President, Kenneth Dowell
Since 1986, Ken has continuously been a Pioneer in the healthcare industry as it pertains to helping his Clients maximize their overall pharmacy objectives. After playing a major role in the development and growth of Diversified Pharmaceutical Services before its acquisition by Smith-Kline Beecham, Ken made strong contributions to several of today’s leading PBM’s around the country – focusing his primary efforts in the business development and strategic direction of those organizations.
Since 2000, Ken has established his position as an industry-leading consultant, offering his unique expertise and insights to Health Plans, Unions and Self-Insured Employers of all sizes around the country. All of his Clients enjoy a 100% fully transparent pass-through business model and appreciate his candid approach to the industry. Ken attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth and is stationed at company headquarters in the Twin Cities.
You can contact Kenneth Dowell at kdowell@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Chief Operating Officer, Mary Ellen Mitchell
Mary Ellen Mitchell is a respected industry professional with over 25 years healthcare experience in hospital, retail and prescription benefit management. Ms. Mitchell recently served as the Chief Services Officer at National Medical Health Card overseeing account management, client contracting, retail pharmacy contracting, and strategic sales initiatives for the organization. In the PBM industry, Ms. Mitchell has worked with Medicare clients, commercial plans, unions, TPA’s, and MCO’s.
Ms. Mitchell garnered extensive retail contracting and operational experience working at CVS Pharmacy Inc. from 1987 to 2005. While at CVS, Ms. Mitchell held a variety of management positions that included a variety of operational areas. These include: pharmacy contract negotiation and strategic relationship management, accounts receivable, integration activities during acquisitions, and system requirement development. Ms. Mitchell’s industry insight from a retail and PBM perspective provides insight that brings value to Excelsior Solutions clients.
Ms. Mitchell holds a B.S. of Pharmacy from the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, PA.
You can contact Mary Ellen at memitchell@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Chief Clinical Officer, Robert Kordella
Robert Kordella, Chief Clinical Officer, has more than 27 years of diverse experience in the pharmacy industry. Bob has practiced in retail pharmacy, in a large academic medical center setting, and, for the last sixteen-plus years, has been an effective, widely known, and well-respected leader in the PBM industry. Over the course of his tenure with LDI Integrated Pharmacy Services, National Medical Health Card Systems, CVS PharmaCare, Eckerd Health Services, and TDI Managed Care Services, Bob has led clinical and PBM operations teams that successfully managed over $4 billion in annual drug spend while limiting per member per year spending growth to levels that have simultaneously drawn industry acclaim and consistently high levels of member and payer satisfaction.
Bob received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. He went on to receive his Masters in Business Administration from The University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business.
You can contact Robert at rkordella@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Senior Vice President of Business Development, Martha Allen
Martha has over 20 years of healthcare insurance experience, with the past 17 focused on managed care reinsurance and healthcare risk management. Previously, Martha has held positions as Vice President of HCC Life Insurance Company, and Senior Vice President and co-founder of a national managed care reinsurance brokerage firm. Martha has represented both healthcare providers and plans in their risk transfer arrangements and has enjoyed bringing cost-saving clinical and claim management programs to all her clients – self-funded employers, financially at-risk healthcare providers, and healthcare plans nationwide.
Martha holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Financial Management and Marketing Management from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
You can contact Martha at mallen@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Vice President of Analytics, Jon Brunsberg
Jon has over 25 years of healthcare consulting experience working with payers and providers on actuarial, underwriting and related analytics issues. Prior to joining the ES team, Jon was with Reden & Anders, the Ingenix consulting unit, for 14 years including serving as the Chief Operating Officer.
Jon’s background includes developing standardized reporting, benchmarking and data models and has experience with commercial, Medicare and Medicaid programs. Jon received his BA from Gustavus Adolphus College with degrees in Mathematics and Business and his MBA from The Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Jon is an active member of the St. Paul Curling Club and enjoys golfing in the warmer months.
You can contact Jon at jbrunsberg@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Vice President of Consulting Services, Sharon Reed
Sharon has more than 25 years of expertise in the healthcare industry, directing the account management and sales teams for pharmacy benefit managers, including, Express Scripts, United Healthcare and CVS Caremark. Sharon has led these companies through start-up, acquisition, turnaround and growth modes.
Sharon has been recruited to participate on PBM advisory boards, providing industry insight and consultative services to leading pharmacy benefit management organizations. Her understanding of how the pharmacy drug benefit industry impacts TPAs, MCOs, unions, self-funded commercial plans, and Medicaid/Medicare allows Sharon to provide guidance on both the operational and financial impact to organizations.
Prior to joining Excelsior Solutions, Sharon was the Vice President of Account Management for informedRx, an SXC Health Solutions company.
Sharon holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Keller Graduate School of Management, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from St. Xavier University, and is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) through the American College.
