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Principals
J. Michael Degnan
Michael Degnan has extensive senior management experience in the private and public sectors, specializing in the management of joint venture healthcare organizations.
In 1983 Michael co-founded and currently serves as President of Helms & Company, Inc., a healthcare management and consulting company, where he has primary responsibility for financial and operational management of the firm. Within Helms & Company, Michael serves as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Health Plan (NHHP), New Hampshire Imaging Services, Inc. (NHIS) and New Hampshire Lithotripter Center, Inc. (NHLC).
• NHHP is the state high-risk pool, established to provide health insurance coverage to NH residents who have been declined coverage by the private market; have a pre-qualifying condition or are otherwise ineligible for health insurance. NHHP was created to be the insurance of last resort for NH residents. Michael assumed the Executive Director role for NHHP in July 2007.
• NHIS provides the latest mobile imaging technology to 15 institutions in New Hampshire and Vermont. Michael has been Executive Director of NHIS since its inception in 1987. In 2006, NHIS performed over 32,000 MRI scans and over 1,900 PET scans. NHIS is the largest consortium of its kind in the United States.
• NHLC provides mobile Lithotripsy services to 22 institutions in New Hampshire and Maine. Michael has been Executive Director of NHIS since its inception in 1986. In 2006, NHLC performed over 1,100 Lithotripsy procedures.
From 1990, until its acquisition by Wellpoint in October 2006, Michael was Chief Executive Officer of the Behavioral Health Network, Inc. (BHN), a for profit, provider-owned corporation, providing mental health and substance abuse services throughout northern New England. Stockholders included four acute care community hospitals and nine Community Mental Health Centers. As CEO of the Behavioral Health Network, Inc., Michael had primary responsibility for day-to-day operations including Board Governance, Contract Management, Customer Service, Network Management, Claims Management, Utilization Management, Case Management, and Quality Management. In 2005, BHN served over 580,000 lives in full risk, ASO and EAP contracts, earning revenue of over $23.5M.
Michael’s other accomplishments in the healthcare field include an 18 month term as interim CEO for a small rural hospital; implementation of inpatient psychiatric units at two New Hampshire hospitals and one Vermont hospital; transition of New Hampshire Psychiatric Hospital into a new facility, and development of numerous Certificates of Need in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. From 1979 through 1983, Michael served as Director of Management Information Systems and Assistant to the Commissioner of the NH Department of Health and Human Services.
Michael has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration.
November 2008
Jeffrey G. White, FACHE
Jeffrey White began his career in healthcare management in 1967 as Assistant Personnel Director at Maine Medical Center, Portland and served as President of Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New Hampshire prior to joining Helms in 1992.
White has also held senior management positions at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire and Mid-Maine Medical Center, Waterville, Maine, where he was actively involved in the successful merger of two community hospitals. Also, he was the Administrator of Regional Memorial Hospital in Brunswick, Maine and Assistant Administrator at Maine Medical Center.
From August 2001 to April 2002 White served as interim Executive Director at Hillcrest Terrace/Pearl Manor, a retirement community/assisted living facility/nursing home, located in Manchester, NH. In July 2002, he was appointed interim President & CEO of New London (NH) Hospital and served in this role through March 2003. During his tenure, a financial turnaround plan was developed and adopted by the Hospital’s Board, a multiyear management services contract with Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital/The Hitchcock Clinic was agreed upon, and NLH achieved designation as a Critical Access Hospital. Beginning in February 2006, White was appointed as interim CEO at Copley Hospital, Morrisville, VT and is expected to continue in that role into the fall of the year.
He has served in leadership roles in a number of civic and professional organizations, including President of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the United Way of the Greater Seacoast and Chairman of the 1993 Community Campaign, and a member of the Board of Directors of RiverWoods At Exeter (a congregate care retirement community) from 2000-2003. Currently, he is a member of the School of Health and Human Services Leadership Council at the University of New Hampshire. A recertified Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), White was Regent for New Hampshire from 1988-92 and currently serves as a member of the Healthcare Consultants Committee. His biographical profile is included in Marquis Who’s Who in America.
He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Bowdoin College (A.B., 1966) and a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A., 1985) from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire.
June 2006
Deborah J. White
Deborah White has extensive private and public sector experience in the fields of marketing and healthcare, including market research, market planning, advertising, communications, strategic planning, health planning, and administration.
As Senior Consultant & Principal with Helms & Company, Inc., Deborah has conducted a wide array of market research studies and developed market strategies for hospitals, health providers, retirement centers, nursing homes, foundations and human service organizations. Most recently, she has also developed collateral materials, press releases, and newsletters for a healthcare construction company.
