful partnership strategy
  • Strategies for overcoming the challenges of making mergers and acquisitions work
  • Best practices through the merger and acquisition process

Jonathan Morphett, Managing Partner, Avondale Partners, LLC
Luanne Welch, Chief Executive Officer & President, Easterseals UCP North Carolina & Virginia
Rich Yanoski, Corporate Vice President of Business Development, Merakey
Derry Holland, Chief Executive Officer, Oaks Integrated Care
Joe Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.: Lunch

1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.: Disasters In Partnerships: Case Studies From The Field

We know partnerships can fail, but what can be learned from those failures? In this engaging session you will hear case studies from OPEN MINDS Senior Associate, Ken Carr, as he walks you through:

  • What to watch out for when selecting partnerships
  • Methodologies for navigating a partnership that is not working
  • Strategies for avoiding these common partnership pitfalls

 Ken Carr, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS 

2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Break

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.: Executive Roundtable:  What We Would Have Done Differently: Provider Perspectives On Partnerships

During this executive roundtable you will hear from executives who have navigated mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. This discussion will examine lessons learned from the provider organization perspective, and what they would have done differently, what they have learned, and what they found to be successful.

Attendees to this session can expect to:

  • Learn what works and what doesn’t when entering a new partnership
  • Hear case studies from organizations that have made it work
  • Review the challenges of managing a bigger and more diverse organization after a partnership is in place

Luanne Welch, Chief Executive Officer & President, Easterseals UCP, North Carolina & Virginia
Rich Yanoski, Corporate Vice President of Business Development, Merakey
Derry Holland, Chief Executive Officer, Oaks Integrated Care
Joe Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS
Ken Carr, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Executive Networking Reception

Grab a beverage and unwind with our Summit speakers and attendees as well as the OPEN MINDS team!

Jeremy Gelber, M.D.

Jeremy joined Centerbridge in 2018 and focuses on investments in the Healthcare sector. Prior to joining Centerbridge, Jeremy was a Partner at Pamplona Capital, a private equity firm, leading the healthcare investing vertical. Prior to Pamplona Capital, Jeremy was an Executive Director in the Healthcare Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley.
Previously, Jeremy was a physician and completed his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College.
Jeremy serves on the Boards of Directors of American Renal Associates Holdings, Inc., Civitas Solutions, Inc, GoHealth, LLC and Remedi SeniorCare Holding Corporation.

Education
Dartmouth College, B.S.
Jefferson Medical College, M.D., summa cum laude

Derry Holland

When Derry Holland joined Family Service in 1986 as an intern for the Family Learning Center and Seasons Outpatient Program, she had no idea it would become a 30-year journey. Over the next three decades, she went on to hold several operational and administrative leadership positions within the organization.

In October 2016 Derry officially took on the role of Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, she leads a team of over 2,700 employees who are responsible for the continued development and integrity of 150 diverse health and social service programs. Derry focuses on building a strong financial foundation, maintaining the highest possible clinical standards, and most importantly, fulfilling our mission to serve the most vulnerable members of our community.

Under Derry’s leadership in January 2017, Oaks proudly welcomed Preferred Behavioral Health Group as an affiliate. Now serving over 34,000 individuals in 19 counties throughout NJ, with a combined budget of 124 million dollars, Oaks is one of New Jersey’s most comprehensive human service providers.

In addition to her work at Oaks, Derry is currently on the board of the New Jersey Association of Community Providers (NJACP), a member of National Association of Social Workers, NJ Chapter and is affiliated with the Burlington and Camden County Mental Health Boards.

Jonathan Morphett

Jonathan Morphett joined Avondale Partners in 2004 to launch its healthcare investment banking group. Today, as an investment banking boutique firm, Avondale Partners provides mergers and acquisitions and financing transaction advisory services to healthcare companies and private equity firms across the U.S. Jonathan has over 30 years of investment banking experience, having completed over 100 M&A advisory, equity and debt transactions.

Prior to joining Avondale Partners, Jonathan was the Chief Financial Officer of Austar United Communications, a publicly traded Australian company, and a managing director of investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Jonathan is currently the Chair of the Board of Centerstone Research Institute. He is a former board member of the Nashville Health Care Council; a former board member of Friends Life, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities; and a “2012 Health Care Hero” award recipient from the Nashville Business Journal. He earned his undergraduate degrees in economics and law from the University of Adelaide, Australia and his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth.

