Leadership

Jerry Vitti lives his passion – forged by a social worker father and his own experience as the father of a child with disabilities – and he has dedicated his life to advocacy as well as Social Security and Medicaid eligibility.

For over 30 years, Jerry Vitti has been working with vulnerable uninsured and Medicaid populations to ensure they have the Medicaid insurance and income support programs (like SSI) they need to lead a healthier life. Low-income families often must deal with social determinants of health (SDoH), the impact of which can be significant, particularly when compounded with the challenges of raising a child with a physical, cognitive or developmental disability. Before SDoH was widely recognized as a critical component for enhancing the well-being of individuals worldwide, he delivered presentations, conducted webinars and wrote op-ed pieces on the subject.

He has built strong, long standing partnerships with Medicaid Health Plans of America (MHPA) and Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) where HFI is a “preferred partner”. These organizations represent 45 million Medicaid enrollees. He regularly speaks about various Medicaid topics and healthcare enrollment at  national events and has presented and contributed to numerous webinars over the years. He continually advocates under the umbrella of these organizations to better the health and well-being of lower-income people and/or people with significant health needs as well as improving access to care.

He was also selected to be on the FierceHealthcare editorial advisory council which is comprised of top thought leaders from across the healthcare industry. In this current role he provides feedback on national content, highlights emerging industry trends and offers insight into the vast world of healthcare.

Beyond running HFI, Jerry channels his belief in health equality into advocating for the preservation and expansion of Medicaid, which he believes can be a great equalizer, affording social justice and fairness for marginalized families. Jerry is a sought after for his expertise in Medicaid and Social Security.  He has been involved with state Medicaid program officials in over 20 states and is nationally recognized as an authority in Federal SSI enrollment. He regularly writes op-ed pieces and speaks to journalists from national publications including the:

Washington Post, Modern Healthcare, Bloomberg Business, Forbes, Kaiser Health News, the Boston Globe, Inside Health Policy and AIS Health.

Jerry is the co-chair of Cardinal Cushing Centers, an organization which provides education and support facilities for developmentally and intellectually challenged adults and children. He is also the coach and founder of Milton Challenger Little League baseball for children with special needs.

As an attorney, he is HFI’s in-house legal expert, responsible for contracts, government program regulations and member representation. Mr. Gennis brings over thirty years’ experience in Medicaid eligibility law and hospital reimbursement.

In 1976, after graduating from Harvard University with a degree in American History, Mr. Gennis took a position at the Department of Public Welfare Medicaid Office where he was responsible for innovative programs for elderly, undocumented and disabled populations. His pioneering work in Boston was implemented statewide as the Medicaid spend-down program, bringing coverage to thousands of impoverished disabled and elderly Massachusetts residents.

After Mr. Gennis graduated from Suffolk Law School and prior to founding HFI, he operated a private practice representing hospital patients and Medicaid applicants and was soon retained by a number of eastern Massachusetts hospitals where he helped maximize Medicaid coverage for needy patients.

Mr. Gennis has been admitted to the Massachusetts Bar, the Federal Bar and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. He is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Elder Law Attorneys, the Massachusetts Association of Patient Account Management, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and is a past president of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Weston, MA.

Mr. Gennis is a nationally recognized expert, speaker and author on issues related to Social Security Medicaid Eligibility, HIPAA compliance, healthcare coverage for the undocumented, Social Security eligibility and Medicaid eligibility for low-income applicants.

As HFI’s Chief Financial Officer, Joe brings over 25 years of financial and operating management experience in the technology industry.  He is highly accomplished in M&A activities and formulating business strategies that optimize operating performance and improve cash flow.  Joe has extensive experience in the Life Sciences, Payer/Provider, Financial Services, High-Tech, Consumer/Retail, Energy, and Manufacturing industries.  Prior to joining HFI, Joe held senior financial management positions at Collaborative Consulting, Parexel International and CSC, where he was also a partner in the IT Consulting business.  Joe holds a B.S. in Accounting from Providence College and is a CPA in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Joe is also pleased to volunteer his financial management expertise, as a Board Member for local non-profit organizations.

Alicia Guevara joined Healthcare Financial, Inc.’s (HFI) in March 2017 to establish HFI’s first Training and Development Department. With over 20 years of experience in training, customer service and operations, Alicia was quickly promoted to VP of Operations. Alicia’s innovative skills have allowed her to establish, execute, and communicate the strategic direction of the operations division. Alicia has been on the forefront of identifying and implementing new processes, technologies and systems to improve and streamline organizational practices. Her collaboration with executive leadership helped her to develop and exceed company goals while supplying expertise and guidance on several projects and systems. With Alicia’s creative problem solving and outside-of-the-box thinking, HFI’s Operations team was able to increase key corporate metrics by 50% within the first 6 months of her taking this role, achieving an all-time company high.

