AHP today announced the return of Patrick Gauthier, national behavioral health expert and thought leader in health care reform, as director of AHP Healthcare Solutions, the company’s division dedicated to supporting clients in navigating new requirements and maximizing opportunities with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Mr. Gauthier had taken the last year to focus on product development for AHP, designing a scalable process for planning and behavioral healthcare networks and implementing a pilot program for a group of providers forming a network in the Midwest.
“As the ACA transforms healthcare on every level across the country, and as the complexities of regulatory requirements, reimbursement, and opportunities multiply, we recognized the increasing need for Patrick’s skills and asked him to return to once again lead the Healthcare Solutions division,” said Neal Shifman, President and CEO of AHP.
Every state has its own relationship to ACA, including the Medicaid waiver, with different models of care, sources of funding, and approach to meeting requirements. The nuances of each state, combined with federal intricacies, have an impact on payers, providers, and overall health care delivery in a variety of ways. For example, several states, including New York, have launched or are preparing to introduce Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs. AHP Healthcare Solutions is focused on helping clients understand the most strategic pathways through such new and emerging policies and regulations and into improved business practices and opportunities for growth.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to help our clients understand and plan for the increasingly sophisticated healthcare landscape. I am especially eager to help our customers identify their unique opportunity to maximize the impact of their mission and their bottom-line,” said Mr. Gauthier. “I’m pleased to be leading a large, multidisciplinary team of senior subject matter experts again. This team represents many decades’ of health care financing, managed care, clinical, state and federal programming, and health care marketing experience.”
AHP Healthcare Solutions is a division of AHP specializing in the health care, behavioral health, and disabilities sectors. Serving payers, providers, and associations, the division offers products and services in policy and regulatory guidance, market and business strategy, service integration and network development, performance improvement and organization alignment, and behavioral health workforce management. Recent projects include building a management service organization for a large association of intellectual/developmental disabilities agencies in the Northeast; improving the financial bottom line to behavioral health providers in New York, Texas, and Illinois; and implementing the pilot program for the aforementioned new network of behavioral health providers in the Midwest, led by Mr. Gauthier.
“With the Healthcare Solutions team under Patrick’s leadership,” said Charles Galland, COO of AHP, “our clients can expect the same exceptional level of service, with the added insight and direction he brings. His penchant for guiding our customers to the outcomes and results that mean the most to them is the strongest value proposition we can make. We plan to continue advancing and innovating where our own products are concerned, shaping our responses to client needs and bringing the most accomplished subject matter experts to every challenge.”
Mr. Gauthier is a national thought leader and speaker on topics of health care reform and behavioral health. He is a regular contributor to industry journals and authored AHP’s series of publications on mental health parity: Parity: A Call to Action for Mental Health & Addiction Treatment Providers; Health Plan Guide to Parity Implementation; and An Environmental Scan of the Impact of Parity.
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