Laura Zaremba

Category: HIT-HIE

Laura Zaremba

Laura Zaremba is an experienced professional and health policy expert who specializes in strategy and management of structural and process change across complex organizations and interdisciplinary teams.  She has an extensive background overseeing technology-driven programs and policy initiatives with more than 20 years of experience in public sector and nonprofit management. She has held leadership positions in multiple state agencies, including the Office of the Governor and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the single state Medicaid agency.

Laura joined HMA from Trexin Consulting, where she provided strategic consultation on health care transformation initiatives, including state and federal health policy, as well as support for program implementation, regulatory planning, and compliance. She led projects and developed services to support payer and provider clients with new business models and organizational changes related to the transition from volume-based to value-based and accountable care.

At the Illinois Governor’s Office of Health Innovation and Transformation, Laura chaired a statewide data and technology work group responsible for recommending policy and technical specifications for health information technology to support healthcare reform. She led the proposal team that developed Illinois’ Health Innovation Plan for the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) program to achieve better health outcomes, improve healthcare quality, and reduce costs across multiple payers.

As deputy director at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Laura oversaw operations of the state’s Medicaid and child support enforcement agency, with accountability for a $16 billion budget, 2,500 employees, and services to 2.5 million beneficiaries. She developed and implemented health information technology initiatives, including a statewide grant program and Illinois’ Medicaid health information technology plan. She led the drafting and enactment of the Illinois Health Information Exchange and Technology Act, which established statewide service available to healthcare providers to exchange health information and transmit public health data.

At the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology, Laura led a four year, federally-funded project to establish and sustain a statewide health information exchange network. She spearheaded the state’s efforts to promote health information technology adoption and implement statewide infrastructure to improve healthcare quality and outcomes. She worked with hundreds of provider, public health, and advocacy organizations to develop the state’s health information exchange (HIE) strategic and operational Plan, develop benchmarks, and evaluate program impact. She was designated by the governor as the state’s health information technology coordinator.

Laura began her career in healthcare as a legislative associate with the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, analyzing scope of practice for advanced practice nurses and supporting government affairs initiatives. She has served on the board of the Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority, Illinois Rural HealthNet and the governor’s Healthcare Reform Implementation Council. She is also a member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Laura earned her master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Off-hours, you will usually find Laura running to keep up with her very active family and their long list of sporting, arts, and community activities – and loving every moment of them.

Amanda Ternan

Amanda Ternan headshot

Amanda Ternan uses her expertise in health information technology (HIT), system design and emerging software to improve health outcomes among high-risk populations and to optimize client resources and revenue. Her experience also includes projects in behavioral health, managed care, medication-assisted treatment in criminal justice and human services systems, addiction curriculum, and community mental health centers.

A skilled project manager, she understands the Medicaid programs, policies, and information systems and the challenges faced in today’s delivery of healthcare services and systems. She is part of the HMA project management workgroup and has vast experience creating project charters, workplans, status reports, deliverables and meeting documentation. She has led the coordination and planning of many program activities such as learning collaboratives, webinars, stakeholder engagement sessions, and strategic planning sessions. These activities include topic selection process, material preparation, and white paper research and analysis, registration and event planning, continuing education coordination, and survey and evaluation design and analysis. Amanda also has experience in Microsoft Project, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Visio, Smartsheet, and the Microsoft Office suite.

Amanda has assisted numerous managed care plan clients with responses to competitive procurements with all aspects of a procurement process such as project management, response development, readiness reviews, mock scoring, and market analysis. She has also participated in projects creating implementation plans, strategic plans, evaluation plans, metrics, and logic models and data reporting.

Prior to joining HMA, Amanda served as project manager for the Adult Behavioral Health Services Division at The Center for Health Care Services, a community mental health center in San Antonio, Texas. During her time there, she participated in a successful implementation of innovated clinical programs integrating primary care in behavioral health settings.

She also managed three Texas Medicaid 1115 Waiver Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) projects (Deferred Institutionalization Program, High Utilizers, and Expanded Outpatient Access) and federal, state, and private grants. Those grants included assisting with system implementations impacting the Adult Behavioral Health division, such as DartNet Patient Registry, Healthcare Access San Antonio healthcare information exchange products, and iCentrix Clinical Decision Support System including electronic medical record integration.

