Rachael Smith, MHA, RD

Rachael is the 2023 – 2034 DVACO administrative fellow. Having pursued her education at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Rachael obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition. It was during this time that she began to delve deeper into the concept of population health, gaining valuable insights through an internship with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. After completing her undergraduate studies, Rachael embarked on a fulfilling journey as a Registered Dietitian in a Cardiac ICU, where she dedicated 3.5 years to providing specialized care. This experience allowed her to witness firsthand the critical importance of care coordination, equitable healthcare access, elimination of social determinants of health and the impact they can have on improving health outcomes.

Driven by a desire to further contribute to the evolving healthcare landscape, Rachael pursued graduate studies at Pennsylvania State University. It was there that she was introduced to the concepts of value-based care and accountable care organizations. This educational experience broadened her understanding of how healthcare systems can be structured to prioritize outcomes and enhance the overall well-being of individuals and populations. Rachael is now eager to apply her expertise in a role within the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization. She is committed to making a meaningful difference in population health, with a strong focus on value-based care and promoting the highest standards of healthcare delivery

Payton Watt

Current Position: Government Programs Coordinator for Advocate Aurora Health

Payton Watt is the 2022-2023 Administrative Fellow. She earned her B.S. in Biology, Health, and Society with a minor in Community Action and Social Change from the University of Michigan. She co-founded a student organization that aided individuals experiencing homelessness and formed a coalition between the university and local housing nonprofits. As time went on, this organization began to offer an annual free health clinic. She then started working with an epidemiologist at the School of Public Policy where she saw the intersection of data and policy. This prompted her to get her dual MPH at the University of Michigan in Epidemiology and Health Management and Policy. During graduate school she led the Health Policy Student Association and helped establish the first health policy case competition across the university. During graduate school she interned with the Galilee Society, an organization that researches health outcomes among Palestinians, and at the University of Colorado Health System, where she focused on projects related to access to care, community health, and quality. Both experiences developed her passion in population health and creating large-scale change in healthcare. Throughout the fellowship, Payton worked on health equity, care coordination, payer relations, process improvement, and growth projects..

Imani Mitchell

Current Position: Senior Consultant for Premier, Inc.

Imani Mitchell is joining DVACO as the 2021-2022 Administrative Fellow. Her healthcare experience began in a clinical setting, where she interned alongside midwives at a variety of birth centers both domestically and internationally. In addition to participating in the prenatal care and delivery of multiple babies in the United States, she head-started a project to identify and address the social needs of pregnant women in rural South Chile. Through her experience and education, she saw the need for systemic change in US healthcare. This prompted her to receive a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Miami, where she worked as a graduate assistant in the Health Management and Policy Department. As a graduate student, Imani administered a Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Analysis of the UM Kendall Family Medicine department. This demonstrated potential cost savings by prioritizing telemedicine as the main source of follow up appointments, particularly for the Medicare Advantage population. For her Capstone, she conducted a process improvement project for a Los Angeles based IPA; the goal being to increase the number of insured patients scheduling and attending appointments to complete health risk assessments by 10%. She currently holds a Deming-based Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Emma Hannan

Current Position: Project Manager, Jefferson Health

Emma Hannan was the 2020-2021 Administrative Fellow. During her year at DVACO, she contributed to projects in clinical quality, network development, and the social determinants of health. Her healthcare experience prior to DVACO spans across a spectrum of health service delivery models in both rural, community-based health systems, academic medical centers, and physician groups. Emma holds an MHA from Penn State (University Park, PA) and a BS in Human Resource Management from Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA).

Daniella Pierre
Daniella Pierre

Current Position: Chief Quality Officer for Tri-County Community Action Health Center Rhode Island

Daniella completed her Administrative Fellow with Delaware Valley ACO in June of 2020. Daniella earned her B.S in Therapeutic Recreation from Temple University. During her undergraduate career she interned in various independent living, personal care, rehabilitation, and skilled nursing facilities. This experience propelled her into the Master of Public Health program in Healthcare Management from West Chester University. Daniella completed an internship with the Center for Contemplative Studies where she developed a process to update the student assessment, track and analyze student engagement, create an improvement plan, and implement health programs for the student and staff population. During her fellowship with the DVACO, Daniella completed rotations within the Quality and Post- Acute Care departments all while assisting projects in Operations and Network Development. Her professional interests include population health, quality improvement and value-based care.

Project Highlight:

  • Web Interface- Quality reporting for Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services
  • Beneficiary Notification Distribution
  • Quality Improvement pilot- Real Time Medial Systems
  • Preferred Outpatient Therapy Provider Network
  • Co-Authored “Association Between Outpatient Rehabilitation Therapy and Total Cost of Care for a Frail Elderly Population in a Medicare Accountable Care Organization

“I was very fortunate to work so closely with a team that continuously strives to be better, faster and stronger in an evolving care model. Accepting the fellowship was the best decision!” shared Daniella

Priya Chaudhary

Current Position: Currently works with the Population Health team at Advocare, LLC.