Market studies conducted by Deborah have encompassed many topics, including image, awareness and market share, as well as new product tests for a variety of health issues, including emergency health, behavioral health, alcohol and drug abuse, oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, women’s health, assisted living, and primary care, among others. They have included secondary research, focus groups, personal interviews, and quantitative market research.
Deborah is also well known for her considerable experience in Community Needs Assessments throughout Northern New England. Needs Assessments have included demographic and health status data analysis, focus group research, quantitative telephone surveys, health service inventories, and communication of findings to Hospital Boards of Directors, the public, and providers. She is the author of a manual entitled A Community Development Approach to Community Needs Assessment, funded under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Prior to joining Helms & Company, Deborah served as an Associate in a marketing research firm and as Account Executive in an advertising agency. Her responsibilities included market research, participation in creative advertising and communications strategy development, and client account liaison. In the State of NH Health Planning Agency, she conducted market demand studies covering an extensive variety of health services provided by hospitals and nursing homes.
Additionally, Deborah was Administrator of a non-profit statewide maternal and child health program and the WIC nutrition program. She has experience in community development and outreach programs for early childhood education and juvenile delinquency prevention.
Deborah has served as a volunteer Director of various health planning and community health organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Business Administration from the Whittemore School of Business, University of New Hampshire.
June 2005
Kevin C. Stone
Kevin Stone has extensive experience in physician group practice, practice management, and managed care contracting.
Prior to joining Helms & Company, Kevin served in a variety of roles for the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center organizations, including Chief Operating Officer of its Southern NH Region and Executive Director of Managed Care and Contracting, during which time he supported the sale of the Matthew Thornton Health Plan to NH Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Kevin managed the Hitchcock Clinic’s southern region from inception to 1997, during which time it grew to over 250 physicians and annual operating revenue of $150 million. During his tenure, he oversaw the construction and renovation of over 200,000 square feet of clinical space, supported development of hospital-physician joint operating agreements, and developed managed care support systems including a data warehouse and reporting system, a provider contracting function, and an NCQA compliant utilization management service.
Kevin also helped develop physician hospital joint ventures in the southern United States for a national hospital management company that included successfully merging private practices into a single group practice.
At Helms & Company, Kevin’s consulting practice emphasizes physician practice development and management support for both hospital owned and private practice structures. His work also includes managing a six (6) agency home health and hospice consortium, a shared imaging service among hospitals and physicians, and supporting providers with their 3rd party payer relationships. Kevin has planned and facilitated numerous board strategic retreats for various organizations.
Kevin has published articles in the Journal of The American Medical Association, Family Medicine, and Medical Decision Making and has made numerous presentations on healthcare topics at local and national forums. Kevin has lectured at the University of New Hampshire, the National Institutes of Health, and at the University of Vermont and Dartmouth Medical Schools.
Kevin has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
June 2005
Roland P. Lamy, Jr.
Roland Lamy has held a variety of leadership positions in the healthcare industry including sales management, underwriting, employee benefit and rate development, hospital and physician negotiations and contracting, and government programs.
Prior to joining Helms & Company, Roland served as the Assistant Director of Health Planning and Medicaid for the State of New Hampshire, Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, he was responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and deficit reduction strategies for the Medicaid program.
Roland has spent much of his career in leadership roles with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire and, subsequently, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Most recently, Roland was Executive Director of Provider Network Management for Anthem, with responsibility for a $500 million dollar healthcare budget and a $10 million administrative budget.
As a member of the Anthem Executive Team, Roland led several work teams to refine operations, following the Blue Cross and Blue Shield acquisition. With his extensive experience in healthcare operations, Roland was also instrumental in the merger between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire and Matthew Thornton Health Plan.
In addition to his work with the hospital and physician community, Roland also has extensive sales and underwriting experience as a licensed NH Producer, he has worked with large employers on the design and negotiation of healthcare benefits, and has assisted manufacturers, unions, and government agencies to achieve optimum use of their healthcare dollar.
At Helms & Company, Roland has provided clients with expertise in provider contract negotiations, hospital labor benchmarking and operational assessments, physician practice management, physician practice evaluations, payer strategies on new technology and new clinical programs, and evaluation of commercial insurance options for employers and government agencies. He has also served as Executive Director for a newly formed behavioral health association, providing consultation and management services in organizational development, key communication strategies, and financial management for the association.
Roland has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Bloomsburg University and a Masters in Business Administration from New Hampshire College. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of New Hampshire Healthy Kids.
February 2004
Associates
Carrie M. Bosela
Carrie is a Senior Healthcare Consultant with Helms & Company. Prior to joining, she also consulted for Healthcare Dynamics, Inc. in New Hampshire, Comprehensive Healthcare Solutions in Vermont and Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker. Prior to that, Carrie started her own LLC for cardiac consulting in a five-state area in and around Ohio. Her LLC focused primarily on starting new, freestanding or hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation centers and process improvement of cardiology practices. Carrie gained her experience with a cardiology group in Mid-Ohio when she was hired as part of an administrative team to build a city clinic to serve as leaders in disease prevention and care of chronic disease.
