May 14,2003
Contact:
(925) 746-5100
bcarter@iha.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INTEGRATED
HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION NAMES NEW MEMBERS
WALNUT CREEK, CA – The Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), a statewide leadership group active in health care policy and managed care issues, announces the appointment of three new members to its board of directors: Linda Bergthold, Ph.D., senior consultant with Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Inc., Los Angeles; Giovanni Colella, MD, president and CEO of RelayHealth, based in Emeryville; and Scott B. Wells, CPA, CEO of Santé Health System, Inc. in Fresno.
Linda Bergthold, Ph.D. joined Watson Wyatt Worldwide in 2002 as a senior consultant and national thought leader for the health care practice, specializing in purchaser health care strategies and California and national health policy issues. She has more than 20 years experience in health care consulting and research, including recently completed research at Stanford University on coverage decision making in managed care, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was a vice president and head of the California office of The Lewin Group, a national health policy consulting firm, a principal with the William M. Mercer consulting firm as leader of their Western Region managed care practice, and the working group leader on benefits for the White House Health Reform Task Force in 1993. Linda holds a B.A. from UCLA and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz. She was a Pew Fellow at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, UC San Francisco.
Giovanni Colella, MD is president and chief executive officer of RelayHealth (formerly Healinx). Founded in 1999 and based in Emeryville, RelayHealth is the premier provider of secure online healthcare communication services linking patients, healthcare professionals, payors, and pharmacies. Dr. Colella was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, led the health care practice for Sapient, a leading publicly traded Internet consulting firm, and was a partner at SAI, a health care advisory firm in New York, which was sold to Perot Systems in 1997. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry. He graduated valedictorian from the Universita Degli Studi di Milano in Italy, and earned his MBA from Columbia Business School were he graduated as a Popper Scholar.
Scott
B. Wells, CPA,
is chief executive officer of Santé
Health System, Inc. in Fresno. Santé is a management services
organization (MSO) with over fourteen clients, responsible for managing client
revenues of $250 million annually. Clients
include Santé Community Physicians, an independent physicians association;
Community Medical Providers Medical Group, Simonian Sports Medicine Clinic,
Community Hospitalist Medical Group, Community Perinatal Medical Group,
Community Anesthesia Providers, Regional Emergency Medical Group, Community
Emergency Medical Associates, Advantek and Associates, and others.
Wells is a certified public accountant.
In 1992, he joined Community Medical Centers as director of audit and
consulting services and in 1995 became CEO of its for-profit subsidiary, Santé
Health System. Previously, he was a senior manager with Ernst &
Young's accounting, auditing and consulting department.
Wells graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a bachelor
of business administration, accountancy degree.
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IHA (www.iha.org) is a California leadership group
of health plans, physician groups, and health care systems, plus academic,
purchaser, consumer, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, committed to
policy development, public dialogue, and special projects associated with the
continuing evolution of managed health care.
IHA’s most recent undertaking is a collaborative Pay for Performance
initiative involving six major California HMOs and their medical groups.
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