About CHPI

Steve Barron, Dignity Health

Steve Barron has spent over 30 years in executive level positions in hospitals throughout California and Washington. Today he guides the strategic direction of five Southern California Dignity Health hospitals.

Barron joined Dignity Health in December 1999 as President of St. Bernardine Medical Center. In late 2010, he took on a dual responsibility, leading collaborative efforts with sister hospital, Community Hospital of San Bernardino, to serve their shared communities. The two hospitals are among the largest employers in the County. In 2012 he was promoted to Dignity Health Senior Vice President of Operations, Southern California East Service Area, assuming additional responsibility for California Hospital Medical Center, St. Mary Medical Center-Long Beach, and Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.

In his new Service Area leadership role, Barron is focused on keeping the hospitals at the forefront of industry change to meet the demands of health care reform and the challenges of a depressed local economy. He and his team are sharing the beset from each hospital to strengthen all, identifying efficiencies in order to expand community access to needed services.

Steve is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He has his Master’s degree in executive management from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

In order to maintain that leading edge in a rapidly evolving industry, Barron has maintained active involvement in ongoing education, activities and organizations outside the hospitals. He has served on the boards of several organizations in California, including the California Hospital Association; Hospital association of Southern California, Executive Committee; EPIC Management; Inland Health Management Associates; Inland Action; Southern California Integrated Care Network; California Healthcare Performance Information System, Inc.; and more.

Elizabeth Helms, California Chronic Care Coalition

Liz Helms has been a leader within the patient’s rights movement since her recovery from Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) in the mid-1990s. Her vision, breadth of knowledge and unwavering commitment to coalition building, grassroots advocacy, strategic planning and policy development has earned her immense recognition and respect throughout the state of California and nationally.  After co-founding the TMJ Society of California, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about changes in health care practices and laws to improve treatment for TMJ sufferers, she has helped to shepherd many broad-based, first-of-it’s-kind patient rights laws in California.

Liz currently is the President/CEO of the California Chronic Care Coalition, an alliance of non-profit, social consumer and provider organizations united to improve the health of Californians with chronic conditions or diseases.   Liz leads the National Stakeholders Specialty Medication Collaboratory, working to ensure access to affordable medications and advocates for the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in the ACA.  Liz was one of the implementation partners of the San Diego University of Best Practices where she coordinated and worked with all the medical groups and health systems working to make San Diego the first heart attack and stroke free zone.  Liz was also instrumental in bringing the clinical pharmacist on the care team to the Right Care Initiative which won her the Michelotti Public Health Prize from the CA Pharmacy Foundation.  

In addition to her CCCC leadership roles, Ms. Helms has been the catalyst within the chronic disease community working with the California administration’s health policy division on health care reform, including implementation of prevention, wellness and coordination of care.  In 2013 she was elected to the board of directors to the California Healthcare Performance Information System (CHPI) representing California’s consumers and serves on many advisory committees including: California Department of Public Health, Chronic Disease Division, Prevention 21, which includes: Comprehensive Medication Management, SALT, Healthy Hearts CA.  Additionally she is a member or advisor on CA Telehealth Coalition; UC Berkeley, School of Public Health – PCORI grant: "The Comparative Impact of Patient Activation and Engagement on Improving Patient-Centered Outcomes of Care in Accountable Care Organizations”, and is a member of the CA Right Care Initiative. Recently Liz was elected to a national AIMM board, (Alliance of Integrated Medication Management).

Liz lives in the foothills of Northern California, loves to spend time with her family, seven grandchildren and friends.  She is an avid equestrian and part of a volunteer communications team for the Western States Trail Foundation.

David Lansky (Interim CHPI Board President), Pacific Business Group on Health

David Lansky, PhD, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) and directs its efforts to improve the affordability and availability of high quality health care. Since 2008, he has led the coalition of 50 large employers and health care purchasers representing over five million Americans, including CalPERS, Wells Fargo, Intel, Safeway, Walmart, Boeing, and the University of California.

A nationally-recognized expert in accountability, quality measurement and health IT, Lansky has served as a board member or advisor to numerous health care programs, including the National Quality Forum, Catalyst for Payment Reform, and the Medicare Beneficiary Education Advisory Panel. He is now the purchaser representative on the federal HIT Policy Committee, and chairs its Strategy and Innovation Workgroup. He also serves on the Congressional Budget Office Health Advisors Panel, the Board of the Alliance for Health Reform, and as vice-chair of the Health Care Transformation Task Force.

From 2004 to 2008, Lansky was Senior Director of the Health Program at the Markle Foundation (NY), and from 1995 to 2004, he led the Foundation for Accountability (FACCT), a public-private venture developing quality measures and web-based tools to help consumers and purchasers assess the value of health care services and providers.

Before establishing FACCT, Lansky was a senior policy analyst for the Jackson Hole Group during the national health care reform debate of 1993-94. He led the Center for Outcomes Research and Education at Oregon-based Providence Health System from 1988 to 1993.

He is the author of over 30 peer-reviewed papers on outcomes research and quality measurement and holds a PhD degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jeffery Mason, MD (CHPI Board Secretary), UnitedHealthcare of California

Jeff Mason MD, FACP is currently Senior Medical Director for California for United Healthcare. He has overall responsibility for the utilization of health services by United Healthcare fully insured and alternate funding commercial members in California and for Medicare Advantage members in California.  Doctor Mason supervises California’s regionally based Market Medical Directors.  His job includes assisting Network Management in maintaining the capitated, delegated medical group model in California. Dr. Mason works closely with appeals, delegation oversight, risk management, and quality to ensure California meets or exceeds regulatory and quality standards. Dr. Mason assists in liaison with state wide physician organizations. Dr. Mason serves as the Health Services representative on the California Executive Leadership teams.

