Our Team

The Optimetra team is a combination of Principals and Consultants consistently working together to ensure the best possible outcomes for our clients and their engagements.

Optimetra carefully selects consultants who will engage with our clients as seamlessly as possible, bringing objectivity and unique insights that create immediate value. Many of our consultants have more than 20 years of public sector business planning, proposal development, and project management experience. They also have individual areas of clinical or operational expertise, so we can tailor each engagement to our clients’ specific needs.

Principals

David C. Kumpf, PMP®

Chief Executive Officer

Dave is the Founder and CEO of Optimetra, Inc. He is a key consultant for the firm, focused on public sector healthcare business development, including strategy development; operational solution planning and development; project management; writing and editing; and independent evaluation of proposal responses. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) with extensive experience in planning and managing large-scale business implementations.

Dave's current and past client projects include:

Medicaid managed care business development, including proposal leadership, development, and evaluation
Medicaid Management Information System proposal and project plan development
TRICARE proposal leadership and development
Implementation planning and project management
Acquisition integration project management
Development & deployment of healthcare project management methodologies and training

Dave is responsible for all aspects of Optimetra's continued growth and key decision making, including: corporate strategy; client relationship building, and hiring decisions.

Prior to founding Optimetra, Dave held positions with Foundation Health Systems, Inc. as Director of Process Engineering and Director of Business Projects. He was also President and co-founder of Lexicon Systems, Inc., a consulting firm focused on information design and development; documentation management; and project management.

Nancy Borah

Vice President of Business Development

Nancy brings over 25 years of diverse experience in managed care consulting, marketing, and client relationship management in both public and private sectors. Her experience includes working with national health insurance companies, healthcare data organizations, healthcare providers, and consulting firms.

Nancy is responsible for designing and executing a marketing and sales strategy that supports Optimetra's expansion in the Healthcare business development arena. She continuously enhances the firm's reputation as a recognized leader in healthcare business planning, business development, and project management, while building and maintaining Optimetra's client and associate relationships.

Prior to joining Optimetra, Nancy was Senior Vice President with one of the largest independent insurance, risk management and employee benefits consulting firms in the Mid-Atlantic Region, where she managed a team of Health and Welfare consultants responsible for advising businesses on employee and executive benefits. She holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Emory University.

Holly R. Smith

Vice President, Strategic Initiatives

Holly brings more than 15 years of strategic marketing and business development, technical documentation, and management experience to Optimetra. In addition to the Healthcare industry, she has supported the growth of organizations in the Defense, Telecommunications, and Software industries.

As Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Holly ensures Optimetra’s capabilities and services continuously reflect industry trends and that the firm provides the fresh perspective clients need and expect.

Prior to joining Optimetra, Holly worked as an independent marketing communications consultant for Healthcare, Software, and Computer Security organizations. She also held senior writing and engineering positions at Compuware Numega Lab, ARINC Research Corporation, and Lexicon Systems.

Consultants

Lynn Barnard, RN, CNM

Management Consultant/Senior Proposal Specialist

Lynn brings over 33 years of healthcare management, consulting and front-line clinical experience to organizations; providing both strategic and creative approaches to solving industry challenges.

As an associate of Optimetra and independent consultant, Lynn consults with health organizations throughout the country, providing proposal development, strategic planning and program development in the areas of care management, condition/disease management and condition-targeted community outreach programs.

Prior to consulting independently, Lynn held executive positions in government, non-profit and for-profit healthcare organizations:

As a hospital Director, Lynn provided full operational oversight, analysis, strategic development program implementation, and marketing for 11 hospital units, at Rose Medical Center, a renowned medical center in Denver.
As V.P. of Medical Services and Professional Education, she provided full operational management, health professional recruitment, retention and training, program development, marketing and funding stream development for a six state, non-profit organization, operating 44 health centers.
As the Director of Health Benefits for Colorado State Medicaid program, Ms. Barnard had supervisory oversight of Acute Care Benefits, Managed Care Benefits (and contracting) and Quality Improvement. Ms. Barnard wrote proposals and identified private funders to implement a pilot disease management program for Diabetes, Asthma, Clients with Schizophrenia, High-Risk Infants and a coordinated Care Management Organization.

