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The Solucia Team

The Solucia Consulting team offers extensive experience in financial, actuarial and general management consulting, health plan senior management, development of care and disease management programs, and applied information technology. Our team members are:

Consultants


The Solucia Team

Ian Duncan, FSA MAAA

Ian Duncan is president of Solucia Inc., a Farmington, CT-based provider of analytical and consulting services to the healthcare financing industry. He has 30 years of experience in healthcare and insurance product design, management, financing, pricing, and delivery. He has started and built consulting practices, and was a founder of a company providing predictive modeling services to managed health insurers and is the only actuary who has actually implemented and managed disease management programs.

Ian holds a post-graduate degree in economics from Balliol College, Oxford, and is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He serves on the boards of directors of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Healthcare Connector Authority and the Freelancers Insurance Co. He serves as chair of the Society of Actuaries Healthcare External Relations committee. He is a frequent speaker at industry events, and is the author of numerous papers and books.

Read Ian's interview in the February/March 2007 issue of The Actuary
Read Ian's interview in the April 9, 2007 issue of The Indianapolis Business Journal
Read Ian's interview in the April 2007 issue of Disease Management Advisor

Christian Birkmeyer

Chris Birkmeyer has extensive experience in health services research, predictive modeling and outcomes assessment. Prior to joining Solucia, he directed the Informatics Department at Health Dialog focused on measurement of disease management performance, predictive modeling, and client reporting. Previously, he managed the Data Center for the Department of Surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and consulted for The Leapfrog Group. He holds an M.S. in epidemiology/biostatistics from Dartmouth.

Read press release regarding the appointment of Chris Birkmeyer as COO and Practice Leader

Bart Bracken

Bart Bracken is a healthcare executive with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare and disability industries as a consultant and serving in senior leadership positions with large managed care organizations and specialty entrepreneurial companies. His broad experience includes managed care operations, strategic planning, marketing, business development, product development, and program management with both private and public sector programs. He has a Master in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a BA, magna cum laude, in Economics from St. Lawrence University.

Robert Blundo

Robert Blundo is an analyst with prior experience in healthcare data analysis and management for acute care and healthcare consulting companies. Past experience includes strategic planning and market analysis in the acute healthcare setting, as well as, analyzing and modeling claims information for managed care programs. He holds a B.S. in healthcare management from the University of Connecticut.

Charlie Doe, FSA MAAA

Charlie Doe recently joined Solucia Inc. after retiring with 20 years at Aetna and has 35+ years of experience in healthcare pricing, financial projections, and insurance product design. His most recent work at Aetna was to design standard reporting requirements for the various risk factors used in health pricing to serve as the basis of monitoring and decision making for these risks for the regional actuaries.

Mr. Doe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Master’s of Science in actuarial science from Northeastern University, and is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Susan Furlong, MA

Susan Furlong is a health educator experienced in disease management program design, implementation and operations. She has extensive experience in teaching, writing, and designing health education materials, health status surveys, instructional and motivational materials. She has taught at the college level, worked in the health insurance industry, private hospital and government agencies. She has a B.S. in Human Nutrition, an M.A.in Management and is a graduate of the UCLA lactation program, and an ACE certified fitness instructor since 1990.

Kenneth Kudrak, MS, MA

Ken Kudrak is an expert in healthcare data analysis, working with large claims databases performing actuarial and healthcare-related modeling and analyses. His background includes scientific research and education, including working as a college professor. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Geology and Mathematics from Indiana University, a Master’s degree in Biometry and Statistics from Cornell University, a Master’s degree in Biology from the University of California-Santa Barbara, and has completed doctoral work in mathematical modeling, avian behavioral ecology, and evolutionary ecology. Ken has also completed four exams toward completion of the requirements for attaining Associate of the Society of Actuaries credentials.

Kate Hall, ASA MAAA

Kate Hall is a healthcare actuary with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She has served as both a consultant to providers and health plans as well as working in pricing, underwriting and marketing at large insurers. Her varied experience includes predictive modeling applications, disease management evaluation, small group pricing and underwriting, marketing and reporting. She has a BS in Actuarial Science from the University of Connecticut and is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Emily Li

Emily Li is a healthcare analyst working in the areas of predictive modeling, disease management, pricing, and program evaluation. Prior to joining Solucia, she worked as a healthcare analyst at the Yale Medical Center and worked on projects sponsored by the World Bank, Pfizer Inc, Hope Foundation, etc. She graduated from the School of Medicine at West China University of Medical Sciences in China and recently graduated from Yale University School of Public Health and Epidemiology with a Masters in Public Health.