Todd Rudsenske

Todd joined Webster as a Partner in 2020 after a 25-year career as an investment banker to leading middle-market healthcare service organizations. At Webster, Todd serves on the Boards of BayMark Health Services and Discovery Behavioral Health.  He is also active with InBloom Autism Services.

Prior to joining Webster, Todd served as a Managing Director at Cain Brothers, a leading healthcare investment bank. Previously he served as a Vice President at Merrill Lynch and at Ernst &Young. Over Todd’s career, he advised on over $5 billion of transactions and some of his notable clients include Invo Healthcare, Florida Autism Centers, HealthPro Heritage, New York Bariatric Group, and D&S Community Services.

Todd was educated at Texas A&M University and Columbia Business School.

Luanne Welch

Luanne Welch is President and CEO of Easterseals UCP North Carolina & Virginia, an industry leader supporting 20,000 children, adults & families living with intellectual and behavioral health challenges.

With more than 35 years of non-profit experience, Luanne is recognized as a turnaround leader, reorganizing financially challenged organizations and positioning them for sustained, healthy growth. In addition, she is adept in portfolio management, service line mission/finance analysis, strategic execution and leadership talent development. Mission driven, Luanne is passionate about influencing culture change, promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and developing leaders and teams where employees feel valued, safe and encouraged to use their voices.

Luanne is a successful relationship builder across all stakeholders including the board, staff, volunteers, donors, public and private payers and community influencers. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Benchmarks NC, as Board Secretary of i2i Center for Integrative Health and is Vice Chair of UCP Regional Affiliate Council.

Richard P. Yanoski, Jr.

Richard P. Yanoski Jr is currently Merakey’s Corporate Vice President of Business Development. Rich joined Merakey in 2002 and has served the organization in a variety of operational and leadership roles which include positions in Business Operations, Quality Improvement, and Program Operations. In his current role, Rich partners with Operational and Executive leadership to lead Merakey’s strategic growth and development. This includes mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, customer engagement and relationship management, as well as financial model development and analysis.

Rich previously spent nine years at Aerotek, one of the world’s largest global staffing firms. During his time at Aerotek, Rich supported an international sales team in the engineering and aviation industries, performing liability analysis, contract negotiation and pricing model development, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Rich holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Organizational Development with a concentration in Ethics from Duquesne University. As an undergraduate, Rich attended King’s College (PA) and graduated with a Degree in Economics and a concentration in Statistical Analysis.

Ken Carr

Ken Carr brings over 20 years of finance, technology, data analysis and reporting experience in the health and human service field to OPEN MINDS. He currently ia a Senior Associate with the OPEN MINDS consulting practice. In this role, he served as a subject matter expert in the OPEN MINDS consulting practice where he has led numerous engagements in strategic planning, merger and acquisition prospecting, business process improvement, financial analysis of service lines, and technology selection.

Before joining the OPEN MINDS team, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of The Centers, a community mental health center in Ocala, Florida. In this position, Mr. Carr led a realignment of the organization’s financial management functions. This included revenue cycle management, EHR bill implementation and reporting, cash management enhancement, and strategic financial analysis.

Prior to his role at The Centers, Mr. Carr served as Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated, an organization providing residential and community based mental health services in St. Paul, Minnesota. As CFO, Mr. Carr led the financial, billing, IT, quality, informatics, compliance, and facilities activities. During his tenure at Guild Incorporated, Mr. Carr used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead the EHR implementation team, align service data reporting and financial performance, and lead the financial and data capture activities for new service initiatives.

Mr. Carr has also held the positions of Administrative Director and Finance Director at the St. Paul National Testing Laboratory, a biomedical testing facility of the American Red Cross. In those positions he oversaw activities to enhance inventory management, align financial results to industry standards, and improve financial and facilities performance through problem analysis and quality management initiatives. He also was involved in directing human resource functions during laboratory closing near the end of his tenure.

Mr. Carr earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota, and a Master of Divinity Degree from Sioux Falls Seminary. He maintains an active CPA license with the State of South Dakota.

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.

Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics.  Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.

Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.

He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.

Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.


