Capabilities & Team

Reward Health includes Dr. Ward and a team of talented consultants with a successful track record in strategy, analysis and information technology projects.  Reward Health is capable of assisting clients in:

  • Strategy Development
    • Clinical IT and Analytics
    • Establishing Clinical Integrated Networks (CINs) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
    • Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH)
  • Support for the negotiation of contracts
    • Payer-provider network participation agreements.
    • Risk contracts (Value-based contracts)
    • Provider affiliation agreements
  • Data Analysis, Modeling and Simulation
    • Network and population structure (Who are our providers and patients? What are the key referral relationships?)
    • Provider performance (With whom shall we partner, based on quality, use, cost, and access?  Which providers require our attention? What metrics can be used as a basis for equitable gain sharing?)
    • Opportunity analysis (Which conditions should we target?  Which IT and process investments should we prioritize?)
    • Program evaluation and ROI analysis (Were our prior investments in IT and care management worthwhile?)
  • Care Process Innovation
    • Improving clinical decision making processes through guidelines and protocols for diseases, services & transitions
      Improving care delivery processes through Lean, Six Sigma, CQI and clinical process management
  • Health Information Technology
    • Vendor selection & implementation support for EHRs, registries, and clinical process management systems
    • Facilitating development of health information exchanges (HIE)
    • Creating an analytic data repository, enterprise data warehouse, or business intelligence platform

Richard E. Ward, MD, MBA

Dr. Ward received MD and MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.  He led a team of 420 people for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as VP of Clinical Programs and Medical Informatics.  This team developed a performance-based reimbursement program involving more than 100 physician organizations and an annual payout of more than $60M.  It also developed the nation’s largest Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program, an innovative provider-based care management program, and established sophisticated epidemiology, biostatistics and medical informatics capabilities.   Prior to joining Blue Cross, Dr. Ward served as:

  • CEO for Reward Health Sciences, a consultancy serving physician organizations, hospitals and health plans
  • Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Anceta, a subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association that created a national analytic data warehouse
  • VP & General Manager for Oceania, a developer of EMR technology selected by Kaiser Permanente and US Dept of Defense
  • Director of the Center for Clinical Effectiveness and Chief of Medical Informatics for the Henry Ford Health System

Dr. Ward has been granted 3 US patents for health information technology, published 27 scientific papers and 6 book chapters, and given numerous invited lectures in university and business settings. This base of education and experience allows Dr. Ward to serve as a bridge linking clinical, business and technology fields as needed to develop analytic innovations and create successful Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

Brian Lawton

As Chief Technology and Security Officer, Mr. Lawton is responsible for developing and managing a secure cloud environment for Reward Health databases and web applications.  Mr. Lawton has previously served as a technical writer for Microsoft, Contributing Editor for SQL Server Magazine, Principal Architect of the NASDAQ billing information system, Enterprise Architect for MedStar Health System, Architect and Project Manager for Carroll Hospital, and Analytics Platform Developer for Discovery Logic.  Mr. Lawton earned a M.S. in Software Engineering from Loyola College in Maryland, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Mark Muller

Mr. Muller leads Informatics for Reward Health, designing and developing analytic innovations.  He has over 30 years of experience in informatics leadership, including analytic database development, data analysis and reporting, financial analysis, and design and implementation of complex applications.   He has previously served as Director of Medical Informatics at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Founder and President of MJM Technologies, Inc., Senior Programmer/Analyst at the Center for Clinical Effectiveness at Henry Ford Health System, and as Senior Financial Systems Analyst in the Financial Analysis Department at Henry Ford Health System.  Mark earned his MBA in Finance and Management Information Systems at University of Michigan.

Edmund Billings, MD

Dr. Billings leads Business Development for Reward Health.  He has over 30 years of experience in healthcare information technology, product management and market validation.  He was the founder and Vice President for Product at Oceania, an electronic medical records developer.  He has also served as Vice President and Associated Chief Medical Officer for Athenahealth, and as Chief Medical Officer for Medsphere Systems, and Founder of Voice of the Physician.

