Leadership

As president, Brendan is responsible for the health plan’s overall performance. Before joining HealthTeam Advantage in September 2015, Brendan worked at a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan for more than 24 years in various leadership roles; he has extensive experience in compliance, and internal audit and claims.

In addition to his more than 28 years of healthcare leadership experience, Brendan holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Florida and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Brendan also holds the Certified Internal Auditor® designation.

Brendan and his wife Lori are active in the community volunteering at Ronald McDonald House and St. Benedict Catholic Church, where Brendan serves on the finance council. Brendan and Lori also enjoy the outdoors and traveling and have a desire to visit all the national parks!

Trish is the vice president of accounting and finance. In addition to being responsible for all aspects of the company’s financial operations, budgeting and strategies, Trish also oversees the information technology, data analytics, and revenue program management functions. She joined the organization in 2017 as the controller before moving into her current role.

Trish began her career in public accounting at Ernst & Young, LLP, specializing in the healthcare sector in New York, where she was responsible for managing audits for large hospital systems such as New York Presbyterian. After seven years at Ernst & Young, LLP, Trish moved into private industry in the role of controller at June Media, Inc. rising to chief financial officer and vice president of operations over a 10-year tenure.

Outside of the office, Trish is an active volunteer with several animal rescue organizations. She serves as treasurer to two charities, including the Declan Donoghue Foundation (run by her family), which is dedicated to building playgrounds in communities here in the Triad.

As the vice president of pharmacy operations and quality programs, Deanna provides oversight to the pharmacy and quality programs. She’s an accomplished, mission and strategy-driven senior executive and licensed pharmacist with 16 years of comprehensive management experience in managed care, pharmacy benefit, clinical and retail environments, with expertise in Medicare Part D plans, Medicare quality programs, medication therapy management programs, and cost-effective formulary development.

Prior to joining HealthTeam Advantage in 2016, Deanna was the first financial clinical pharmacist at EnvisionRX Options where she helped develop and enhance pharmacy benefit management services for more than five million members across a variety of functions, including Medicare Part D, fraud, waste, and abuse, trend analysis, and cost reporting, and accreditation. Within one year, she was promoted to director operations for the national Part D plan where she oversaw all pharmacy benefit management activities, medication therapy management programs, compliance monitoring, formulary development, grievances, coverage determinations and appeals. In this newly created position, she was responsible for establishing the first pharmacy benefit management oversight department.

Deanna started her health plan career at Mercy Health Plans, Inc., a regional provider-owned insurance company in Missouri. As the clinical pharmacist and then clinical pharmacy manager, she helped effectively manage pharmacy and medical prescription medication spends for members across Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. She also provided technical expertise for all areas of pharmacy across education, quality improvement and multi-faceted cost containment initiatives, and coordinated with sales, marketing, and finance to develop and deploy strategic pharmacy benefit designs for commercial and Medicare lines of businesses.

Deanna has pharmacy experience in hospital, retail, and long-term care settings.

When she isn’t working, Deanna spends her time walking/jogging on the Greensboro Greenway, baking, watching sports with her husband Tom, and playing with their puppy Diego.

Joleen serves as the vice president of operations; she’s responsible for member services, enrollment, provider relations, claims, appeals, and grievances.

She’s considered a subject matter expert on Medicare operations with more than 20 years’ experience in Medicare managed care, Medicare regulations, benefits, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Prior to joining HealthTeam Advantage, Joleen served as the director of operations at Evolent Health, for all health plans managed within the payer services and operations department, the director of government programs at AIM Specialty Health, a WellPoint Company, as well as the corporate director of operations for Fidelis Senior Care, a Medicare Special Needs Institutional Plan. Joleen has also held management positions at PwC, HealthSpring, United Healthcare, and Humana.

Outside the office, you can find Joleen reading historical fiction, crocheting, or traveling though the United States. One of Joleen’s goals is to visit every state in America! At last count, she only has eight more states to visit.

Though born and raised in Chicago, Joleen enjoys the Triad area and everything the state has to offer, like being close to the beach and the mountains—a big change from the Midwest!