12:00 pm – 4:30 pm ET

How To Build An SDoH Foundation Within Your Whole-Person Care Organization: An Executive Luncheon & Forum Sponsored By NextGen Healthcare

Executive Forum

Sponsored By NextGen Healthcare

Opening with a catered executive luncheon provided free of charge to all attendees, this brand new executive forum will feature a series of information-packed presentations and discussion forums for organizations moving to a whole-person care approach.

As part of this half-day program, population health expert, Dr. Michael Franczak, will demonstrate how Copa Health, a leading provider of integrated care in Mesa, Arizona, is tracking and using social determinants of health (SDoH) to inform care strategy, decision-making and every day operations. Dr. Franczak will also showcase how SDoH data is used as part of a complete functional analysis of clients — as well as to guide intervention recommendations, improve client engagement, and ultimately care outcomes.

The second program in the forum, led by Dr. Jennifer Bolduc from NextGen Healthcare, will focus on how whole-person care organizations can collect and use SDoH data in combination with other data sources to gain valuable insights. And, how insights from this data can drive actionable recommendations that ultimately improve quality of care. This piece of the program will also feature a demonstration from Dr. Bolduc on how certain combinations of SDoH data may change treatment recommendations for people with different co-existing conditions.

The forum will conclude with an open forum and panel discussion on how a solid SDoH foundation can lead to better outcomes for both patients and providers. The panel featured will include Dr. Franczak, Dr. Bolduc and NextGen’s Javier Favela.

Following this half-day event are the welcoming activities and networking reception for The 2021 OPEN MINDS Executive Leadership Retreat!

Javier Favela

Javier Favela is Vice President of Behavioral Health Solutions at NextGen Healthcare. He is an industry leader that provides integrated healthcare technology solutions to meet the needs of the behavioral and integrated healthcare community. Javier brings over 20 years of accounting and executive leadership specializing in the healthcare and healthcare information technology field. He offers extensive knowledge in new business start-ups and restructuring of existing businesses to further strategic initiatives and maximize organizational profitability.

Dr. Jennifer Bolduc

Dr. Bolduc is a board-certified pediatrician and clinical informaticist. She provides clinical leadership for NextGen® Population Health. After completing medical school and pediatric training in Vermont, she served in the Navy in Yokosuka, Japan and Bremerton, Washington, followed by 10 years of private practice in Walla Walla, Washington and leadership roles in health IT. Dr. Bolduc’s passions include improving the efficiency and safety of health IT systems and supporting the growth and development of people around her. She is excited to help ensure NextGen Healthcare’s solutions meet the needs of clinicians in the real world.

Dr. Michael Franczak

Michael Franczak currently serves as the Director of Population Health Services for Copa Health, Phoenix, Arizona.  Dr. Franczak has been involved in Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Development Disability services in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona for the past 40 years. Dr. Franczak has served as an expert witness in many landmark cases concerning mental health and developmental Disabilities and serves as an expert to the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.  Dr. Franczak has been the primary investigator on numerous grants from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration including Housing Approaches for Persons with a Serious Mental Illness, Jail Diversion for Persons with a Serious Mental Illness, Integrated Substance Abuse Mental Health Treatment Models System of Care Practices for Children and Adolescents and Substance Abuse Services for Adolescents.


1:00 pm – 4:15 pm ET

Aligning Your Board To The New Sustainability Challenge: An OPEN MINDS Seminar On Non-Profit Management

Executive Seminar

*This seminar will also be presented virtually on Thursday, September 23 at 9:00am ET

As the health care industry addresses the aftermath of the COVID-19 disruption, board members and executives must collaborate on understanding the changing market and map a plan for recovery and sustainability. They must conduct a deep dive into the new challenges and opportunities for non-profit health and human service organizations and the changing role of the board in a time of competition and new business models. Learn how to update your board on the impacted landscape and the need for updated strategies for sustainability. Understand the conditions for the new “best practice board.” This means developing the skills to support modern health care in a value-based environment, developing the ability to preserve purpose and know when to redefine it, and perfecting the ability to monitor finance, business, compliance, and ethics.

The following key components will be discussed:

  • Updating strategies for sustainability
  • Where your opportunities and challenges lie
  • Best practices to support growth while preserving purpose

Ray Wolfe, J.D.

Raymond “Ray” Wolfe, J.D. brings over 40 years of experience in the health and human services sector to the OPEN MINDS team. Mr. Wolfe currently serves as a Senior Associate, a position in which he utilizes his expertise to successfully lead varying projects for OPEN MINDS. His areas of expertise include financial analysis and management, mergers and acquisitions, performance improvement, and strategic planning.

