2023 Annual Health Care Conference

Brian Conner has practiced public accounting since 1993, providing audit, tax, and consulting services to integrated health systems, hospitals, ancillary providers, mental and convalescent health facilities, and medical groups. Brian has extensive experience providing advice and counsel in areas of audits, financial reporting, and tax-exempt financings. He performs technical reviews for health care clients and has served as an instructor and lecturer for the firm’s Health Care Group.

Conner holds several leadership roles as partner-in-charge of the firm’s Sacramento and Stockton offices, co-leader of the health care consulting group, and a member of the health care industry group’s leadership team. Previously, Conner served as the national practice leader for the Moss Adams Hospital Practice for over a decade.

Conner is the former chair of the Health Care Financial Management’s (HFMA) Principles and Practice Board and is a current member of the AICPA’s Health Care Entities Expert Panel and the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) Not-for-Profit Advisory Council.

Conner also has the privilege of serving as the emcee of the annual health care executive conference for Moss Adams for nearly a decade.

Chris Pritchard, CPA, MHA, is a partner and the national leader of Moss Adams Health Care Industry Group. He has practiced public accounting since 1991, serving integrated health systems, federally qualified health centers, managed care organizations, ambulatory surgery centers, Knox-Keene licensed health plans, rural and regionally integrated hospitals, rural and community-based primary care facilities, outpatient care facilities, outpatient surgery centers, large medical groups, independent physician associations, and third-party payers.

In addition to his experience auditing and supervising audit engagements of health care entities, Pritchard manages consulting engagements, including internal audits. He assists organizations with strategic management decision engagements, cash flow projections, budgeting projects, and other operational engagements.

Pritchard was an active member of the AICPA’s national Health Care Expert Panel, where he provided technical guidance on various publications. He’s published national articles and speaks frequently on health care financial reporting and other current topics.

Eric Klein, Esq., is the team leader of Sheppard Mullin’s 200+ attorney national Health Care Practice, which was recently named Law360’s Health Law Practice Group of the year for the third time in seven years.

Klein has over 35 years of practical legal and business experience, and his multisector practice focuses on health care transactions and regulation and current industry trends of population health management, global risk-bearing entities, consolidation, convergence, payor and provider alignment, the transformation to value and risk-based reimbursement systems, and private equity.

Known in the business community for his creative solutions and deal-making ability, Klein uses deep industry knowledge, entrepreneurial solutions, sophisticated negotiation skills, and effective legal process to meet the complex business and legal needs of both established and emerging companies.

Klein represents physician groups, hospitals, health plans, ancillary service providers, and private equity and strategic investors. He works with publicly traded and privately held companies across the country and advises both for-profit and not-for-profit clients on mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures, operational and contracting matters, strategic planning, HMO licensing and compliance, regulatory matters and information technology transactions. Klein was listed as a 2021 BTI M&A Client Service All-Star, named The Deal’s Healthcare, Pharma & Biotech Dealmaker of the Year in 2020, and twice named Healthcare Law National MVP by Law360.

Eric Lucas is a managing director for Moss Adams Provider Reimbursement Health Care Consulting Services and has worked in the health care finance industry since 1996. He serves health care organizations with government reimbursement matters.

Lucas’s areas of expertise include regulatory compliance, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, accounts receivable valuation and analysis, government financial reporting, and revenue cycle management.

Lucas has participated in multiple industry payment workgroups, has significant experience with advocacy groups related to major reimbursement matters, has represented hospitals in media discussions, and was a pioneer member in the California Medi-Cal Provider Fee development team and continues to maintain a role in its success.

Before joining Moss Adams, Lucas spent more than 20 years on the provider side, and most recently, was the system vice president of reimbursement and government programs at CommonSpirit Health, a 142-hospital health system with sites in over 16 states.

During his tenure, he built a centralized reimbursement department and standardized processes, managed government reimbursement and revenue analysis activities, collaborated with internal and external leaders to participate in various reimbursement program opportunities, and was a key member in the development and implementation of government payment methodologies and programs.