Helen C. Burch

Senior Proposal Specialist

As an independent consultant and associate of Optimetra, Helen provides consulting services to a variety of clients including managed care organizations, governments and employers. Areas of expertise include managed care, Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare, workers’ compensation, provider network development and reimbursement, program development and implementation, business and strategic planning, marketing and regulatory compliance. Helen’s current and past engagements include:

Business development for Medicaid managed care prospects in Arizona, Colorado, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia
Formation of Medicaid HMO including market analysis, licensure, forms and material documentation, provider recruitment and reimbursement, marketing, and managed operational infrastructure
Application and program development for a Medicare Advantage, Part D , and private-fee-for-service programs
Designed, implemented, and monitored a medical case management program for federal civilian employees that resulted in an estimated reduction in compensation and medical costs of 10%
Assessed operational activities and results for workers’ compensation programs including nurse case management services
Survey of client satisfaction of services provided by a behavioral health managed care organization. MMIS proposal and project plan development

Prior to consulting independently, Helen held positions with Managed Care Advisors, Inc. as Vice President and PHP Healthcare Corporation and D.C. Chartered Health Plan as Director of Business Development.

Elizabeth D. Coombes

Management Consultant/Senior Proposal Specialist

Liz is a management consultant specializing in healthcare administration, marketing, and proposal writing with more than 25 years of diverse experience in both the public and private sectors. Her current and past engagements include:

Management consulting for health insurance operations and administration
Business process reengineering, operations review and improvement, workflow analysis
Proposal management and preparation of Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial health care business bids
HIPAA Assessment/Compliance Planning for Electronic Transactions and Code Sets, Privacy, and Security mandates
Corporate strategic and business planning
Business writing, business plan and business case preparation, and user documentation design and development

Liz began consulting in 1990 and her clients have included Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans, commercial insurers, managed care organizations, systems/software vendors, Medicaid fiscal agents, Medicare contractors, and consulting firms, including Optimetra.

Liz has both led and supported large-scale proposal development projects, possesses a detailed understanding of the federal and state proposal preparation process, and has exceptional business writing skills.

Natalie A. Cummins

Healthcare & Life Sciences Consultant

Natalie brings nearly 20 years of experience in strategic planning, marketing and communications in diagnostics, healthcare and life sciences. Natalie has extensive experience working with multi-national companies developing strategic plans, marketing and communications programs including: proposal development, new product evaluation, prioritization and implementation, reimbursement strategy, advisory board planning, market research, strategic marketing plans, public relation campaigns, competitive positioning and sales force training.

Prior to consulting, Natalie was responsible for global marketing and communications at Synarc. Synarc is a pharmaceutical services organization specializing in medical imaging, patient recruitment and biochemical markers. In this role, Ms. Cummins managed all facets of global branding, marketing and communications. Ms. Cummins’ experience also includes working for Quest Diagnostics with direct responsibility for health plan and payer marketing. In addition, Natalie has held strategic positions with AMERIGROUP, Oxford Health Plans and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Natalie has a Masters Degree in Public in Administration with a concentration in health policy from New York University and a Bachelors Degree in Health Administration from Ithaca College.

Elizabeth (Bette) Frick, Ph.D., "The Text Doctor®"

Senior Proposal Editor

Bette Frick, the Text Doctor®, has 20 years experience teaching and editing clinical submissions and articles for medical device companies including Medtronic and Boston Scientific (formerly Guidant). She also is a contract managing editor for Ingenix (a division of United Health).

Dr. Frick holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota. She served as President of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), Twin Cities Chapter (2003-2004) and seminars manager for the RMC (2006-2007). Bette was recently named an Associate Fellow of the STC and an Advanced Communicator Gold in Toastmasters International.

