Jennifer Bridgeforth

Associate Principal

Health Management Associates

Nashville, TN

[javascript protected email address]

Jennifer Bridgeforth is a dedicated executive with more than 17 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She is a subject matter expert in claims and billing; coding and payment integrity; fraud, waste, and abuse; risk and compliance; physician and facility compensation; and managed care operations.

She has expert knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, clinical pharmacy, hospice and home health, behavioral health and substance use disorder, medication-assisted treatment and the opioid public health emergency (PHE), health equity and community strategies, and rural health. Her work experience spans various types of healthcare providers, health plans, and consulting.

Prior to joining HMA, Jennifer was director of Health Plan Administration for American Health Plans. In this role, she managed the day-to-day health plan payer functions for an Institutional Special Needs Plan and an Institutional Equivalent Special Needs Plan responsible for thousands of members, focusing on internal operational functions, oversight of partner third-party administrators, and other vendor services. She also oversaw multiple operational departments and vendors to ensure the health plan’s performance remained consistent with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulatory requirements.

Jennifer previously worked as a healthcare consultant. She managed a team of consultants and client staff, completed risk and program assessments to ensure providers met Office of Inspector General (OIG) guidelines for effective compliance programs, and served as an interim C-suite member for healthcare organizations as needed, including the role of chief compliance officer. Earlier in her career, she worked as a project manager, business analyst and project coordinator, and as a fraud investigator and benefit integrity analyst for CMS.

She earned a Master of Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, from South University and a Bachelor of Arts, Healthcare Administration, from Ashford University. Jennifer has a Pharmacy Technician Certification from the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board, a Professional Coder Certification from the American Academy of Professional Coders, and a Professional Medical Auditor Certification from the American Academy of Professional Coders.

Currently, Jennifer is a doctoral student at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. Due to her passion and extensive knowledge related to behavioral health and the current opioid PHE, her tentative dissertation topic is “Parental Opioid Abuse and Its Impact on Children.”

In her free time, Jennifer loves working on her family farm in southern Tennessee, watching Marvel superhero films, and playing with her Siamese cat, “Mimi.”