Carrie teaches AAPC coding classes for DHMC, through Lebanon College. Carrie has also been an adult educator for vocational schools, an ACLS instructor, and “certification” consultant for numerous Cardiac Rehabilitation Centers.
Carrie’s experience includes:
• Practice Development/Process Improvement: Carrie has had numerous engagements with small and large primary care and multi-specialty practices in which she has employed best practice standards from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to assess and enhance clinical and administrative operations. She also has an interest in helping practices implement group visits to improve efficiency and clinical outcomes, and implementation of advanced access initiatives in physician practices. She conducts work flow analysis and is able to give constructive feedback on how the practice can perform better to meet their chosen outcomes. Carrie will also suggest outcomes for practices to ensure they have key performance indicators to assess their own successes and help them address their opportunities for improvement.
• Coding and Compliance: Carrie, a Certified Professional Coder, consults with physician offices and hospitals for coding and compliance issues. In addition to conducting coding and compliance audits, she provides educational sessions to staff to help them understand current coding and compliance regulations.
• Revenue Cycle Enhancement: Carrie reviews the entire revenue cycle for clients to maximize charge capture and ensure proper reimbursement. Carrie has been part of the development or improvement of central billing offices. Carrie has reviewed billing services for several clients to validate key indicators for their services.
• Practice Management(PMS) and Electronic Medical Records(EMR) selection and implementation: Carrie has implemented NextGen, A-4/All-Scripts, Misys, AthenaNet, eClinicalworks, Practice Partners. Carrie also worked with developers for a non public EHR company. She opened an over sees billing company for the company, did workflow analysis for Alpha/Beta sites across the US and consulted with the developers on software functionality needs to build their product for public sale.
• Presentations: Carrie has presented to community and medical audiences on multiple disease prevention issues and the lifestyle change process necessary to reduce disease risk factors. Carrie was also responsible for and presented results of the Northern New England Compensation and Productivity report to various administrative and clinical audiences. She has also conducted presentations on IHI group visit theories for chronic disease management and access improvement for area professional groups. She also gives numerous presentations on coding topics, such as E & M, incident to billing and specialty practice charge capture.
• HIPAA: Carrie served on the NHVSHIP privacy committee, which is an active leader in creating policies and procedures for covered entities to meet HIPAA guidelines. Carrie also consults on privacy issues related to HIPAA in the physician practice and hospital setting.
August 2007
Betsy Nicoletti
Betsy Nicoletti has over 15 years experience in physician practice management, having
worked with both private practices and hospital owned practices, primary care doctors
and specialists. Betsy started her consulting work in 1999. She is a Certified Professional
Coder.
Betsy is an informative and humorous public speaker. She speaks locally and nationally
on coding and documentation, A/R management, marketing and improving efficiency.
Betsy was the Chief Operating Officer of Network Management Services in Springfield,
Vermont for nine years. During that time, she was responsible for physician practice
operations in the network and the operations of the MSO administrative service functions.
She set up a centralized billing and information system that served over 20 practices
and 60 physicians. She organized the management services and was responsible for
operational systems including personnel, regulatory compliance, budgeting, and planning.
Some of the projects Betsy directed included: organizing a quality improvement project
to decrease the time that charts were unavailable, developing a marketing plan for
a 25 physician primary care group, and developing and executing a physician expansion
plan. She is experienced in Accounts Receivable management and revenue enhancement
and coding analysis.
Betsy has worked with private practices to help them to improve their financial
performance and operations and develop practice-building plans. She helped organize
and direct practice expansions, adding doctors and mid-levels providers and expanding
into new space.
She also set up a Third Party Administrator, Enterprise Benefit Management, for
BC/BS of Vermont. At EBM, she worked with employers and brokers in the area of health
care self-funding, administration and medical plan design. She has served on the
boards of the community mental health center and the Vermont Center for the Book.
Betsy received her BA from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Social
Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She also holds an MS in Management from
Antioch New England College.
February 2004
Chris E. Parkinson
Christopher Parkinson has more than twenty-five years of financial management experience with health insurance and health maintenance organizations. His diverse financial expertise includes financial management, business plan development, budgeting, strategic planning, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions.
Joining Helms & Company in 2001, Mr. Parkinson has entered into service contracts serving as Vice President of a New England Insurance Agency, Administrator of a Physicians Practice, and has also provided consulting services to insurance companies, numerous healthcare related projects and ventures.
Prior to joining Helms & Company, Christopher was a Vice President with Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc., one of the nation’s leading health plans, a Fortune 500 company. For eleven years, he served as the CFO of New Hampshire’s largest health plan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire and also served as Treasurer for several of the Plan’s subsidiaries.