Doug McKeever, Covered California

Jacob Asher, MD, Anthem Blue Cross

After receiving an A.B. with Honors from Brown University and an MD from the Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Asher completed a residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and earned board certification.  Prior to entering full time medical management, Dr. Asher practiced Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery with Kaiser Permanente where he also served on the board of directors of The Permanente Medical Group.  He then worked as Northern California Regional Medical Director for network effectiveness and quality for Wellpoint. Dr. Asher next joined Cigna Healthcare where he was the Market Medical Executive for Northern California from 2009-15 serving as lead external facing medical director providing clinical support to both the regional sales and client service teams as well as the contracting unit and accountable care collaborations.  Dr. Asher rejoined Anthem as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the Commercial Business in March of 2015 where he oversees medical management, client facing clinical support,  and the local quality improvement team. He also  has responsibilities for cost of care and integrated cost management as well as provider collaboration , and serves as the clinical “face” of Anthem in the California market. 

John Stenerson (CHPI Board Treasurer), Self-Insured Schools of California

John Stenerson is the Deputy Executive Officer for Self-Insured Schools of California also known as SISC.  He began his career at SISC in 1988.  He is a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. 

SISC provides health benefits to more than 400 school districts covering over 300,000 lives.  With annual revenues of $1.8 Billion, SISC ranks as one of the largest public entity pools in the country.

John is responsible for all aspects of the program including:

• Implementing programs that promote access to high quality, appropriate health care
• Keeping health benefits affordable
• Building and maintaining fiscal stability

Melissa Welch, MD, Blue Shield of California

Dr. Melissa Welch is the Vice President of Clinical Quality, Network and Markets Support at Blue Shield effective July 19, 2015.  In this role she will drive and execute clinical quality and operations; specialty care transformation, lead clinical oversight of provider organizations in the network, and support the Markets team in promoting growth and customer retention. Over the last year and a half, Dr. Welch was the Vice President of Healthcare Market Innovations and Support at Blue Shield.  In this role she provided leadership and oversight of health care quality and affordability related activities that support the Markets team in retaining existing customers, selling new business, and implementing client-related care management and network innovations.

Previously, the Head of Regional Care Management at Aetna, Dr. Welch provided strategy, clinical guidance alongside National and Executive leaders at Aetna, managing over 15 million Aetna members and their dependents, including all commercial, and Medicare business lines and clinical programs.  In this capacity, she also led both regional and nation-wide Quality Management and affordability initiatives.

Dr. Welch was appointed Chief Medical Officer for the Community Health Network Integrated delivery system for the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 1999.  She is a Former Mayor Willie Brown, Jr. appointee to the San Francisco Health Services Board, serving as President /Vice President, and Rates and Benefits, Committee Chairperson (1999-2004). During her tenure she stabilized the trust fund and successfully crafted the country’s first transgender benefits.  Prior roles include Aetna’s West Regional and Senior Medical Director, (2003 -2011) and Executive Medical Director for the Health Plan of San Mateo, (2001-2003).  

Dr. Welch began her professional career in public health, with the SF Department of Public Health as Medical Director for a local community clinic. In l993, she joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco as an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, practiced and served on the teaching faculty.  As an advocate for the health of underserved populations, she is an experienced consultant in diversity and cultural competence. She is Principal and Founder of Perspectives of Differences Diversity Training and Consultation Services.

Dr. Welch has a B.S. in Biology from the University of California Irvine; a Master’s in Public Health Epidemiology from U.C. Berkeley and is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. Her philanthropic interests include raising awareness for prevention of heart disease in women.  She is a member of the Executive Leadership Team of the American Heart Association, Go Red for Women Campaign.

Amy Nguyen Howell, MD, CAPG

Amy Nguyen Howell, MD, is a board-certified family practice physician. She currently oversees all clinical programs at CAPG and supports advocacy work in Sacramento and Washington, DC. Additionally, she contributes to the Steering Committee on the Core Quality Measurement Collaborative; Healthcare Payment and Learning Action Network Population-Based Payment Work Group; and Clinical Programs Committee at NCQA. These national committees provide structure for an innovative coordinated delivery model focused on payment reform and integrated patient-centric care. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors at California Healthcare Performance Information System and serves as member of the Steering Committee at the California Quality Collaborative. Dr. Nguyen is an adjunct faculty member at USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and teaches graduate courses on quality of care. She most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer at Easy Choice Health Plan, a WellCare Company, where she oversaw clinical direction of medical services within appeals and grievances, care management, utilization management, and quality improvement for 60,000 Medicare patients and 15,000 SNP members. Dr. Nguyen has extensive managed care experience overseeing revenue, quality, and cost savings for over 500,000 lives in commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare lines of business. She continues to serve as a family physician at Playa Vista Medical Center. An honors graduate of Howard University School of Medicine and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Nguyen holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of California-Fresno State, with an emphasis in finance. She has traveled to foreign countries, delivering mission healthcare and lives in Santa Monica, CA with her family.