Nancy is the vice president of utilization management; she’s responsible for the overall compliance of the delegated utilization management (UM) programs for the health plan, to include referral management, telephonic utilization review, prior authorization functions and care management. She ensures the delegated UM programs emphasize the appropriate admissions and concurrent and retrospective reviews of care based upon the health plan benefit guidelines and medical necessity while ensuring high quality and cost-efficient medical outcomes for our members. She’s also responsible for ensuring Part C health plan regulatory compliance requirements are met, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Advantage Program and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

Nancy brings more than 30 years’ experience working in the healthcare industry both in provider and health plan leadership roles. She spent 10 years with GE Healthcare Financial Services traveling the United States assisting healthcare organizations achieve improvements in patient care, cost and workflow efficiencies, and regulatory compliance and financial stability. She also spent five years in the Dallas market where she led a team of 72 primary care clinics and 250 specialists in achieving NCQA Medical Home accreditation and implemented one of the first Medicare Advantage health plans in the market.

Nancy obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a master’s degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She’s a licensed registered nurse in South Carolina and New York. Nancy has been published in Senior Living Business, Long-Term Care Management and Long-Term Living. She has presented at national conferences including American Medical Group Association (AMGA) Fall Symposium, National Investment Council Skilled Nursing Forum and Catholic Health East.

Nancy and her husband are avid outdoorsmen enjoying hiking, fishing, equestrian trail rides, and golf.

Thomas is the vice president and chief compliance and privacy officer. He’s responsible for all aspects of the company’s compliance and privacy activities, including the compliance program, required education and training of staff and members of the board of directors, regulatory requirements issued by state and federal agencies, and contracting and vendor oversight.

Prior to joining HTA, Thomas served as the Medicare compliance officer at CareSource, where he oversaw all compliance aspects for the Medicare Advantage, dual eligible, and the Affordable Care Act products. Previously, Thomas served in several progressively responsible roles for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida primarily focused on regulatory oversight for Medicare Advantage products.

Thomas has an extensive compliance and regulatory background that spans nearly 20 years in the Medicare Advantage industry. He also served as the director of marketing for an assisted living and skilled nursing facility, and area coordinator for the American Cancer Society.

Thomas holds degrees in history and Spanish from Flagler College, a master’s in public administration from Florida International University, a master’s in health administration from the University of Florida, and a Doctor of Philosophy in public policy and administration from Mississippi State University.

Thomas enjoys spending his free time traveling with his wife Vicki, watching football, jogging, and playing with their four-legged daughter, Gracie. Gracie likes playing at Le Bauer Park with her buddies.

Steve is the chief medical officer. He’s responsible for providing clinical expertise for medical, care, and utilization management programs, as well as quality improvement, to make sure we provide high-quality, responsive care to our members. Steve has been with the company since 2018 in utilization management roles.

During his career, Steve has worked in a variety of clinical and management positions, including the development of hospitalist and skilled nursing facility practices. He has facilitated the launch of hospices, Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), special needs plans (dual, chronic, and institutional), home health care companies, and other programs at the hospital/post-hospital interface. His particular interest has focused on applications of frailty metrics in elderly populations. This led to his clinical research with Dalhousie University and consulting with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contractors in the area of independent review of utilization and quality in Medicare post-acute programs.

Steve lives in upstate New York, where he maintains a small geriatric medical practice.

Steve received his medical degree from Northwestern University and completed family medicine residency and geriatric medicine fellowship programs at the University of Minnesota and the State University of New York. He completed the Physician Leadership Academy program through the University of California at San Francisco.

As the director, human resources, Erin is responsible for all human resources and facility functions. It’s her job to ensure HealthTeam Advantage is an employer of choice with an engaged workforce that provides exceptional service to our members.

Erin has more than 15 years’ experience in management and human resources, and has a background in customer service, and employee and leadership development. She began her career in customer service with Entertainment Cruises, where she rose to become its compensation and benefits manager. She’s also worked for several global organizations, including Mitsubishi Electric Automation and International Paper.

Erin earned her Master of Business Administration in Human Resources Management from Keller Graduate School of Management and holds her Professional in Human Resources Certification from the HR Certification Institute.

Erin enjoys running and she and her family participate in several local runs, like the Triad GO FAR 5K & Fun Run. Usually you can find her training with her husband in their High Point neighborhood.

As director of sales and marketing, John is responsible for all sales distribution channels through external and internal licensed agents. He maintains relationships with our Field Marketing Organizations (FMOs). John also oversees marketing to prospective members.

Before joining HealthTeam Advantage, John worked as the senior vice president of sales and marketing for a national Field Marketing Organization. John has more than 15 years’ experience in insurance sales and marketing, mostly with Medicare and ACA products.

John has many interests outside of the office, these include golf, fitness, and spending time with family. He says there is nothing better than a long weekend at the beach with his family. John is a lifelong resident of the Triad and enjoys the four seasons and proximity to the beach and mountains.