Ponraj Sivasubramanian

Mr. Sivasubramanian is a reporting application developer for Reward Health.  He has over 20 years of experience in the development of analytic databases and associated web applications for business, research and regulatory purposes, focused primarily on health care and biosciences.  He previously served as Manager, Information Technology for Erofins Medinet, Software Developer for Megasoft Consultants, and as a Tableau Developer for StempTech and AMGA Analytics.  He earned an MCA in 2000 from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India and a B.Sc. (Computer Science) in 1997 from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Richard Stempniewicz

An accomplished Executive Manager of Information Technology with special expertise in creating secure health databases to support both health care operations and advanced analytics, Mr. Stempniewicz has  over 25 years of experience directing and implementing technology initiatives balancing profitability with measured, strategic investments in information systems and process automation.   Since 2001, Mr. Stempniewicz has managed an independent consultancy providing program management, enterprise architecture, software development, database integration, data warehousing  and data analysis to a variety of commercial and government clients.  Starting in 2005, Mr. Stempniewicz held the position of Global Head and Vice President of Information Technology for Eurofins Medinet, Incorporated where he was responsible for the operational management of information technology infrastructure, data management, and software development supporting a global central laboratory providing clinical trial testing to fortune 100 pharmaceutical corporations and small to mid-sized bio-tech companies.   In 2008, Mr. Stempniewicz returned to consulting.  Recent engagements include providing data analytic services to large physician multispecialty group practices for AMGA Analytics and for Anceta LLC, a subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association, and advising the Immune Tolerance Network on restructuring their data management services.

Sandeep Bhat

Mr. Bhat is a result oriented seasoned professional with over 13 years of experience in business consulting and system integration for public services and health care organizations across the US.   Since 2009, Mr. Bhat has consulted with Health Access Solutions, the developer of an integrated care coordination platform that is a subsidiary of the Santa Clara County IPA and a partner of the California Association of Physician Groups.  In this role, Mr. Bhat leads software implementation at Health Access Solutions client sites.  Mr. Bhat has also served as project management advisor to the New York Board of Education and to the Bay Area Regional Mass Transit system on large scale projects involving business process redesign and integration and configuration of software package solutions.   From 2002 to 2009, Mr. Bhat was a consultant at Bearing Point and Deloitte, including information technology consulting for a number of health plans including Blue Shield of California, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (New Jersey), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, WellPoint, and Kaiser Permanente.  Mr. Bhat earned a Bachelor’s degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.  Mr Bhat’s expertise includes program delivery, solution architecture and driving change within client organizations. Mr. Bhat is an accomplished Project/Development Manager having successfully managed full lifecycle implementation of large-scale projects involving packaged solutions as well as custom developed solutions.

David Knapp

Mr. Knapp is a visionary leader with 26 years of demonstrated results as an enterprise change agent for global organizations.  Strategic thinking, hands-on leader with strong business acumen and deep technical expertise.  Accomplished at creating and articulating a compelling, long-range vision and devising innovative solutions to complex problems.  Recognized leader in Business Process Management (BPM) enterprise.  In 2002, Mr. Knapp joined Ford Motor Company as Director of Product Creation Architecture where he developed the foundational concepts and implementation architecture for Ford’s $100m+ Global CAD/PLM solution.  In 2006, Mr. Knapp became Director of Business Process Management (BPM) for Ford Motor Company building enterprise BPM capability and re-engineering the Advanced Sourcing, Engineering Release and Early BOM Development enterprise processes.  In 2009, Mr. Knapp founded Apex Process Consultants LLC, a successful BPM consultancy specializing in process re-engineering and process automation implementation. Recent engagements include development of wellness and care management processes at a large health insurance company in Michigan and corporate tax compliance processes at a big four accounting firm.   Mr. Knapp holds a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Oakland University.

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