Prior to joining HFI, Alicia exceled in several career paths in the tourism industry. She held various leadership positions including Vice President of Product & Program Leadership Training & Quality, Director of Worldwide Business Operations and Customer Satisfaction Manager in various international companies including American Express and EF Tours (the world’s largest private education company).

Alicia holds a B.S. degree in Political Science with a Minor in Mandarin Chinese. Her vast experience working internationally in fast paced, ever changing industries has taught her to adapt to new and evolving situations quickly; enabling her to problem solve and focus on improving corporate key metrics.

However, when she leaves the office, Alicia can be found enjoying family time with her two sons, Brennan and Nolan and their Golden Retriever, Charlie. Alicia is also involved in her community and can be found volunteering her time at such events as a luncheon for paraplegic & spinal cord injury veterans, or a holiday party at the PTSD ward at the Brockton Veterans Hospital which she attends with her 93 year old farther, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.

Mr. Wilson is accountable for revenue, profit, client satisfaction and business development. In his over 25 years of experience, Mr. Wilson has focused on working with companies that bring business value to their clients and was drawn to HFI because of the unique ability of HFI to not only bring value to MCO clients but also provide a service that can radically enhance the lives of the members HFI assists.

Mr. Wilson joined Healthcare Financial in July of 2013 and has since grown HFI’s member lives by approximately 400% and helped extend HFI into all regions of the United States. This includes plans of all sizes ranging from 50,000 to one of the largest Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCO) in the world. Mr. Wilson has a BS in Marketing, Management and Finance from the University of Rhode Island.

John Robertson is a nationally recognized expert in government sponsored health care programs with a particular focus in the field of Medicare Medicaid benefit coordination and associated recovery methodologies. Over the course of his government career, spanning 20 years, he has created and implemented strategies that have resulted in over $2 billion dollars of revenue for many state Medicaid agencies and Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.

During his tenure as the Director of Third Party Liability for the Massachusetts Medicaid Agency Mr. Robertson developed a particular proficiency in the identification of revenue and recovery streams that serve to mitigate expenditure increases for Medicaid members served by commercial health care payers. After leaving Medicaid, Mr. Robertson created and directed The Center for Healthcare Financing at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  The Center is an applied knowledge operational group whose functions included benefit coordination for government and commercial healthcare payer entities.  . The Center served over 200 government agency clients in 14 states in program areas such as Medicaid administrative claiming, school-based Medicaid claiming, benefit coordination for Medicare and Medicaid members enrolled in government sponsored plans. Under Mr. Robertson’s leadership, the Center developed and implemented programs for its clients that have produced well over $1 billion in payer-related recoveries to help defray the cost of health-care delivery. The Center ensured that clients employed the correct compliant benefit coordination strategy for constituent programs. At end of Mr. Robertson’s tenure, clients using those strategies collectively realized an annual program cost savings in excess of $2.4 billion.

After leaving government, Mr. Robertson led a consulting practice that provided regulatory compliance based guidance to MA Plans, Dual Demonstration Plans and Medicaid MCOs as well as CMS government health care contractors for Medicare Recovery Audits and Medicare Secondary Payer Recoveries.

Mr. Robertson lives in a coastal community just north of Boston.  His life experiences include the pleasures associated with raising five children, a career spanning 30 years of youth sports instruction, and the attainment of a Harvard BA in Biology replete with more than a smattering of courses in Primate Behavior and Oral Literature.

Loida Olmeda Dunham joined Healthcare Financial, Inc.’s (HFI) in September 2005 to establish our first HR department. With over 15 years of experience in business and in the Human Resources field, Loida oversees HFI’s strategic human resources activities, employee communications and social responsibility initiatives. In addition, Loida is a member of our executive team, servicing as Chief Compliance Officer managing all aspects of regulatory and industry compliance.

Loida is a natural leader proficient in designing, implementing and managing policies, programs, and processes.  Prior to joining HFI, Loida enjoyed several early career paths and held various HR management positions from small start-ups to large national companies including ThinkHR and Caribbean Refrescos, Inc. (a manufacturing division for The Coca-Cola Company).

Loida holds an M.B.A. degree in Human Resources Management and a B.A. degree in Psychology with a Minor in Organizational Psychology. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Loida is bilingual and able to conduct business in English and Spanish. Loida has been an active member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and New England Human Resources Association (NEHRA) for over 10+ years.

However, when she leaves the office, Loida is often involved in her community and found enjoying family time with her husband, Greg, their daughter, Olivia and their dog, Jax.

John Gargas brings a varied and ideal blend of technology experience to HFI.  He has been in key engineering management roles in large to medium private, public and governmental organizations, such as the VA Medical Center, NaviNet and Fidelity Investments.  He is always delivering solutions using emerging technologies and shows great agility in realigning teams to consistently produce more.   He has lead both waterfall and Agile technology teams in Software Development, Software Configuration Management, technology infrastructure build-outs and security,  in the areas of the SAAS, internet/intranet transactional web platforms,  spanning both the Financial and Healthcare Industries.