Christopher played a significant leadership role in the process which culminated in the acquisition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire by Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. in October of 1999. He also directed the financial activities in the acquisition of Matthew Thornton Health Plan by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Hampshire in November of 1997. This included the financing of the transaction through the placement of $33 million in surplus notes.
Christopher has also been involved in other large transactions. He managed the acquisition and fit-up of the home office facility in Manchester, New Hampshire. In addition, he directed the sale of the former home office property including the process for removing all asbestos materials from the property.
Demonstrating a commitment to community service, Christopher has served in several leadership positions. These include Treasurer of the Merrimack United Way, Treasurer of Employment Connection Specialists, Treasurer of the NE Chapter of the Financial Executives Institute, President of the Bow Rotary Club, Chairman of the Bow School Board, and member of the Bow High School Building Committee. Mr. Parkinson is also currently on the Board of Directors for the Concord Regional Visiting Nurses Association and is the Chair of Amigos De Honduras, a Rotary Group, that has led four missions to Honduras over the past four years.
Christopher has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the College of New Jersey and a Masters in Business Administration from Northeastern University. He has also passed all parts of the CPA examination.
June 2005
Cindra L. Wallin, RN, MBA
Cindra L. Wallin has over nineteen years experience in senior level healthcare management. Prior to joining Helms & Company, Cindra served as Director of Patient Care Services for Springfield Hospital, and concurrently Chief Operating Officer for Springfield Medical Laboratory, an independent for-profit clinical laboratory. Cindra was responsible for all aspects of operational systems, including computerizing financial and clinical systems, human resource management, compliance, and strategic planning. During her tenure, SML grew in total assets from $400,000 to $2.5 million.
As Director of Patient Care Services, she provided leadership to all clinical areas of the Hospital including nursing, ancillary services, quality care and community outreach programs. During her tenure at the Hospital, Cindra oversaw the expansion of behavioral health services, which included a CON to increase bed capacity and create an outpatient continuum of care. She was instrumental in the RFP process and implementation of the electronic bedside documentation system throughout the Hospital. Cindra was also responsible for the operational components of three major renovation projects.
Working as a Senior Consultant for Helms & Co., Cindra served as the Interim Vice President of Patient Care Services for New London Hospital, NH for fourteen months. During this time, she provided day-to-day operational leadership and together with the Helms team developed a financial turnaround plan that included a multiyear collaborative relationship with Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital/The Hitchcock Clinic. By the end of the interim term, New London hospital had a positive operating margin for the first time in four years.
Recently Cindra has also provided executive nursing interim management, labor benchmarking, operational diagnostics and several CAH readiness surveys for rural hospitals in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and operational surveys for physician practices.
She has a Diploma in Nursing from St. Luke’s Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, a BSN from Castleton State College and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Plymouth State College. Cindra is also certified by ANCC in Nursing Administration. She has held offices and appointments with Vermont Organization of Nurse Leaders and Northeast Healthcare Quality Foundation and provided educational seminars for hospitals and HFMA.
June 2005
Philip R. Boulter, MD, FACE
Dr. Philip Boulter is a health care consultant and recently retired as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Tufts Health Plan, a nationally recognized New England Health Plan. While at Tufts Health Plan Dr. Boulter’s responsibilities included strategic planning, care management, quality assurance, and clinical services. In addition, Dr. Boulter has served as founder and president of the Alliance for Healthcare Improvement, a consortium of non-profit health plans in Massachusetts collaborating on quality initiatives. He served on the board of the Massachusetts Health Quality Partnerships, has chaired the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) sub-committee on Patient Safety, and has served on a number of advisory commissions including the Northeast Advisory Board, the Advisory group on the future of clinical research, and the executive committee of the managed care/public health partnership taskforce. Prior to joining Tufts Health Plan, Dr. Boulter served in leadership positions in a large multi-specialty group practice. As medical director of the Dartmouth- Hitchcock Clinic Concord division, he was responsible for incorporating managed care principles into clinical practice and served as regional medical director for Mathew Thornton Health Plan. Dr. Boulter presently serves as medical director of the Tufts Health Care Institute of Tufts University school of Medicine.
Dr. Boulter is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Endocrinology. Dr. Boulter is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is a member of the American College of Physician Executives and Fellow of the American College of Clinical Endocrinology. Dr. Boulter also served as a physician executive mentor in the Executive Leadership Program of the AHIP. He has been a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; the Heller School’s MBA program at Brandies University; and the Tufts University Medical School’s M.D./MBA program. He is a faculty member of the Health Services Research Fellowship program at New England Medical Center. Dr. Boulter is the author of a number of publications as well as a frequent lecturer on issues of healthcare policy and physician leadership.
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