Nancy Moses

Nancy Moses provides a broad range of administrative services as the company’s office manager. Nancy’s experience includes 11 years in the telecommunications industry working in marketing and product management and several years in a corporate library. She has a Master’s Degree in International Business from Sacred Heart University and a BA in English from the University of Connecticut.

James Nestor

Jim Nestor has been involved in various healthcare endeavors for more than 24 years; initially as a scientist and engineer engaged in the research and development of disposable products for critical and cardiac care medicine, and more recently as an entrepreneur and executive engaged in the creation and provision of trans-telephonic medical services for the chronically ill. Prior to joining Solucia, he was co-founder and senior executive of Cardium Health Services, an early provider of disease management programs. Jim was awarded an A&S bachelor’s degree from St. Louis University and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Maryland.

Mary Ellen O'Donnell

Mary Ellen O’Donnell has more than 20 years of experience as a healthcare executive in the care, disease and wellness management fields. She has worked extensively with health plans and large employers on program development, strategic planning, opportunity analysis, program evaluation, and marketing. Her experience includes work with healthcare accrediting agencies on standards development and with health plans on accreditation preparation and compliance.

Manjula Singh, PhD

Manjula Singh specializes in the Solucia predictive modeling applications. She has extensive experience with quantitative analysis and predictive modeling in various domains, including Credit Card Risk and Health Services research. Her prior experience includes working for American Express, AT&T and The World Bank. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University.

Julie Flahive

Julie is a data manager whose experience includes managing data and conducting analyses of healthcare claims. She has also taught mathematics and statistics at the high school and college levels. Julie has a Master’s in Public Health with a focus in Biostatistics and a Master’s in Statistics, both from UMASS.

Consultants

Henry G. Dove, PhD

Consultant to health maintenance organizations, group practices, hospices, and health benefits consultants, and health information consulting firms. Provision of technical advice and analyses of patient classification systems, physician incentive and reimbursement strategies, and severity adjustment to analyze the cost, utilization and quality of health care. Patient classification systems frequently used include Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), Refined DRGs, Episode Treatment Groups (ETGs), Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACGs), Clinical Risk Groups (CRGs), and the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS). Consulting engagements frequently require knowledge of risk-adjustment and predictive modeling methodologies, ICD-9-CM and CPT-4 coding systems, claims data, data analysis, clinical epidemiology, and financial modeling.

Jaan Sidorov M.D.

Dr. Sidorov is a health care consultant with over 20 years experience in primary care, disease management and population based care coordination. He was previously a medical director for Geisinger Health Plan, where he led the development of its innovative and widely regarded disease management programs. Dr. Sidorov has numerous peer-reviewed publications, two of which were named as “Best Article” by DMAA and one of which was listed as “most read” by the prestigious health policy journal Health Affairs. He had been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, as well as Managed Care and the Disease Management Advisor. He received his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and did his internship and residency at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Dan Anderson

Dan Anderson provides financial and business analysis support on product development and managed care operations. Dan has more than 30 years experience in the insurance industry including positions as Group Insurance Actuary at Aetna Canada and at Canada Life. Dan has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of Manitoba.

Sheryl Coughlin, PhD

Sheryl Coughlin is an experienced health services researcher. Originally trained in occupational therapy, she has worked in health services policy and research in a number of countries. Her prior clients include Dept. of Health and Community Services, Melbourne Australia, the Health and Welfare Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong, the government of Victoria, Australia, and other providers of health care services. Her research interests include wellness and worksite health, and she collaborated with Ian Duncan on the forthcoming book: "An introduction to care management interventions and their implications for actuaries."

Thomas Messer, PhD ASA MAAA

Tom Messer has a number of years experience in actuarial pricing, rating and analysis with different health plans, including Director of Actuarial Services for Health Net Northeast, responsible for the tri-state area. He holds a PhD in mathematics from Duke University.

Kevin Gabriel, MBA FSA MAAA

20 years of experience in pricing, underwriting and risk-management for healthcare providers, insurers and reinsurers. He is a former chief actuary of a predictive modeling company, and has performed numerous financial projections and reconciliations for a disease management providers and purchasers.

Rebecca Owen, FSA MAAA

Rebecca Owen has over 12 years of health actuarial experience. Most recently she was the actuary responsible for the Medicare line of business at Highmark, Inc. She has participated in a number of disease management program evaluations. Her expertise includes medical cost trend analysis and predictive modeling.

Suzanne Rives, R.N., MSW

Twenty years of medical management experience with local and national health plans and integrated delivery systems. This experience includes program operations and strategic design evaluation; development and enhancement of program performance and results; managed care and care management training to improve efficiency and effectiveness; and external accreditation program evaluation and readiness to achieve compliance. Experience also includes business development, marketing support and project management.