He holds of B.S. in Meteorology from the School of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

John consistently anticipates long term effects and the consequences of the decisions that are made during the life cycle of any given project.  He always strives to empower team members by providing opportunities to succeed.  He operates in a calm and methodical manner addressing the concerns of the business while gaining the respect of the technical team and all his peers through his commitment to integrity, accountability and transparency.  Finally, John has led, and continues to lead key technology initiatives for HFI, bringing critical insights in how technology can be used to keep HFI ahead of its competitors.

Ajay Mache joined Healthcare Financial, Inc (HFI) in May 2018 in the Data Science department. In recent years Data Science has been the backbone of HFI’s business and operations. Ajay has been responsible for building and growing the Data Science team from the ground up and has helped to shape HFI’s data driven culture by taking a data first approach towards solving problems throughout the organization and by leading the Machine Learning & AI efforts at HFI. He has a great understanding of how businesses work and brings in the perfect blend between technology and business acumen. He has previously worked as a Data Scientist at American Student Assistance (ASA), Boston and brings a unique perspective to solve HFI’s problems.

Ajay is very passionate about building data products and is very highly credited for building HFI’s first SaaS Data Product – a clinical intelligence web platform heavily integrated with machine learning and large volumes of clinical data. This flagship product has proven to be very successful and puts HFI in a unique position in the market and healthcare space.

Ajay holds a M.S. in Information Systems from Northeastern University, Boston and loves solving complex problems using technology for the greater good. He cares deeply about healthcare, children with special needs, education, space exploration and has immense interest in financial markets. In his free time, he likes to read, play board games, visit national forests, and state parks.

Samuel Toledano joined Healthcare Financial, Inc. (HFI) in November of 2004 and has played a pivotal role in the organization’s evolution from a provider-based insurance advocacy group to an enrollment agency partnering with managed care plans to offer a range of services.  After successfully overseeing what had been the largest hospital client for many years, Sam shifted gears with the objective of making a broader impact in the lives of the members HFI serves.  With over 12 years experience in leadership, he brings expertise in the fields of benefits enrollment, data analysis, inventory management, process improvement, staff development, and strategic planning.

Sam holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and is bilingual in English and Spanish.  He was born and raised in Boston’s South End neighborhood and has a passion for serving people from underprivileged backgrounds and communities.   On evenings and weekends, he can be found enjoying a quiet dinner with his firstborn daughter, Samantha, or watching his younger daughter, Alanis, develop her competitive edge on the softball field.

Sterling Byrd joined Healthcare Financial, Inc. (HFI) in 2007 as a Staff Accountant to bolster the Finance department. Reporting directly to the CFO, Sterling’s commitment and leadership led to his advancement to Accounting Manager. He leads a team of accountants responsible for Billing, Cost Analysis, Budgeting, Analytic Reporting, Payroll and producing Financial Statements for the executive team. He is responsible for the implementation of several internal financial controls, various purchase policies as well as overseeing HFI’s budget process.

Sterling has over 15 years of experience working in various accounting positions within the finance and banking industry. These experiences and his team-first approach are the catalyst behind his hands-on, inclusive leadership style. Although his demeanor is calm and discreet, he has a natural ability to engage and empower his team members, encouraging new concepts and innovations.  Prior to joining HFI, Sterling held the position as Assistant Controller of the Hynes Convention Center for Aramark Corp. He holds a B.S. in Management and a Certificate in Business Analysis from International Institute of Business Analyst (IIBA) and Suffolk University. He is also an active member of NABA, Inc. His passions during his down time are spending time with family and watching sports, he also enjoys music and traveling.

Shalmali Tuvar joined Healthcare Financial, Inc (HFI) in February 2019 in the Data Science department to lead the efforts in clinical research. As a Senior Clinical Research Scientist, she has played a key role in clinical validation of HFI’s SaaS data product and works closely with the Data Science team and senior leadership. She bridges the gap between technology and clinical understanding of the data and often works with senior leadership, client executives and medical directors to help them understand our clinical intelligence web portal and present appropriate use cases. Shalmali has previously worked as a Medical Officer at Sassoon General Hospital, India. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine & Surgery (M.B.B.S) from B. J. Medical College, India. Shalmali also holds an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Boston University, Boston.

Shalmali holds medicine very close to her heart and her clinical knowledge in conjunction with the ability to infer clinical data makes her a subject matter expert in this domain. She is also responsible for streamlining some of the operational aspects with respect to collecting clinical data, relevant data elements, literature review, understanding of healthcare policies and guidelines outlined by SSA for SSI, SSDI, Medically Frail and Medically Complex programs.