Amanda worked for AT&T for more than five years in the Information Technology Division as the quality assurance manager and director of IT Project Management. She managed new system implementations, version management, capacity planning, and production projects which spanned multiple disciplines. Amanda began her career as an Ernst & Young IT consultant in Dallas.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration-management information systems from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Amanda and her husband Doug are busy touring and prepping for college for their two high school kids. An ace at air hockey and ping pong, Amanda also enjoys cooking, traveling and playing mahjong.

Matt McGeorge

A results-oriented leader, Matt McGeorge brings an array of experience in the healthcare industry to HMA.

Matt possesses expertise in staff administration, program development and expansion, and vendor management. He is a creative problem solver motivated by challenges with a track record of leading project teams to success in numerous endeavors.

Prior to joining HMA, Matt served as the Health Information Technology coordinator at the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program. In that role he led administration and oversight of the Commonwealth’s Medicaid EHR incentive program that has disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars to thousands of eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals. He partnered with state HIT colleagues and key stakeholders to promote adoption and use of electronic health records as well as to increase Health Information Exchange (HIE) transactions between providers.

Matt also ensured the program was in compliance with federal guidelines by developing and updating Pennsylvania’s State Medicaid Health IT Plan as well as submitting requests for federal funding to implement the plan. He also directed the development of a system and process to collect and analyze clinical data for the EHR incentive program and to support other quality initiatives.

As a provider relations manager at Magellan Health Services, Matt conducted educational forums and issue resolution activities with network behavioral health providers to increase use of electronic claim filing and self-service tool systems. His other work experience includes the development and oversight of a community-based specialized personal care home program to support individuals who had lived in institutional settings, such as the Harrisburg State Hospital.

Matt received his Master of Health Administration from Pennsylvania State University and his Master of Science from the University of Kentucky. He received his bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University.

Matt lives in the Harrisburg area with his wife and two children — and a cat, two dogs, two guinea pigs, six fish and two birds. When not feeding the animals, he enjoys kayaking on the Susquehanna River during the warmer months.

Missy Garrity

A diversified and experienced project manager and healthcare leader, Missy Garrity has helped clients, including states, health plans, and other healthcare and nonprofit organizations, succeed in a variety of projects and programs. She has successfully led large, strategic projects related to delivery system and payment reforms including new health plan start-ups, systems implementation and replacements, operational process improvements, and clinical program implementation.

Since joining HMA in 2016, Missy has supported clients on a diverse collection of complex projects. Her project portfolio includes implementation of a new Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS) health plan in Florida where her oversight extended to credentialing, network development, information technology (IT) systems, member eligibility, claims payments, and care management programs.

She has also led teams to successfully gain accreditation by AAAHC, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNP) application approval, and contract award as a Medicaid Managed Care Plan.

Missy works closely with clients, maintaining close and careful communication to ensure a high-quality deliverable suitable for public release including a Delaware strategic planning project for the State Innovation Model (SIM) grant under CMS oversight. She works with all levels of project staff to assure controls are in place to quickly remove barriers to progress, preventing schedule slippage and keeping projects within budget.

Before joining HMA, Missy was senior director of the Enterprise Project Management Office at the Commonwealth Care Alliance, a leading health plan for members with dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid. Prior to the Commonwealth Care Alliance, she led the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Health Services Division redesign, a two-year project for which she implemented system replacement and redesign, care management systems, operations process improvement, care management functions, and program redesign.

As an independent consultant, Missy also guided initiatives for local health plans and for state government that involved the implementation of care management systems, quality and cost trend reporting systems, all-payer claims data bases, strategic planning, and organizational redesign.

She earned master’s degree in business administration from Northeastern University, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Regis College. Missy is former chair of the Hallmark Health Patient and Family Advisory Council, a member of the Project Management Institute’s local Mass Bay Chapter, and former president of the Women in Health Care Management board of directors. She is certified as a project management professional by the Project Management Institute.