Nashville Health Care Council, Sen. Frist Announce New ClassLast month, the  Nashville Health Care Council and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD, announced the 2014 class of the  Council Fellows program. Conducted in cooperation with Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, the 32 senior healthcare leaders in this year’s class will engage in an intensive, interactive curriculum focused on transforming the nation’s healthcare system and those who lead it.The Fellows initiative, which graduated its inaugural class last summer, engages industry leaders in clearly defining healthcare’s greatest challenges and exploring new strategies to meet issues facing the U.S. healthcare system. This year’s class will engage in eight day-long sessions, held between January and June, that leverage the expertise of the industry’s founding experts in Nashville, as well as nationally-known figures and leading academic institutions. The integrated curriculum includes topics ranging from healthcare policy reform, population health management and shifts in reimbursement systems to disruptive innovation in technology, advances in personalized medicine and use of healthcare analytics. Personalized leadership training and a unique immersion component are also hallmarks of the specially-designed curriculum.“This Fellows class includes some of the nation’s strongest healthcare talent and represents a broad spectrum of the industry, incorporating provider, payer, technology, finance, policy and other sectors,” said Frist, who co-directs the nationally-unique initiative with Larry Van Horn, a leading expert in healthcare management and economics, and professor at Owen Graduate School. “Our curriculum, combined with this impressive group of professionals will foster meaningful discussion, and I look forward to working with them as we tackle the complex issues facing healthcare today,” Frist continued.The members of the 2014 Fellows class are:

Elizabeth Bierbower – President, Employer Group Segment, Humana Marty Bonick – Vice President, Operations, Division 1, Community Health Systems Charles Byrge – President & CEO, Harpeth Capital Phil Clark – Vice President, Finance & CFO, EnableComp and Complete Holdings Group Will Clark – Senior Vice President, Strategy & Brand, Brookdale Senior Living Phillip Clendenin – Executive Vice President, Operations, AmSurg John Dreyzehner, MD – Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Health David Duckworth – CFO, Acadia Healthcare Mitch Edgeworth – COO, Vanderbilt University Medical Center David Frederiksen – CEO, PatientFocus Robert Gallagher – Group Regional Operations Director, DaVita Paul Gilbert – Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Governance Officer, LifePoint Hospitals Meaghen Greene – Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Managed Care, American HomePatient Robert Harris – Partner, Waller Daniel Hart – Vice President, Corporate Development, HealthTech Holdings Scott Huebner – President, Operations, Cigna-HealthSpring Angela Humphreys – Member, Bass, Berry & Sims John Maki – Vice President, Regional Sales & Account Management, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Will Morrow – Vice President, Development, HCA Eric Paul – Senior Vice President & Chief Managed Care Officer, IASIS Healthcare J. Edward Pearson – COO & Senior Vice President, HealthStream Rosemary Plorin – President, Lovell Communications Kirk Porter – Senior Vice President, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Ed Powell, PhD – Chairman, eMD Paul Rein – CFO, Sarah Cannon Research Institute David Rogero – Principal, Cressey & Company Tammy Stephens – Senior Vice President, Operations Finance, Healthways Cathy Taylor, DrPh, BSN – Dean, Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing, Belmont University Martha Thorne – General Manager, Allscripts David Vreeland – Partner & Co-founder, Cumberland Consulting Group Michael Wiechart – Senior Vice President & COO, Capella Healthcare Herman Williams, MD – CMO, RegionalCare Hospital Partners

The Fellows initiative is presented in partnership with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Community Health Systems,  HCA, Healthways, LifePoint Hospitals and Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.