Rachel Matthews is a consultant specializing in Medicare payment policy with a focus on quantitative modeling. She has a deep understanding of Medicare’s inpatient, outpatient, and physician payment systems, federal and state healthcare legislation, and delivery system and payment reform.  

Prior to joining The Moran Company (TMC), an HMA Company, Rachel worked at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, D.C., as an assistant analyst. In this role, she prepared 10-year baseline budget projections and scored legislative proposals related to Medicare spending. She also served as a lead hospital revenue cycle researcher for a national consulting firm.  

As a member of TMC’s physician services team, Rachel helps industry groups quantify the implications of Medicare payment policy proposals on clinical or business priorities. 

Rachel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy analysis from Scripps College and resides in the Los Angeles metro area with her husband. 

Yamini Kalidindi is a researcher and analytics consultant with expertise in Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) payment modeling and claims data analysis. In addition, she works extensively with the inpatient hospital team on new technology add-on payment (NTAP) applications. Yamini has experience working with different data analytic tools including SAS, STATA, and R.

Prior to joining The Moran Company, Yamini was a PhD candidate and researcher at Pennsylvania State University. While there, her research focused on examining the impact of different healthcare policies and trends including 340B Drug Pricing Program provider integration, shift in site of provider-administered chemotherapy on drug use patterns, hospital admissions, and outpatient facility use. Through her research, she demonstrated an in-depth understanding of health policy analysis, Medicare payment systems, and statistical modeling using claims data.

In addition to her doctorate, Yamini has a master’s degree in health policy and administration from Penn State, and prior to moving to the United States in 2011, she practiced as a dentist in India.

Rachel Hollander is a health policy and healthcare strategist who has worked with hospital and health system executives to identify and overcome a range of strategic and operational challenges, including intensifying margin pressures, unprecedented competition, and regulatory and political uncertainty.

During her career she has developed a deep understanding of Medicare payment systems, federal and state healthcare legislation, and delivery system and payment reform. In addition, she has developed and interpreted Medicare and Medicaid e-payment policies and payment models.

Before joining HMA, she served as a consultant with The Moran Company (TMC), now an HMA company. While there, she performed qualitative and quantitative research as well as analysis and report writing based on the findings.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Johns Hopkins University.

A skilled researcher and pharmacy expert, Yaena Min is skilled in study design, data collection and analysis, and survey development and deployment.

Her expertise lies in conducting data analysis using Medicare claims data and survey datasets including the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), and Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

Focused on research, she has designed surveys, worked to recruit patients as a means of primary data collection, conducted patient interviews, and completed in-depth literature reviews using Medline, Ovid, and Cochrane.

Before joining The Moran Company, now an HMA Company, she completed course work and served as a graduate research assistant and graduate teaching assistant at Virginia Commonwealth University. While there, she focused on geriatric pharmacotherapy, sleep problems and mental health, and health policy.

She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in pharmacotherapy and outcomes science from Virginia Commonwealth University as well as a post-baccalaureate graduate certificate in aging studies and gerontology. During her studies, her research focused on geriatric pharmacotherapy regarding the impact of sleep medication use and poor sleep quality on risk of falls in community dwelling older adults. Through her graduate work she has developed an understanding of pharmacoepidemiology, survey research methods, and secondary data analysis.

She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the Chung-Ang University, College of Pharmacy in Seoul, South Korea, and has previously worked as a pharmacist.

Sara is a consultant and project manager at The Moran Company, an HMA Company. In this role, she focuses on Medicare reimbursement policies specific to the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and the PFS Quality Payment Program. She also provides research support to HMA’s clients by executing comprehensive literary reviews and white papers on various topics. As a member of HMA’s project management workgroup, she provides support across several projects, including managing Medicaid managed care procurement RFPs.

Prior to joining HMA, Sara was a partner at The Moran Company. As the chief administrative officer, Sara worked closely with the other partners to manage the daily operations of the firm, including maintaining company records and finances, invoicing, budgets, recruitment, and personnel management. She also managed the data acquisition process with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Sara earned a master’s degree in health administration and a bachelor’s degree in health science from George Mason University (GMU). She also earned a master’s certificate in human resources management from Villanova University. She is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and serves on the board of advisors for GMU’s Master of Health Administration (MHA) program.

Clare Mamerow has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare policy analysis and helping clients strategize and advocate for inpatient reimbursement solutions for a range of drugs, devices, and diagnostic tests.

She led the inpatient hospital team at The Moran Company (TMC), now an HMA Company, where she assisted clients with numerous New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) applications and helped model a new diagnosis-related group (DRG) for Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR T) therapies.

In addition, she worked with other clients to provide analyses to support their requests for DRG reassignment and policy changes to support low-volume therapies after NTAP designation expires. She has performed in-depth analyses of the Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) competitive bidding program and was involved in research efforts to bundle post-acute services, as required by the Affordable Care Act.

Clare previously served as legislative counsel for a small lobbying firm specializing in healthcare and human rights issues. She was previously a senior health policy analyst with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) where she focused on the impacts of private long-term care insurance on Medicaid, and the Department of Veterans Affairs efforts to realign healthcare services.

Clare is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, with a Master of Public Administration and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Clare is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Kevin Kirby has more than 25 years of experience with Medicare reimbursement, and extensive Medicare Part B expertise, particularly as it relates to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Kevin joined The Moran Company, now an HMA company, after serving as legislative counsel at Pharmacia & Upjohn.

Kevin’s work focuses on pharmaceutical, pharmacy and biotechnology policies, including Medicare reimbursement issues and policy and strategy development on various pieces of Medicare reform legislation.

He was active in policy development for clients interested in issues that were affected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and is an expert in a variety of drug reimbursement issues governed by the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA). He has provided quick turnaround analyses of various Medicare rule-making documents across a number of payment systems as well as expert advice targeted to particular companies and products, including assistance with Average Sales Price (ASP) reporting, 340B pricing, and the intersection of Medicare Part B with the Part D drug benefit.

Kevin provides legislative and regulatory analytical support on a variety of Medicare payment systems, including the Hospital Outpatient and Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems, the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and a variety of related issue areas. Kevin has also assisted clients with Medicaid issues, focusing particularly on Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) and other issues related to pharmacy reimbursement.

Among a variety of other health policy issues, Kevin has also helped clients with state prescription drug coverage and pricing concerns and design of government agency performance measurements. Kevin has also assisted in the drafting and editing of numerous white papers—including work on various matters related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

While with Pharmacia & Upjohn, Kevin had an opportunity to work on various health policy issues, including the Food and Drug Modernization Act, antibiotic resistance, and development of potential interim Medicare drug coverage options.

Kevin earned a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University, Maryland. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Huai-Che Shih has more than 10 years of experience in health policy and scientific consulting. His technical areas of expertise include large-scale database management on Medicare and commercial claims, research methodology with advanced statistical modeling, and in-depth knowledge of Medicare reimbursement models.

Before joining HMA, he was a partner with The Moran Company (TMC), now an HMA company, where he worked on various analyses and surveys for Medicare beneficiaries as well as market analysis and specific, in-depth research into large scale data sets.

Dr. Shih has served as a research assistant, teaching assistant, and instructor with the University of Rochester where he earned a Doctorate in health services research and policy as well as a certificate in health and ageing. In addition, he earned a Master of Science in health care organization administration and a Bachelor of Science in public health, both from National Taiwan University.

His research interests include health economics, long-term care, real-world evidence, cost-effectiveness, and machine learning.

Rachel Kramer has over 20 years of health policy analysis and consulting experience with a focus on accurate coding, coverage, and reimbursement for new products and services to facilitate beneficiary access through stable and appropriate payments. By combining subject matter expertise with results from quantitative evaluations, she can support strategic and tactical planning and provide recommendations for clients to navigate the current landscape as well as anticipate and respond to emerging policy dynamics. 

Prior to joining HMA, Rachel was a partner at The Moran Company (TMC), now an HMA company. At HMA, Rachel continues her work to help organizations representing the industry and providers understand, assess, and quantify the implications of Medicare payment policy proposals on clinical or business priorities. She works with clients to develop recommendations and roadmaps for the valuation of new technologies and has assisted clients with policy development and/or analysis in areas of imaging and diagnostics, remote monitoring, digital health and artificial intelligence, vaccines, physician administered drugs, novel therapies for cancer, ophthalmology, and behavioral health, as well as physician and other qualified healthcare professionals.  

Rachel’s experience in consulting, associations, provider settings and in health information management lend to her ability to engage professionals of different disciplines and across policy topics to help organizations respond to opportunities and threats that arise from policy and market changes. She routinely provides health policy briefings, historical perspective, subject matter expertise and technical assistance to stakeholders and their representatives as they navigate federal legislative and regulatory processes, including comment letter development, payment reform considerations and executive branch interactions. 

Rachel leads the TMC physician services team and oversees TMC modeling initiatives such as the company’s replication of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Practice Expense (PE) Relative Value Unit (RVU) methodology. Rachel also assists clients with claims data analysis to study patient populations or trends in utilization and spending. 

Before joining TMC, Rachel was the director of economics and health policy for a national medical specialty society, was a consultant with a national firm, and worked in the hospital system and freestanding clinic settings. 

Rachel has a Master of Public Health with a concentration in policy and finance from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is credentialed as a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA). She also has a bachelor’s degree in health information management from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Mark Desmarais specializes in Medicare and Medicaid policy consulting with a focus on large dataset analysis, including all Medicare datasets available to the private sector. He is a front-to-back problem solver for clients designing data analysis who strives to answer questions and anticipate future needs.

Mark has extensive experience analyzing Medicare and other health datasets and applying the results in solving public policy challenges and supporting policy advocacy in the regulatory and legislative arena.

Before joining HMA, Mark was a partner at The Moran Company, now an HMA Company. He manages project teams tackling policy issues across the healthcare spectrum. He has extensive experience helping pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers as they navigate the regulations surrounding the Outpatient and Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems. He has performed in-depth modeling of issues related to the 340B program as well.

In addition, Mark has vast experience with regulatory issues in ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis facilities, and skilled nursing facilities. He has led modeling of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scoring proposals advanced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in implementing the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). In addition, Mark has analyzed client data warehouses to inform public policymaking on issues where publicly available datasets lacked essential information.

He manages client relationships and deliverables, leads small project teams, and trains analysts in programming, policy context, and data analysis. His clients have included pharmaceutical, biotech, and device manufacturers, trade associations, hospitals, and physician specialty societies.

Mark graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He has more than 10 years of SAS® programming experience with large healthcare datasets.