Before joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Wolfe served in a 22 year tenure with Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) where he was responsible for oversight of all system operations, strategic planning, and performance management. Under his direction Pittsburgh Mercy achieved over $850K in value-based reimbursement contract quality bonus awards, integrated three organizations through merger/acquisition, and adopted a new performance management program for managers.

Before acting as Pittsburgh Mercy’s COO, Mr. Wolfe served as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and was responsible for the development of internal costing methodologies, contract rate negotiations, and financial forecasting activities. In addition, he coordinated an integrated care program with local partner hospitals to develop a series of diversion and respite programs, as well as, specialized primary care, integrated care management and high utilizer teams, while maintaining 15 straight years profitability.

Mr. Wolfe was promoted to CFO after serving as the Director of Fiscal and Information Security/Compliance for the health system. In this role, he was responsible for managing the transition of service contracts from fee-for-service (FFS), leading all compliance activities, and implementing a next generation electronic health record (EHR) system.

Prior to his time at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Mr. Wolfe served as Chief Fiscal Officer with the Summit Center for Human Development in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he was responsible for reporting and budgeting functions and preparing Summit Center’s programs for FFS billing.

Previously, Mr. Wolfe served in billing and collections for two Pennsylvania-based hospitals. First, as an Accounts Receivables Manager for Brownsville General Hospital in Brownsville, PA, where he managed the accounting and billing system transition systems. Later as a Patient Account Manager for St. Francis Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where he improved collections to hit 95% rate through the implementation of new billing software and department reorganization.

Prior to working in the health and human services market, Mr. Wolfe spent five years practicing as a Lawyer with at Law Offices of Arch A. Moore in Moundsville, WV. In this role he provided general legal practice, created and established bylaws for multiple corporation, and handled West Virginia licensing of first vision insurance plan.

Mr. Wolfe earned his Juris Doctor from the West Virginia University School of Law in Morgantown, WV and his Bachelor’s degree with a focus in Political Science and Sociology from West Liberty University, in Wheeling, WV, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Kimberly Bond, MS, LMFT

Kimberly Bond, MS, LMFT, brings over thirty years of experience providing behavioral health treatment in the public and community settings to the OPEN MINDS team. She currently serves as the Executive Vice President, Payer/Provider Market. In this role, Ms. Bond provides executive oversight and leadership to all Provider and Payer client engagements for OPEN MINDS.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Bond served concurrently as a Program Coordinator III and Clinical Manager of Adult Services and a Program Coordinator II and Clinical Manager of Recovery Services for the Ozark Guidance Center. In these roles, Ms. Bond was responsible for the administrative and clinical oversight of the adult outpatient and adult intensive mental health services on the Springdale Campus as well as the adult recovery/co-occurring services, including domestic violence and anger management treatment.

Prior to joining the Ozark Guidance Center, Ms. Bond served as the Executive Vice President of Center Point, Inc, a large substance abuse provider agency in California. In this role, Ms. Bond was responsible for the clinical and administrative supervision of all community-based programs as well as the women and children residential programs. In addition, Ms. Bond also managed budgets, interacted with funding agencies, and built positive relationships with all stakeholders. Ms. Bond was also in charge of proposal and grant writing, staff management, and training, facilities’ licensing and certifications renewals. Additionally, she prepared and submitted monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports to various funders.

Previously, Ms. Bond served as the President and CEO of Mental Health Systems, Inc. Ms. Bond was very instrumental in growing the agency from $12M in annual revenue to over $100M and becoming one of the largest providers of behavioral health services in California. In this role, Bond was responsible for the strategic, clinical, financial, and administrative health of the agency, including direct supervision of Senior Executive Staff. In addition, Bond ensured contract compliance of the agency’s 125 different contracts across federal and state agencies and eight counties.

Ms. Bond received her Bachelors Degree in Psychology, with Honors, and her Masters in Counseling Education from San Diego State University. She is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in both California and Arkansas.


4:30 pm – 5:30 pm ET

Executive Networking & Welcome Reception

Networking

Grab a beverage and unwind with our Summit speakers and attendees, Seminar speakers and attendees, Executive Forum speakers and guests, as well as the OPEN MINDS team!