You can contact Sharon at sreed@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Vice President of Consulting Services, Kirsten Sanderson
Kirsten has over 10 years of experience in the PBM and healthcare industry. Prior to joining the Excelsior team she was the Vice President of Medicare Services for informedRx and SXC Company. Kirsten has been dedicated to Medicare Part D since 2005, developing and delivering compliant Part D products and services ranging from Retiree Drug Subsidy Management support to Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) and Medicare Advantage Drug Plan (MAPD) support. Her Medicare Part D expertise includes Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans (MAPD) and Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) along with Employer Group Waiver Plans (EGWP).
In addition to her Medicare Part D knowledge she has extensive experience and understanding Pharmacy Benefit Management practices with an emphasis on Pharmacy Network Management, Implementation protocols and procedures and Client Services.
Ms. Sanderson has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Biological Sciences from the California State University, Sacramento and a Masters of Science in Health Services Administration from St. Mary’s College of Moraga, California.
You can contact Kirsten at ksanderson@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Senior Consultant, Dianne Warneke
Dianne has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, most recently in the pharmacy benefit management industry. Dianne’s background includes extensive experience in provider relations, network development and contract negotiations with independent and chain retail pharmacies.
Prior to joining the Excelsior Solutions team, Dianne was with Prime Therapeutics, Nova Script, Express Scripts and Diversified. She began her career in the managed care industry at Hennepin County and was instrumental in implementing a prepaid Medicaid system, which replaced the standard fee-for-service system. Dianne also has experience managing third party agreements for a multi-specialty clinic. Dianne holds a Masters degree in Health Services Administration from Cardinal Stritch University and a Bachelors degree from St. Cloud State University.
You can contact Dianne at dwarneke@excelsiorsolutions.com.
Medical Director, Dr. Dennis P.H. Mihale, M.D. M.B.A.
Dennis P.H. Mihale, M.D. M.B.A, is the Medical Director for Excelsior Solutions. Dr. Mihale has over 30 years of healthcare, insurance, managed care, clinical medicine and biomedical experience. He has provided consulting and management services to national and regional hospitals, healthcare insurance firms, federal and state governments and healthcare technology firms. He has served as a National Executive with IBM Healthcare, the CMO for PatientKeeper, Inc., CMO of IntelliClaim, CEO of St. Augustine HealthCare Inc., CMO of Ultramedix Healthcare Systems, Director of Superior Consultants and as an Emergency Room Physician for private hospitals and the US Military. He served in the Office of the Mayor, City of New York, where he managed projects for the Health and Hospitals Corporation.
Dr. Mihale has worked closely with a wide variety of healthcare organizations on process improvement and workflow analysis. He brings the following domain expertise to his role:
- Emergency Medicine: Emergency Room physician for almost 10 years, B.C. in 1997
- Process Improvement: As CMO of PatientKeeper, worked with physicians and hospital executives to improve physician, nurse and administrative workflow using technology.
- Developing end to end technology solutions for health care at Superior and IBM
- Strategic Planning: At IBM, Superior Consultants, PatientKeeper and IntelliClaim
- Information Systems Planning: Developing IS plans for senior management
- Working with Physician groups at IBM, PatientKeeper and Superior Consultants
- Continuous Quality Improvement, Operational Analysis & Productivity Improvement
- Operational audits for Insurance and Healthcare Organizations
- Performance metrics and benchmarking
- Management consulting and coaching
Dr. Mihale served on the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s Task Force on “ER Claims Payments by HMOs” and the Governor’s Task Force on “one time validation of physician credentials.” He is an expert on Preserving Provider Delivery Systems, having spoken before the National Association of Managed Care Regulators, Texas Department of Insurance and the International Association of Insurance Receivers. He has spoken before the National Managed Health Care Congress on Understanding the Value of an HMO, the American Board of Quality Assurance & Utilization Physicians on Continuous Quality Improvement, and USF Colleges of Business and the USF School of Public Health. He was named 1997 USF Entrepreneur of the Year and 1997 Medical Business Journal Physician Business Leader of the Year. He has presented at The 13th National HIPAA Summit, Medicaid Managed Care Congress, Medicaid Management Information Systems Conference, Medical Records Institute, National Conference on m-Health and EOE, TEPR, Healthcare IT World, and Decision Health. He is a member of the American College of Physician Executives, the AMA, on the Advisory Boards of several organizations including the Employers Health Coalition and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of South Florida. He has been published in a variety of journals including HIMMS News, Health Leaders, Insurance Receiver and On Managed Care.
Dr. Mihale has conducted bio-medical research with IBM and NASA: an engineering model for robotic hip surgery and a flexible knee orthotic. He earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from SUNY, a Medical Degree from the University of Miami and a MBA from USF. He is a major in the USAR MC.
You can contact Dr. Mihale at dmihale@excelsiorsolutions.com .