Bette is a member of and a candidate for certification in writing from the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). She is also a candidate for the prestigious BELS certification (Board of Editors in the Life Sciences).

Most recently, Bette has represented Optimetra as the proposal editor for large Medicaid managed care organizations.

Gina Gatti

Senior Proposal Specialist

As an Optimetra associate, Gina provides proposal development and strategy support for public sector healthcare business development. With particular expertise in business development and strategic planning, Gina contributes across an array of functional areas, including behavioral health. Projects include:

Medicaid managed care proposal writing and editing
CHIP managed care proposal development
Medicaid transportation proposal development
Managed behavioral health proposal development
Compliance review and expert editing of Medicaid managed care proposals
Interim management of proposal development team for a Medicaid health plan
Crafting of core communication material for specialty behavioral health product

A seasoned executive, Gina brings more than 23 years experience in managed care in including product development, marketing and sales positions with ValueOptions, United HealthCare, and Travelers Insurance Company.

Monica E. Le Vine

Senior Proposal Coordinator

Monica brings 20+ years of experience responding to request for proposals (RFPs) in the Aerospace, High Technology, and Healthcare industries. During this time period, Monica has also developed valuable skills in proposal management, graphic presentations, and writing and editing.

Working on behalf of Optimetra, Monica has supported winning proposals with expert proposal desktop publishing and proposal coordination services.

Monica is also working towards an Associates of Applied Science Degree in Health Information Management, and has other educational training in the medical sciences.

Jean Lockington, RN MA

Healthcare Consultant

As a Healthcare consultant, Jean brings more than 20 years of experience working as a Senior Executive in managed care. Her areas of expertise are in quality improvement, regulatory compliance, new business development, process improvement, and accreditation preparation.

Jean’s background includes the following accomplishments:

Administrator for Health Center with 43,000 members in Staff HMO model; implemented principles of Total Quality Management with increase in departmental efficiencies and decrease in FTE’s
Quality Improvement Director for 2 HMOs (with multiple lines of business) overseeing all department aspects including CMS, State Regulatory Compliance, HEDIS and NCQA Surveys
Implemented Quality Improvement program and infrastructure for Children’s Behavior Health Program
Facilitated process improvements for three health plans providing consistency in practices among regional plans in credentialing, appeals and contracting
Project lead for successful implementation of newly awarded HMOs, Behavioral Health programs and Medicare line of business
Team participant and writer for Requests for Proposal (RFP) response resulting in successful award of over five contracts
Implemented processes at a corporate level to lead organization through NCQA Accreditation process resulting in successful accreditations for two health plans
Selected as an Administrative Surveyor in February 2009 for NCQA; currently performing surveys for NCQA

Jean holds a Diploma in Nursing, a Bachelor of Professional Arts in Health Care Administration, and a Master of Arts in Human Services.

Gary Montrose

Senior Strategy and Management Consultant

Gary Montrose has worked as a market research, strategy, and program planning consultant to trade associations, state and national policy organizations, Fortune 500 companies, commercial vendors, health plans, and provider organizations in over 40 states over the past 20+ years.

As an associate of Optimetra, Gary has provided expert strategic guidance and proposal development and evaluation services in the area of chronic care management. He has also led and continues to lead a long-range business planning and implementation engagement surrounding disability advocacy and independent living.

For HHS/CMS, Gary served as industry domain expert for development of the official solicitation documents and technical evaluation guidelines for vendor bidding on the 2004 Chronic Care Improvement Demonstration Project (Medicare Health Support). In 2002, Gary guided the State of Colorado in developing a suite of multi-agency, technology-enabled disease management and care coordination programs with some of the industry’s leading vendor organizations.