Priya Chaudhary served as Delaware Valley ACO’s Administrative Fellow from July 2018 through July 2019. She began her career as a primary care physician in India. She received her MD from Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, India in 2013. During this period of medical training, Priya joined a student-led outreach NGO that provided health education to the underserved population in Chennai. This experience, along with subsequent years of work as a physician in the community, Priya quickly realized the need for a comprehensive, community-based, patient-outcome driven approach to the delivery of health care extending beyond the medical care provided in a hospital.

Priya received her MBA in Health Sector Management from Temple University, Philadelphia in 2018. As a part of this program, she had the opportunity to complete an internship at The University of Pennsylvania Health System. Priya was exposed to transformative work around value-based care and the implementation of patient-outcome driven strategies during this internship. As an administrative fellow at Delaware Valley ACO, she continued to build upon her understanding of not only the rapid shift from fee-for-service to value-based model of health care, but also the operational practices and challenges that drive a dynamic ACO. Priya is currently working with the Population Health team at Advocare, LLC., an integrated independent physician owned and governed multi-specialty medical organization with over 500 providers in NJ and PA.

Sarah McCarthy

Current Position: Senior Quality Facilitator, PeaceHealth

Sarah McCarthy served as Delaware Valley ACO’s Administrative Fellow from July 2017 through July 2018. She is a graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a Master of Healthcare Administration degree. Prior to graduate school, Sarah worked in a clinical laboratory and pursued a master’s degree in Public Health. Her experiences within the clinical setting and projects related to Public Health influenced her decision to advance her career in population health.

During her fellowship, Sarah worked with medical leadership and the analytics team to improve quarterly reporting for practices within the ACO. She collaborated with the practice transformation team to implement a behavioral health toolkit utilized by practices participating in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model. Her final project involved submission of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI-A) application.

Currently, Sarah is working as a Senior Quality Facilitator in the Quality and Improvement department at PeaceHealth. This role provides support for clinical and executive leadership to advance clinical excellence initiatives throughout the healthcare system. In addition, support is given to the medical group to implement the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model across all primary care clinics.

Henry Gemino

Henry interned with the Delaware Valley ACO from June 2017 until August 2017. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 2015. After graduation, he began working in Business Development for an Accountable Care Organization in Delaware. This job sparked his interest in public health and value-based care.

In 2016, Henry began medical school at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia. He met Dr. Schneider at a healthcare panel during his first year. This encounter leads him to working as a summer research fellow at the DVACO. Under the mentorship of the team at the DVACO, he visited practices and SNF’s, watched payor negotiations, and saw firsthand how big (and small) data can be leveraged to gain clinical insight and promote change. His final project examined specialty care utilization as a function of practice location and population risk score.

Currently, Henry is a Resident Physician at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. He feels that his time at DVACO gave him a unique perspective that shapes his clinical interactions. Henry continues to use the knowledge and experience gained at DVACO to help improve healthcare delivery in a way that makes it more accessible and affordable.

Alex Geralnick

Alex served as the Delaware Valley ACO’s Administrative Fellow from July 2016 through July 2017. He received his Master of Public Health from Boston University. His prior work experience includes working for the Assistant Director of the VA Boston Healthcare System and working with at a health center in North Philadelphia. In his spare time, Alex enjoys cooking, going to concerts, exploring Philadelphia, doing any activity on the water, traveling, and exercising (he received his personal training certification in 2014). Alex is originally from Washington, DC and received his BA in American Politics from the University of Virginia. Alex currently works as Improvement Advisor at Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Alexandra M. D’Innocenzo

Alexandra was an intern with the Delaware Valley ACO from June 2015 until August 2015. She has experience in healthcare consulting and ACO operations. She currently assists Veralon clients with strategy and planning, including business planning, strategic plan development and implementation, transaction support, and CIN development. She has worked with CINs, community hospitals, and large health systems.

Prior to joining Veralon, Alexandra was a graduate operations intern at the Delaware Valley ACO, where she conducted financial analyses, analyzed operating costs, and created standards for writing policies.

Alexandra received her Bachelors in Health Policy and Administration and Master Degree in Healthcare Administration from The Pennsylvania State University.

Amy Wilson

Amy served as an intern with Delaware Valley ACO shortly after its inception between February 2015 and May 2015. Amy came to DVACO with experience in managing clinical operations for a large physician practice and with the desire to learn about opportunities where she could make an impact within the healthcare community. In a few short months Amy was managing the implementation of a claims database to provide reporting analytics to physicians, was working with members of the leadership team on implementing a physician communication plan regarding Meaningful Use, PQRS, PCMH, and quality improvement initiatives, and assisted in the development of the company website by authoring content and by ensuring compliance with CMS policies. The internship provided Amy with experience in population health management, value based reimbursement models, practice transformation programs, and with mentors from various leadership positions across the healthcare landscape.

At the conclusion of the internship, Amy joined DVACO as a Performance Improvement Coordinator and IT Project Manager to continue working on many of the projects begun as an intern. Amy’s focus shifted primarily to managing the implementation of DVACO’s population health management system–overseeing the aspects of data acquisition from disparate sources to create actionable insights in support of physician quality and incentive programs. In September 2016 Amy departed DVACO and joined Philips Wellcentive to assist clients in their implementation of their own population health management programs.

Amy received her Bachelors in Economics from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and successfully completed the Bryn Mawr College Premedical Post-baccalaureate Program.

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