About Us

Heidi Garwood is a healthcare consultant, managed care executive and attorney with more than 20 years of experience in significant leadership roles at major health plans. Heidi has extensive experience in healthcare operations, business development, IT and case management system migrations, business strategy, long-term care operations, medical and quality management, Medicaid expansion and growth, member engagement, value based contracting, Medicaid RFPs, regulatory compliance, and social determinant of health strategy. 

Most recently she served as President of Medicaid for Health Care Service Corporation, where she oversaw and had profit and loss responsibility for their Medicaid line of business, leading key initiatives to strengthen operational and financial performance, membership growth and compliance across five states. From 2014-2018 she was the Chief Executive Officer of Aetna Better Health of Florida, where she led Medicaid operations including medical and quality management, network design, provider relations and contracting, community development and all other aspects of plan operations. Prior to that, Heidi spent 15 years at Humana directing their Florida Medicaid program and managing Florida legal matters for Humana’s Medicare, Medicaid and Commercial business as a Senior Attorney. Before Humana, Heidi served in a variety of government relations and senior legal counsel roles in the health care industry.

Heidi serves on the Board of SHARE Cancer Support, a national nonprofit that supports, educates, and empowers women affected by breast, ovarian, uterine or metastatic breast cancer, with a special focus on medically underserved communities. 

Heidi has a passion for books, travel and the outdoors and is recognized as an innovative, inspirational, engaged, and disciplined leader who achieves results.

Denise Kissane is a health care consultant with 30 plus years of clinical and administrative experience in a variety of settings including managed care, acute care, and senior living. Most recently, Denise worked for Aetna/CVS Health at the corporate level, leading multiple teams, including clinical implementations, performance improvement (audit), RFP response development for medical management, member outreach/ engagement Hub, program integrity, and Medicaid clinical vendor management.  Prior to her corporate role, Denise served as the Vice President, Clinical Health Services, for Aetna Better Health of Florida, directing clinical operations for the Florida Medicaid health plan.

Prior to her 9 years with Aetna/CVS Health, Denise worked for MCNA, providing leadership to the utilization management and case management departments for one of the leading dental benefit providers serving state agencies and managed care companies nationally. 

Prior to her work with MCNA, Denise spent a number of years in the acute care setting, leading the case management/social services department for Broward Health Coral Springs, a 200-bed acute care facility. 

For 15 years, Denise served as president and manager of a small business which provided boutique care management services for clients, focused on geriatric, disabled adult, and psychiatric population. 

Denise has expertise in Medicaid, Medicare, Duals, CHIP LTSS, behavioral health, foster care, and specialty programs for children and adults with special health care needs. She has a proven track record with employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention and actively participated in mentoring and internship programs.   She enjoys technical writing which brought her to the RFP space with CVS Health where she led the medical management sections of the bids for a number of states. 

Esther Morales is a consultant and managed care executive with over 30 years of clinical leadership roles at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), WellCare Health Plans, United Healthcare and Humana with proven aptitude for driving quality improvements, mitigating risk, increasing efficiency, improving HEDIS/STAR rates, and driving significant cost reductions.

For eight years Esther served as Divisional Vice President for Quality Improvement for Government Programs at HCSC, overseeing all Medicare and Medicaid quality operations for five states.  At HCSC, Esther significantly improved HEDIS rates to obtain Stars ratings and state Medicaid incentives, collaborated with large physician groups to embed quality nurses in their organizations to meet key quality and HEDIS/STAR objectives, and developed and implemented various types of provider incentive programs to improve value based contracting.

Prior to HCSC, Esther spent eight years and served in various clinical leadership roles at WellCare Health Plans, which included Regional Vice President of Quality for the North Division (six states). Besides quality, Esther had extensive experience and oversight for utilization management and operations for the Illinois Plan. 

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Previously, Esther worked in leadership roles at United Healthcare where she led teams developing case and disease management strategies and programs for the company, developing new employer reports and consultative presentations that became new standard reports for key accounts clients, and had responsibility for all the clinical operations at UnitedHealthcare of IL.

Prior to United Healthcare, Esther spent eight years at Humana in IL as the Executive Director of clinical operations for all lines of business

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Esther serves as a Board member for Willow House, a not-for profit organization in the Chicago area that provides support for people who have lost parents or children. 

Marie Carpenter is a managed care executive and consultant with over forty years of experience. She has held leadership positions at major health plans including United Healthcare, CIGNA, and Aetna. Marie has worked in various markets in the United States including California, DC/Northern Virginia, Maryland, Kansas City and Florida. Key areas of expertise include Commercial Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Long Term Care, and the Affordable Care Act. Her experience includes fully insured, self-funded, and network rental plans. 

Most recently Marie led the Network Team for Aetna's Southeast Florida Market for six years, overseeing network strategy, reimbursement models and unit cost management programs. Previously, Marie served as the Statewide Vice President of Network Management for Coventry Health Care in Florida where she developed and implemented network strategy and reimbursement models for their newly developed Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan. Developing this nascent program required an innovative approach to  provider collaboration, network and reimbursement models to meet the needs of ACA plans.

Marie also served as Vice President of Network Management for multiple health plans in California, Mid-Atlantic, and Mid-America, leading complex provider negotiations, network strategy and developing all provider risk reimbursement models.

Marie has significant behavioral health experience, serving as Vice President of Network Management for two national behavioral health plans. In these roles she built  behavioral health networks and was the liaison between the behavioral health plan and local and national health plans. 

As Vice President of Provider Relations for Quality Oncology, Marie led a cancer disease management program in fifteen states.

Marie is an avid reader and podcast listener and enjoys learning about leadership, management, health care, the economy, and science.

Vickie Tyas is a managed care leader and consultant with more than thirty-two years of health insurance industry expertise and a track record of delivering consistent performance, successfully planning initiatives to ensure sustainability, diligence in problem resolution, and developing complex business strategies.  Vickie brings extensive experience providing leadership in health plan operations, network management, customer service, Medicare sales, government programs, claims, and areas experiencing unique challenges. 

Vickie served in various leadership roles in her tenure at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico including Director of Network Management, Director of the High Risk Pool, and Director of Medicare Administration and Sales.  As the Director of Network Management, Vickie developed enhanced provider relationships, assisting in practice transformation with the implementation of sustainable provider engagement models. These included VBC reimbursement models to optimize health care value and advance provider engagement. 

Under Vickie’s leadership, her Network Project Management Team developed a Medicaid delegated care coordination program, and  implemented new VBC programs for all lines of business. 

During and prior to her time in network management Vickie served as the Plan Administrator for the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool and oversaw the development and implementation of the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan program. As the Plan Administrator, Vickie oversaw the financial administration of the Pool’s $192 million operating budget and directed all of the Pool's administrative activities.

As the President of Caraway Solutions, Vickie focused on implementing statewide innovations to transform the delivery of healthcare to a patient-centered and value-based system.  Through this innovative approach they were able to improve patient’s experience and health outcomes, providing stakeholders with critical access to critical health information at the point of care.