Gary is a visionary thinker with an exceptional talent for identifying and driving industry trends. He served as a member of the Governor’s Council on TeleHealth (Colorado, 2002), Legislature Healthcare Reform Task Force, and as Interim Coordinator of the Colorado Blue Ribbon Health Care Reform Commission (2006). He has served as Co-chair of DMAA’s Technology Committee (2002-03), is co-author of “Managing Health Care Demand,” a 500-page text (Aspen Publications, 1998), and is a visiting instructor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Jennifer Plank, PMP®

Project Manager

Jennifer has over 10 years of experience in project management and information systems technology including working as an independent consultant for a variety of firms that focus on managed healthcare, technical and project management training, and website design and development. Jennifer has worked on proposal development teams for several of the nation’s largest publicly-traded managed healthcare organizations. She has provided project plan expertise, development, and management in many areas including proposal development, new business implementation, and methodology development.

Jennifer has managed all phases of the project life cycle from initiation to implementation and also acted as a technical liaison between clients, executives, managers, subject matter experts, designers, copywriters, and developers. She has worked closely with clients evaluating their existing systems and business workflow processes in order to assist them with project management, software implementation, and rollout for new business acquisitions. She has also developed training manuals and trained end users, project managers, and business owners.

She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and has extensive experience with Microsoft Project. She has served as the Vice President of Communications for the Hampton Roads PMI Chapter in 2004 and 2005 and was the Vice President of Special Projects for the Hampton Roads PMI Chapter in 2003.

Marietta G. Riggle

Senior Proposal Development Consultant

Marietta Riggle has more than 20 years of experience in consulting and proposal management. She has served as a Proposal Manager and Deputy Proposal Manager on many large federal and commercial procurements. She has a wide range of experience in Department of Defense proposals in information technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, aerospace, health care, data management, and real estate development. Her clients include successful bidders in nine Department of Defense procurements.

Marietta has worked on the first generation of TRICARE proposals, and each subsequent TRICARE recompetition. She served as Project Manager of the credentialing process for a newly established network of 20,000 TRICARE physicians. Her background also includes experience in Medicaid managed care, including successful responses on behalf of Optimetra.

Marietta was Vice President of a health care consulting firm and held Corporate-level management positions with a nationally recognized Health Maintenance Organization.

Donna Rossie

Senior Proposal Specialist / Utilization and Quality Management Expert

Donna is a healthcare and proposal development expert with 20 years of quality and utilization management experience. She became an administrative surveyor for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) in 1996 and has participated in over 30 accreditation surveys to date.

While representing Optimetra, Donna has provided medical management and quality improvement subject matter expertise and proposal development for numerous public sector managed care proposals applications. These include Medicaid physical and behavioral health, QIO, Medicare SNP, and TRICARE MCSS. Prior to representing Optimetra, she provided writing and healthcare expertise on numerous winning Medicaid/CHIP/SSI and QIO and EQRO bids. She also developed utilization and quality management program designs for six TRICARE managed care bids, including four winning bids and another highest ranked technical response. She successfully prepared three HMOs for National Committee for Quality Assurance accreditation reviews and assessed and developed utilization and quality management programs for numerous clients, including five Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans, two large managed care organizations, and two utilization management organizations.

Heather Ryan

Project Manager/Senior Proposal Specialist

Heather has 20 years of experience in technical writing and management, including extensive experience in healthcare proposal analysis and development, software and systems documentation, and training development and presentation. Heather has been a consultant with Optimetra for over ten years. She has served as consultant, Director of Operations, and project manager for many of Optimetra’s key clients. Heather is proficient in evaluating public sector health care RFPs, writing and editing proposal responses, and developing and writing training documentation. Current and past engagements include:

Medicaid managed care proposal development
TRICARE proposal development
Implementation planning and project management
Development of healthcare project management methodologies/training

Prior to working with Optimetra, Heather served as a training development consultant and instructor, and a writer consultant with Lexicon Systems, Inc., a consulting firm focused on information design and development; documentation management; and project management.

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