Karl Rebay is a partner and leads Moss Adams Strategy & Integration Health Care Consulting Services. He has over 25 years of experience in the health care industry. He provides high-impact health care advisory services to help the firm’s industry clients navigate and succeed in the rapidly evolving national health care landscape. His clients include health systems, hospitals, health plans, long-term care organizations, and independent physician associations, among others.

Rebay is primarily responsible for the development and delivery of a broad range of strategy services in the areas of growth, planning, financial performance, provider operations, and achieving maximum effectiveness and efficiency in health care environments. His specific expertise includes full-spectrum financial and operational consulting, market strategy and intelligence, project and strategy feasibility, capitation and value models, negotiation and analysis of managed care contracts, and physician compensation consulting.

Prior to joining Moss Adams in 2011, Rebay held senior leadership positions within the health care industry—including serving as the chief financial officer of one of the largest associations of physicians in private practice and serving as the director of finance for a publicly traded health system. Rebay has also served as senior administrative director of a large academic medical center.

Rebay is a frequent speaker at health care industry conferences and provides and facilitates regular training, both within the firm and to clients.

Lawrence W. Vernaglia is a partner and health care lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. He’s the department chair for the firm’s Industry Teams Department, responsible for overall strategy and leadership across all industry teams.

Prior to that, Vernaglia served for eight years as chair of the firm’s Health Care Industry Team. He represents hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, and a variety of other health care providers.

Vernaglia's practice involves regulatory and transactional matters, including Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement compliance advice and appeals; M&A financing; state regulatory issues including licensing, change of ownership, and CoN/DoN; survey appeals; fraud and abuse Stark Law analyses; managed care contracting; and general corporate and business planning in health care.

Vernaglia serves as outside policy counsel for the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association. He runs strategic planning programs for senior management and governing boards.

Marnee Pierson Iseman is a partner in Moss Adams Lean Health Care Practice. She has more than 17 years of experience practicing lean health care and brings first-hand expertise on the application of the Toyota Management System to health care organizations.

She serves a range of health care clients, from those with ambulatory services to large integrated systems, guiding them on leadership development, kaizen, innovation, and access services. She has received several health care awards and has presented to the health care community nationwide on topics including lean and the Toyota Production System as it applies to ambulatory care, process improvement, patient access, supply and demand, and quality.

Her experience gives her a first-hand perspective of the challenges in transforming health care. She has managed the strategic planning, operations, and financial performance of multiple suburban satellites offering primary, specialty, ancillary, and ambulatory surgery services; department of medicine; department of pediatrics; and ambulatory surgery centers. She understands present day health care challenges, including the obstacles providers face in implementing successful electronic health records (EHR) programs. She provided leadership and direction for the accelerated development of EHR with Providence and its ambulatory partners. She has led employed-physician practices across a five-state system including more than 3,100 physicians and advanced practice clinicians.

She was previously on the faculty of the Institute for Health Care Improvement and held roles as chief of community outreach and business development, chief operating officer, and ambulatory vice president for regional medical centers. She served as a principal at Rona Consulting Group (RCG) until it combined with Moss Adams in 2017. RCG’s founders were early adopters of the Toyota Management System in the health care setting.

Stacy Stelzriede is a partner and national practice leader for the Moss Adams Hospitals and Health Systems Practice. She has worked in the health care industry since 1990. She provides audit and consulting services to not-for-profit and for-profit health care organizations, including hospitals, long-term care organizations, medical groups, and health plans with revenues ranging from $20 million to over $1 billion.

Stelzriede has vast experience in internal control risk management, revenue cycle, regulatory compliance, tax-exempt bond offerings and debt covenant filings, and providing client education training related to technical accounting issues and board governance.

Additionally, Stelzriede is experienced in conducting audits in accordance with Government Auditing Standards, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards.