National Governors Association: State Alliance for eHealth - Day One Post 7

Posted by ED Wednesday a.m., 28 March

The National Governors Association (NGA) was contracted by ONCHIT to provide advisory services for Health Information Exchanges as they developed in the various states. MBProject invited Kathleen Nolan, MPH, Health Division Director, Center for Best Practices, NGA to participate in the Institute since banks have not traditionally been part of the digital eHealth dialogue.

The Anatomy and Economics of Health Records Banks - Day One Post 6

Posted by ED Friday a.m.

Tuesday afternoon, I had the privilege of having Pamela Matthews, Director, Business Information Systems, HIMSS, Blue Ridge, GA attend Jonathan Gold's Electronic/Personal Healthcare Records track session and take notes listening for some of the key ideas:

Banks may be in a position to provide other services to the healthcare industry as part of their business case for entry into "Medical Healthcare Banking."

Examples of these can be: storage of records for providers, provision of disaster recovery services for hospitals, records curation (moving records from paper to digital format).

Questions raised concerned how banks become players in healthcare banking is to "add to" their current business model. Example: moving from a "transaction based focus" business model to a "holder or repository of healthcare data" model. What are these other lines of business that banks need to get involved with to be a significant player in this market? Will banks become resellers of deidentified data and moving their business models around revenue streams focused on use of this deidentified data?

On Track...

FWIW - The Institute was organized in several tracks: Bank-driven Revenue Cycle Management, Electronic / Personal Healthcare Records, Value in Health, Innovations in Consumer-Driven Healthcare, Medical Banking 101, Medical Banking Venture Capital Forum. I will cover the sessions I attended and loop back as time allows to add details to others. Don't wait for me, though -- pull up the "Speaker Bio" category to see just some of the excellent SMEs who lend their support to the medical banking movement.

John Casillas Keynote - Day One Post 2

Posted by ED Wednesday a.m.

This is a placeholder post. When I get a copy of John's well received keynote I'll link it here. [ Update: Please check the "Continue Reading" link below for John's transcript. ]

Tangentially, I had lunch with John and John H. English. John E. studies the effectiveness of conferences as tools of persuasion.

I want to invite you on a journey – a digital pathway to better health. You know, one of my favorite movies growing up was The Wizard of Oz. I loved the journey following “the yellow brick road” into a land of imagination and fascination. We watched the Tin Man, who needed a heart, the Lion who wanted Courage, and the Scare Crow who wanted a brain. If ever there was need for these three things – a heart, courage and a brain full of wisdom – now is the time as we face a broad and deepening healthcare crisis in America. Now, I’m no wizard, but I’ve been on a journey for the past 11 years that I believe, in fact I’m positive, will solve one of the most vexing problems our country has ever faced – universal access to quality healthcare at a reasonable cost.

If you’re a first timer I’d like to welcome you to a group that thinks outside the “lockbox”. Our conference is composed of visionaries with great imagination who have entered their own “medical banking” journeys and have fascinating stories. They join our journey – a journey of imagination, a journey of discovery, a journey of seeking answers to a quagmire that has stumped an entire industry, in fact, it has stumped an entire nation.

Soon you’ll hear exciting new terms that form the basis for a holistic approach to the solution we’ve been searching for. Terms like Bank-Driven Revenue Cycle Management, Bank-driven Electronic and Personal Healthcare Records, Value-In-Health, Health Record Banks and the Mega-community. That last one was coined by Booz Allen in a global study examining how diverse stakeholders successfully converged to solve complex social issues. Most well-informed, reasonable folks agree that our healthcare crisis demands a community approach. This is a key element of what the Institute offers you – a cross-industry gathering place.

So if you’re a first timer, like the National Governors Association, Office of the National Coordinator, American Dental Association, Centers for Disease Control or the Pentagon, we’re going to take you on a journey in search of Oz. I’d ask you to keep an open mind to free up your imagination because many people here today – powerful, articulate, intelligent, imaginative people – have reached the same conclusion about unlocking the magical key of banking to finally attain the goal of which I speak.

I must confess, the journey at times has been terribly lonely…but not anymore! Take a look at our Membership – over 50 leading firms that have embraced our journey, fueling the medical banking movement. I’m happy to say that one by one the groups assembled here have engaged. My heartfelt thanks goes out to the President’s Council, Track Chairs and our Speakers. I want to especially acknowledge the Members of the Medical Banking Project for without your support, our journey to build a better future would come to an end. You are contributing valuable insight to where we should be going; like the CIO of Walt Disney. This week Tony Scott is promoting MBProject in New York to the C-Level brass of the Top 50 companies in America. Like Tony, I invite you to contribute the medical banking ideas you’ve learned here and to fully engage in the dynamic collaborative process here at the 5^th National Medical Banking Institute.

During the next 2 days we’re going to tell you about exciting developments to streamline runaway healthcare costs. You’ll see vivid, concrete examples of how banks have demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that this plan of which I speak of has amazing potential. Indeed PNC’s case study will show how one healthcare group saved $4 million last year alone. These early successes solidify our position that banks can save our healthcare system over $35 billion annually just in remittance management, which we consider phase one of the medical banking build-out. That means there’s a whole lot more in savings to go!

I invite you to focus on Three Big Ideas this morning that have the power to transform healthcare. First, I’m going to tell you about MBProject’s Pilot Programs, what they are and why you should support them. Second, I want to introduce you to the idea of Banks serving as Infomediaries, which is crucial for grasping the holistic role of banks driving better value in healthcare, and finally, I want to share our deep conviction that a Common Medical Banking Platform will galvanize our industry and pave our digital pathway to better health.

So let’s start with our Pilot Programs. MBProject has worked hard to establish 2 new Pilot Programs, both managed under our C.O.M.B.A.T. Initiative we started in June 2005 at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health. It stands for “Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology”, and our mission with this is to combat the rising cost of healthcare using medical banking principles and technology. The first one, our HSA Accumulator Use Case, supports pricing transparency in healthcare and lays the groundwork for real time payments. I want to thank PricewaterhouseCoopers for managing this program, and Exante Bank, who some people may not know ponied up $110,000 for this Use Case. I applaud their vision and leadership to help us to continue our journey; in fact, we dedicated our Educational Grantorship to them to recognize what they’ve done. I believe they deserve a lot of credit. By the way, a volunteer for a follow-up Use Case has already surfaced – ACS – that will prove out a model that prices the claim at point of service. Together, the Use Cases get us nearer to our goal of ubiquitous real time payment solutions for healthcare.

Our second Pilot Program represents an historic opportunity for a sponsor who understands the potential returns just like Exante did. This pilot program will enable banks and healthcare groups to establish a Medical Internet that will make Personal Healthcare Records accessible to every family in America, and at the same time provides access to Electronic Medical Records to every physician. This is a key element in any national healthcare information build-out because less than 15% of our doctors use EHRs today, and before we can have real time access to our data it must be lifted off the paper! This Use Case offers a formula that achieves this goal in a profitable way.

Now, a word about these Pilot Programs: Global events herald the inevitability of an emerging eHealth ecosystem linked to banks – a medical banking ecosystem. Ask the UK, Australia, Germany, the European Union, Canada and you’ll find that Banks acting as Infomediaries is where this is all heading. They see the writing on the wall. So I ask the question: Is your bank an eHealth infomediary? You ask what’s that? Fair question: let’s break the term down into three components so that you can answer this question for your organization.

First, an Infomediary delivers administrative efficiency – using your IT capabilities to transform the extreme paper chase in healthcare to a digital stream that automates timely and accurate information to your business and retail costumers; second, it involves creating a new mechanism within your existing IT infrastructure to support clinical data exchanges; and, finally, an infomediary delivers quality information that improves the health of your account holders in your new role as health information brokers. I bet most banks didn’t think in 2000 that they’d be health information brokers in 2007. The change is happening fairly quickly. And you know, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the health-wealth equation: healthy HSA holders means more assets for your bank. Now that describes a holistic attitude for banks in the new area of consumer-driven healthcare. The numbers are just too compelling and the incentive for banks is as clear as the noon day.

I know someone out there is asking the question, why banks? In 1995 I interviewed 125 bank CEOs and since then hundreds more to develop the thesis of medical banking. This question drove me on a fascinating journey and fuels my desire to make events like this happen.

In short, banks offer existing processes, systems and infrastructure, coupled with billions of dollars in ongoing investments that assure identity, high value data movement with amazing levels of integrity, and consumer and community-focused public relations. It’s a powerful package that the healthcare system can use today, but without another critical element we haven’t discussed yet, its not complete: and that is Public Trust. Banks have it and you know that without you’re nothing. All successful banks thrive on Public Trust; thus reputational risk must be carefully evaluated to ensure that this towering standard is met for all medical banking services. By the way, the OCC and Federal Reserve are on record as agreeing with our position that banks can offer health data exchanges. And we will continue to engage Privacy Groups to help steer our important journey.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are accelerating towards a digital world and the possibility of being left behind is very real. Who wants to be left behind? Getting involved is imperative, especially if we want to help our healthcare system, and I know that the members of MBProject do. We’ve mapped out a digital pathway for you today but its up to you to take the journey; its up to you to participate. Its not dependent upon you, because the environment will drive us there, but as a mega-community effort we’ll get there faster, and if you look at the rate of inflation in healthcare you know we have a very limited amount of time.

Because timing is of the essence, the 3^rd Big Idea I speak of today is our commitment to launch a Common Medical Banking Platform and an associated Accreditation Council or Board of Governors. This effort will achieve a powerful breakthrough for solving the vexing riddle of healthcare. The platform will energize the medical banking community to better serve the needs of healthcare, government, employers and the public.

Just like the ACH for executing electronic funds transfers, banks understand that if they follow common rules codified in bilateral trade and operating agreements, there will be continuity, consistency and accountability in transactional exchanges. This supports the bank’s reputation as a Trusted Entity for business – how important this is in a conservative industry like healthcare! Yet the current medical banking environment, like any new industry taking flight, has undergone the type of bumpy ride that the Wilbur Brothers experienced – but this didn’t stop them from pressing forward with their dream that man can fly.

Likewise, a Common Medical Banking Platform will help the medical banking community to take flight. It will serve all of our constituencies – banks, vendors, associations, like the Medical Group Management Association, that contacted MBProject to help solve an EFT riddle related to the National Provider Identifier. The platform would help these groups manage the complexity of ramping onto a digital environment. It will iron out the bumpy rides we might otherwise experience with ERAs, HSAs and PHRs, so that everyone benefits.

To meet this goal, MBProject is appointing a committee to draft plans for this platform and establishing a Board. We will focus on core “hybrid” transactions that will rapidly commoditize. The platform will create unity in standards and processes, but the sky will be the limit for competition. Supplemented with continuing education, so critical for navigating the complexities of this newly emerging segment, we will optimize our members’ chances for success. Finally, as investments in this space gather momentum it is critical to facilitate efficiency. It’s really MBProject’s obligation to the industry to lay the groundwork for that efficiency, and it will propel us towards reaching our destination of better health for everyone.

I was fascinated by Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel’s recent Report recommending that a Federal Reserve Board-like commission could manage a healthcare transformation in America. It’s the second time in recent months that the Federal Reserve Board was referred to as an important model for healthcare – the other being the House version of the Independent Health Record Bank Act. Using this approach, a market-proven model for managing multiple layers of environmental complexity, is good and sound thinking.

Now, some folks take the idea of convergence between banks and healthcare too far. You never want a banker with a scalpel leaning over you on the operating table. But do you want to get online to get your financial and healthcare data using an ultra-secure site? According to a 2006 Global Security Survey by Unisys, the answer is emphatically yes; in fact, consumers will change banks for that kind of security. That same survey asked who should be trusted for your identity management? Guess what the answer was? Banks are who people trust the most.

Today, I challenge you to think more holistically when you use the term “medical banking”. The eHealth Lockbox is a really gateway that heralds a paradigm shift in multiple relationships – bank and providers, banks and health plans, banks and employers, the government, and the consumer. As an Infomediary the bank progressively moves the solution set from monetary exchanges to “health data liquidity” – both involve highly confidential data exchange systems. And don’t buy the argument that these systems can only move “thin” information – you absolutely can move much more complex information like healthcare records. As you do, and you most likely will, banks will support much greater efficiency in administrative transactions, clinical data exchanges, and consumer-friendly healthcare research that will help individuals live healthier lives.

You know I’m tired of the naysayers that say it can’t be done. They must not have read the headlines of the December 2006 issue of HealthLeaders screaming: THE BANKS ARE COMING! THE BANKS ARE COMING! Well I have some news for HealthLeaders, THE BANKS ARE HERE!

Friends, its time to follow the yellow brick road. Financial institutions are prepared to revolutionize healthcare to take us on a journey to where we’ve never been before. And the good news is that in the process this industry is going to make a lot of money, and while that sounds so self-serving its so very important, because we all know what happens to models that aren’t profitable and self-sustaining. A new medical banking ecosystem will bring down the costs of quality healthcare for everyone. Saving money in healthcare as a bank really makes money for everyone – a great win-win-win.

Did you know that there are more banks in attendance at this Institute than ever before? I think they must have realized just like many of us here that there’s a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. And you know what? Sitting in the audience today are some investment bankers who 48 hours from now will be knocking down the door to be first in line to help launch this new mega-community.

I challenge you to get involved in the medical banking movement. Its shaping new ideas that will improve global healthcare. Our HSA Use Case, E/PHR Use Case, and Common Medical Banking Platform will challenge the status quo and its failing approach to healthcare.

In the process of creating this new Land of Oz all of us must have a holistic consciousness of serving the community at large, because in approaching this task with that in mind in the long run, that approach will benefit everyone. It will help manage the cost, underwrite a robust bottom line, modify consumer behavior, and be socially responsible – in essence everyone will benefit from the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

So many people talk to me with dollar signs in their eyes, anxious to take that pot of gold and place it in their profit column. But the critical interdependencies in healthcare are so broad that everyone must benefit, or we all will fail. This isn’t an individual endeavor, its a mega-community effort and its fruits are programs that are self-sustaining. We’ve already proved that so far with the eHealth Lockbox model and its really these types of programs that have a far better chance of guaranteeing we can provide universal access to healthcare at a reasonable cost.

A February 2007 article in the Harvard Business Review sketches an interview with the chairman of one of the largest banks in the world, who claimed that civil society groups like the Medical Banking Project, have realized that carefully calibrated business models can unleash powerful forces for good, and at the same time open the door to new profitable markets. That’s what MBProject is all about. Our mission is to convert digital savings into charitable resources.

Sometimes it seems that we want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. We must be realistic about what employers can do to help families realize the American dream of a quality livelihood. That’s why we are joining with large employers to forge a new alliance between banks and healthcare groups. Our healthcare is our collective responsibility.

In the final analysis this isn’t a question of technology, is it? It’s a question of passion and will. It’s a question of where the public really puts its trust. It’s a question of what consumers, of what you will do to keep your family safe and secure, both today and during the difficult times of natural and man-made disaster. That’s why MBProject supports our Unified Platform Initiative that links financial, healthcare and homeland security functions. Look at the aftermath of Katrina and you’ll find an acute need for a platform that does just this – emergency access, with positive ID, to financial and healthcare records, and to eliminate fraud and abuse during this time of severe stress.

To save our healthcare system takes strategic players who understand consumerism – another plus for banks – and it is especially important to address the immense stresses of our community safety net. Banks and employers cannot offer HSAs while winking at the problem of the underserved. Our journey to solve the healthcare crisis will stop dead in its tracks if we don’t solve the underserved and unbanked problem. Both of these camps come together in a medical banking paradigm. Do you see that? In the solution of which I speak, a person without a bank account – which could be a Universal Health Account – couldn’t access their healthcare record because these two are systemically linked in the banking and healthcare systems. This is why MBProject will continue to support what we call a “community care platform” and our version of it, Charitable Communities Network.

I like the old sports adage that you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball. We must stay focused. To build a bank infomediary requires focusing on the communities where we live and work – something banks excel at – especially as federal, state and local governments develop healthcare policy, standards and regulations. Well informed in medical banking means forewarned. Do you know who your state CIO is for healthcare?

In closing, I was on a panel at a national event in Chicago with naysayers when the moderator leaned over to me and said, “Medical banking is all about solutions, isn’t it?” I couldn’t have said it better. Our digital path to better health is a fascinating journey that is ripe with opportunity. My question today is will you help? You might ask how. I think I’ve provided that answer this morning.

Stay active in the Medical Banking Project by supporting our Use Cases that target strategic areas that move this industry forward. Learn about our Common Medical Banking Platform as we lay plans to make this available. And above all, think holistically about the bank’s role in healthcare. Let us help you to connect the dots during the next two days and bring you to the conclusion that the bank acting as an Infomediary, holistically deploying its assets with a profit motive, is a powerful idea that will support better healthcare for a long, long time.

Keeping these important ideas in mind you’ll join a growing mega-community of supporters who are on a medical banking journey, building uniquely powerful solutions that support universal access to quality healthcare at reasonable costs. Yes, we’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Douglas J. Spence

Douglas J. Spence
Chief Operating Officer
Foresight Corporation

Doug Spence joined Foresight in 2000 to help expand the company’s healthcare and global business offerings. His vision and partnership with Foresight’s BC/BS customers paved the way for Foresight’s deliverance of first-time mission-critical solutions and business intelligence to healthcare.  Today Spence is a familiar face in the healthcare community, and serves as Chair of the Medical Banking Institute’s President’s Council Standards Subcommittee, and is actively involved with NPAG, NCHICA, WEDI and AHIP, among others.  Before joining Foresight, Spence led the sales, development and operations divisions in major corporations and most recently served as President of The Huntington Service Company, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, Inc. Previously, Spence served as CIO and vice president of corporate operations at CompuServe Corporation, where he oversaw worldwide data center provisioning and management, corporate engineering, IS, IT and supply chain management.  He is a Guest Lecturer at the Ivan Allen School of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Arneek Multani

Arneek Multani
PrincipalL
Trident Capital

Arneek Multani joined Trident Capital in 2002 and is a Principal in the Palo Alto office. In this role, he focuses on investing in health care software/services, transaction processing and business process outsourcing companies. Arneek most recently worked in Product Management for the Network Storage Software Products Group at Sun Microsystems. Prior to working at Sun, Arneek worked with McCown De Leeuw & Co., a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts, where he focused on investing in the health and fitness industries. Before McCown De Leeuw, Arneek worked in the Media & Telecommunications area of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Morgan Stanley & Co. Arneek holds an M.B.A from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  He also holds a B.S in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and a B.A.S. in Systems Engineering from the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

William A. Yasnoff

William A. Yasnoff, MD, PhD, FACMI

Dr. Yasnoff, a well-known national leader in health informatics, is the Founder and Managing Partner of NHII Advisors, a consulting firm that helps organizations successfully develop health information infrastructure systems and solutions. Services include strategic planning and advising in areas such as generating requirements, avoiding critical mistakes, mediating internal power struggles, fundraising, solving complex governance problems among multiple stakeholders, policy development, staff recruitment, and project management. Assistance in other health informatics domains is also available, such as strategic product/service development and marketing, systems architecture, standards, messaging, and operational issues. In recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of public health informatics and the development of the nation's health information infrastructure, he was awarded an honorary DrPH by the University of Louisville in May, 2006.

Previously, Dr. Yasnoff served as Senior Advisor, National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Beginning in late 2002, he initiated, organized, and developed the HHS activities directed at promoting and encouraging the NHII, which led to an additional $50 million in the President’s FY05 budget request and the recent Presidential creation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, establishing the NHII as a widely recognized goal for the nation. Dr. Yasnoff organized the first national NHII Conference in 2003, where a consensus action agenda was developed and the Secretary of HHS announced the historic Federal government license agreement for the comprehensive standard medical vocabulary SNOMED.

He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics, and the primary author of the chapter on public health informatics and health information infrastructure in the upcoming 3rd edition of the textbook Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Healthcare and Medicine. Dr. Yasnoff is also Adjunct Professor of Health Sciences Informatics at Johns Hopkins, Professor (gratis) of Health Management and Systems Sciences at the University of Louisville, and served as a Board Member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) in 2003-4. Management and Systems Sciences at the University of Louisville, and served as a Board Member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) in 2003-4.

Before coming to the Washington, DC, area, Dr. Yasnoff was Associate Director for Science, Public Health Practice Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he became well known for his work in public health informatics, including co-editing the textbook Public Health Informatics and Information Systems, and serving as Program Chair of the AMIA 2001 Spring meeting, “Developing a National Agenda for Public Health Informatics.” He came to CDC from the Oregon Health Division, where he developed and deployed both a statewide immunization registry (still operating successfully today) and an electronic information network for public health officials.

Prior to his government service, Dr. Yasnoff spent many years in the private sector, including entrepreneurial businesses, initially as Vice President of Research for Cell Analysis Systems, Inc., where he developed the first PC-based commercial system for quantifying DNA content of cells on slides in 1986, and then as founder and ceo of his own company that developed image analysis solutions such as quantifying brain blood flow defects in SPECT scans. He later served as Medical Director of AMA/Net, the American Medical Association’s first online electronic information system for physicians, developing and implementing the marketing plan that expanded the subscriber base tenfold to 40,000 in 60 days. He subsequently restarted the network as

U.S. HealthLink, a public-private partnership in Oregon. He also has done consulting work for a variety of commercial, academic, and government clients, addressing a wide range of health informatics challenges, including reviewing and evaluating high-tech business plans and participating in site visits for Columbine Venture Partners. He received both his Ph.D. in computer science (pattern recognition and image analysis) and M.D. from Northwestern University, and completed an internal medicine internship at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in 1980. Dr. Yasnoff has been a faculty member for numerous informatics courses, is the author of over 250 scientific publications and presentations, and was elected a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics in 1989.

William A. Howard, Jr.

William A. Howard, Jr.
Executive Vice President, Markets
Fiserv Health

Bill Howard is executive vice president of markets for Fiserv Health, a business unit of Fiserv, Inc. He is responsible for the market positioning and brand strategy for the Fiserv Health companies and the product development for Fiserv Health’s services as a national health plan administrator for self-funded employers. Howard oversees the process by which Fiserv Health contracts with third party organizations such as PPO networks and ancillary providers to enhance service offerings. Prior to joining Fiserv Health, Howard spent over 15 years with Mercer Human Resource Consulting. He led Mercer’s national Vendor Performance Management team of 25 consultants and worked with a number of large employers on the administration and design of their health plans. Howard also provided client management services to a number of clients in Virginia. Before Mercer, he spent 12 years with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia in various management positions for customer service, corporate planning, and the development of automated claims processing solutions. Howard received his bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Richmond and is a member of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists.

Vincent Marzula

Vincent Marzula
VP, Healthcare Solutions & Product Group Manager
Ecommerce Product Group Manager Treasury Management Division
PNC Bank

Vince Marzula is Vice President and Product Group Manager – Healthcare Strategy in the Treasury Management Division of PNC Bank. Vince currently manages a professional staff of healthcare product specialists who are responsible for developing and executing his vision for PNC to meet the revenue cycle healthcare industry needs.

Vince’s experience includes 12 years of product development experience in the financial industry as well as strategic management consulting. Vince sat on the joint HIPAA task force consisting of NACHA, the American Bankers’ Association (ABA) and Community Bankers’ Organization.  Vince is a member of the Health Financial Management Association (HFMA), America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and Medical Banking Project Vice President. Vince graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and has obtained Certified Cash Managers (CCM) certification through the Association of Financial Professionals.

Peter Erickson

Peter Erickson
Senior Principal
Tripletree, LLC

Joining the Company in 1998, Peter has played a number of roles in TripleTree’s growth ranging from the management of client engagements to the firm’s business development and marketing efforts. As a Senior Principal, Peter is involved in the management and execution of TripleTree's transaction and advisory services with a current emphasis in consumer health, human capital management and business services.  Having represented clients across various software and services domains, Peter has successfully negotiated sell-side M&A and capital transactions that have included such companies as Fiserv, Microsoft, SSA Global, and Manitoba Telecom. Prior to joining TripleTree, Peter helped manage international development programs focused on Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia through the National Forum Foundation in Washington D.C. While attending the Carlson School of Management, Peter helped establish a student-led $1.5 million investment fund that now serves as a cornerstone for the school's finance program. During this time, he also interned at Sit Investment Associates, a money management firm with over $10 billion in assets under management. Peter attended DePauw University where he earned his B.A. and the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, where he received his M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance.