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SHOP Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Nominees and Bios

Bill Dowling- University of Washington Department of Health Services

Carol Wilmes- Association of WA Cities Employee Benefit Trust

Chris Bandoli- Regence BlueShield

Donna Steward- Association of Washington Business

Eric Lo- Washington Dental Service

Gary Smith- Independent Business Association of Washington State

Jeff Lindstrom- Health Insurance Team

Julie Keeffe- Community Health Plan of Washington

Lonnie Goodell- Group Health Cooperative

Mike Bergstraesser- Premera Blue Cross

Patrick Connor- National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)

Patrick McMonagle- Independent Consultant

Troy Nordlund- Pacific NW Insurance Brokerage, INC

Tyson Fuehrer- Polestar Benefits, Inc.

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SHOP TAC Nominee Bill Dowling, MBA, PhD- UW Department of Health Services-Chair Professor Dowling was appointed Chair of the Department of Health Services in 1994. He was first

appointed to the faculty in 1974, serving as Director of the MHA Program until 1981. From 1981 to 1994,

Dowling was employed as Vice President for Planning and Development in the corporate headquarters

of the Providence Health System where he was responsible for system strategic planning, linking system

and institutional planning, and government affairs. He returned to the University in 1994. Dowling's

main interests are in the development and execution of strategy in health care organizations and in

understanding factors that affect organizational performance.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Carol Wilmes- Association of WA Cities Employee Benefit Trust- Program Manager

Carol Wilmes began her career with the Association of Washington Cities in August 1982. Since 1991,

Carol has directly managed the Employee Benefit Trust, offering medical, dental, vision, life, long-term

disability, employee assistance program and group long term care insurance to 240 cities and 45 special

purpose districts. In total, the Trust insures 37,000 employees and family members statewide.

Carol is a frequent resource for labor-management task forces addressing the complexities of health

care coverage, and has been involved in transition discussions at all levels of municipal government—

council meetings/retreats; union meetings; department head discussions; and joint labor/management

negotiations. Carol has testified at numerous interest arbitration and PERC hearings as an expert

witness, and has conducted presentations nationally on governmental entity health pools and public

sector health care trends.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Chris Bandoli- Regence BlueShield- Public Policy Manager

Chris Bandoli is responsible for leading Regence BlueShield’s legislative and political activities. He also assists in congressional relations and in corporate public policy strategy development.

Prior to joining Regence in 2007, Mr. Bandoli researched health policy for several companies that specialize in monitoring state legislative and regulatory activity across the nation. He also worked in local government affairs for a land development company.

Mr. Bandoli serves on the board of the Association of Washington Healthcare Plans, the executive committee of the Immunization Action Coalition of Washington, and on several public policy committees and workgroups throughout the Puget Sound area.

Mr. Bandoli hails from Evansville, Indiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Indiana University and a master’s degree in political management from the George Washington University. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in Brier, Washington.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Donna Steward- Association of Washington Business- Director of Government Affairs

Donna Steward is currently Director of Government Affairs for the Association of Washington Business. In this role she brings forward the voice of small and large businesses statewide on the issues of health care, education and unemployment insurance policy. She works closely with association members, other business leaders, legislators, state agencies and other stakeholders to affect positive change for employers.

Prior to employment with AWB, she was the Associate Regional Administrator of the Division of Medicare Financial Management for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Her responsibilities included medical review, fraud and abuse, payment integrity and oversight of Medicare contractors in 36 states spanning four CMS regional offices.

Donna also served as the Executive Director of the Association of Washington Healthcare Plans and worked as a Legislative Research Analyst for the Washington State House of Representatives covering health care and education issues.

She is currently a member of the Employment Security Department’s Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee, chair and founder of the national Employers for Quality Health Care coalition, member of the Washington Policy Center’s Education Council, former co-chair of the Healthy Communities Partnership, and former co-chair of the Washington State Medicare-Medicaid fraud and abuse project known as the Medi-Medi Project.

Honors include 2008 Federal Employee of the Year award recipient and nomination to the federal Senior Executive Service training program.

She is a native Washingtonian and graduate of the University of Washington with a BA in Economics.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Eric Lo- Washington Dental Service- VP Underwriting and Actuarial Services

Eric Lo is vice president of Underwriting and Actuarial Services for Washington Dental Service. He

directs the actuarial and underwriting functions, which include pricing of dental products, projection of

revenues and claim liabilities, as well as oversight of corporate financial risk.

Before joining Washington Dental Service in 2008, Mr. Lo spent 5 years in various actuarial roles with

Trustmark Life Insurance Company, a mid-sized health and life insurer based in Lake Forest, Illinois. His

career began at Lucent Technologies, what is now Alcatel-Lucent, as a wireless network engineer

involved in the deployment and integration of CDMA wireless communications systems in the

international market.

Mr. Lo, an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries,

holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

with a minor in Mathematics.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Gary L. Smith- Independent Business Association of WA- Executive Director

Gary Smith has been the Executive Director of Independent Business Association of Washington State

since its founding in 1973. IBA is one of the largest state-based small business organizations in the

nation and it has been recognized nationally for its work on behalf of small businesses. IBA currently

serves over 3700 small business owners in Washington State. Gary is a registered lobbyist for the IBA,

and has advocated successfully on behalf of small businesses on major policies in Washington State and

nationally for over 40 years with scores of victories benefiting small businesses. Gary has also owned

and operated two successful small businesses and signed the front side of pay checks so he personally

understands many of the challenges small business owners face.

APPOINTMENTS and INVOLVEMENTS (partial list)

* Advocating for many years to make health care available and affordable to small businesses

* Current - Stakeholder, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency - Climate Protection Task Force

* Past Member, Stormwater BMP Technical Advisory Committee – WA Department of Ecology

* Current - Member - Advisory Council - Attorney General's Public Counsel Division

* Regulatory Reform Issue Expert - Governor’s Small Business Conference

* Past Chairman - Seattle District Advisory Council - US Small Business Administration

* Delegate Appointed by Senator Warren Magnuson - 1980 White House Conference on Small

Business

AWARDS and RECOGNITION (partial list)

* Vision 2000 – State Model of Excellence for Small Business Leadership – US Small Business

Administration

* Medal of Honor - US Small Business Administration - for continued efforts to improve the

business climate for small businesses

* Distinguished Service Award - Presented by Governor Booth Gardner - for "...contributions for

improvements of the state's business climate for small business."

* Environmental Achievement Award - presented by Waste Information Network

* Distinguished Citizen Commendation - presented by Governor John Spellman

EDUCATION

Education - Studies in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

PERSONAL

Native of Seattle - Married for 39 marvelous years to Patricia. Father of two wonderful daughters.

Active member of the St. Jude's Catholic Church, Redmond, WA

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Jeff Lindstrom- Health Insurance Team- Founder

Jeff Lindstrom is the founder of Health Insurance Team, a boutique Employee Benefits Consulting firm that matches businesses, non-profits, and venture startups with creative and cost effective Health, Life, Disability and Employee Assistance Solutions tailored to fit their unique situations. The belief of his firm is simple, employee benefits should actually be valued used by the employee as a benefit, not just another business expense line item. To that end they work with to custom tailor benefits packages to offer services to the employees that are valued, utilized, and appreciated. This goes well beyond merely the tried and true Health and Dental Insurance plans of the past. They specialize in providing this in depth and client tailored experience, because they know each organization has employees with different needs and requirements. Health Insurance Team keeps its clients ahead of the rapidly changing market and increasingly regulatory environment, which is especially important today with the quickly changing benefits landscape. Being especially nimble, they love to hearing an entrepreneur or CFO is currently working with one of the larger employee benefit brokerage firms, because that is when they can make real difference. Jeff has been an invited speaker at numerous Washington business and non-profit association meetings and events before healthcare became a recent campaign and political topic. In addition he has been asked to provide testimony to the Washington State House Insurance Panel on several past proposed health Bills making their way through the Legislature. He received two undergraduate degrees, in Economics and International Business from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Other education includes studies at Satya Wachana University in Indonesia and his private pilot’s license. He is past vice president of the Seattle-Surabaya Sister City and Greater Indonesia Association, and is a member of the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU). With deep Pacific Northwest roots as a fifth generation Washingtonian, Jeff enjoys his family, numerous outdoor sports activities, gardening, and supporting his Parish.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Julie Keefe- Community Health Plan of Washington- Director of Provider Operations

Julie has 25 years’ experience in Health Plan Administration for commercial, self-funded and

government program plans. Leadership responsibilities have included Health Plan Operations, Medical

Management, Provider Network Management, Business Development and New Product

Implementation. Julie’s expertise and focus is on benefit plan design for a range of products, including

Managed Care, PPO and POS products. Julie was instrumental in the product development of

Washington Health Program and has most recently taken the lead in implementing the new partnership

between Community Health Plan of Washington and Columbia United Providers to serve Healthy

Options and Basic Health enrollees in Clark County.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Lonnie Goodell- Group Health Cooperative- Director of Small Business Group and Producer

Relations

Lonnie Goodell serves as the Sales Director of both the Small Business Group and Producer

(Broker/Agent) Relations at Group Health Cooperative. Group Health Cooperative is a consumer

governed, not for profit integrated care and coverage organization. Mr. Goodell leads the Small

Business Group team, which oversees the day to day sales and account management operations for over

3400 employer groups. He also leads the Producer Relations team which oversees the licensing and

appointment processes, the commission processes, as well as business and relationship management of

over 2400 Washington state producers and over 800 out of state producers. Mr. Goodell has been with

Group Health for over seventeen years. In 2009 he was awarded the Eileen J. O’Donnell award for his

extraordinary leadership at Group Health. Prior to his career at Group Health, he was the Business

Operations Manager of a small business employer for eighteen years.

Mr. Goodell resides in Lakewood and is a member of the Washington Association of Health

Underwriters, as well as its national organization, National Association of Health Underwriters. Mr.

Goodell provided market insight and advised the Washington State Health Insurance Partnership

Technical Advisory Committee during the development and implementation of the exchange pilot

program for small businesses with low wage workers. He also engaged and successfully sold the Health

Insurance Partnership exchange products to a number of small employer groups.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Mike Bergstraesser- Premera Blue Cross- Director of Underwriting

Mr. Bergstraesser oversees the underwriting function for small employer and individual market

segments in Washington, and has been with Premera for over twenty years. During his tenure,

he has worked extensively with small employers and producers to better understand small

employers’ health insurance needs. He also understands industry practices concerning the

application and renewal process, and administration of small employer plans.

Mr. Bergstraesser earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of

Nebraska, Lincoln; an MBA degree from Drexel University, Philadelphia; and a Master of Science

degree in Strategic Management from Indiana University, Bloomington.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Patrick Connor- National Federation of Independent Business- WA State Director

Patrick Connor has directed NFIB/Washington’s lobbying, public affairs and political operations since August 2009.

Prior to joining NFIB, Connor had been with Washington Farm Bureau for six years where he lobbied Congress and the Washington Legislature on agricultural issues, especially as they overlapped healthcare, tax and fiscal, international trade, biotechnology, and product labeling policies.

Along his professional path, Connor was an aide to a state senator and directed a political action committee that recruited, trained and supported candidates for the state senate.

Connor was also vice president of his family’s construction business. It was during this time that he became active in NFIB and eventually served as vice chair of its state Leadership Council.

While working with his family enterprise, Connor served on his hometown city council from 1997 to 2004, and was the council’s president and mayor pro tem in 2000 and 2002.

A native Washingtonian, Connor graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Connor and his family now reside in Olympia.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Patrick McMonagle- Independent Consultant

As an independent consultant to companies in data integration & software design I offer broad

insurance experience, especially in data transfer between/within small businesses, insurers and

government insurance agencies. I am intending to participate in the coming software efforts as

consultant or employee. Advice in data transfer: Keep it simple!

Relevant experiences include:

Over a decade experience as a small business person.

3.5 years as consultant to & IT Director of Pacific Marine, a P&C and Workers comp insurer. Directed development of all financial software (Statutory G/L, Claims, Premium Billing & Receivables), computerized all processes and trained staff. Software was developed for $1/3 million on minority mini-computers. A copy of this software was sold and served for 31 years.

6 month consulting to Premera, where a WA Insurance regulation change had made an immediately pending legacy software replacement system (within two weeks) non-compliant, after layoff notices had been issued to a staff that redundantly re-entered data. Within those two weeks had integrated the data feed intended for the replacement software into the legacy software. Allowed the layoff to proceed, maintained compliance and soon reduced 2-3 month backlog to less than a week.

6 years part time service supporting claims processing staff and software for the Health Benefits captive of Eagle Insurance and Food Services of America. Worked directly with adjusters training them and improving software. Some tasks: ICD to ICD-9 conversion, positive pay implementation, and Usual and Customary Rates (UCR) implementation.

Redesigned Boeing's payroll connection to Aetna disability insurance, reducing manual effort to a half time task from one full time position and a FTE of supporting monthly overtime. This was done for 64% of the budget intended for Y2K repairs.

Minor consulting efforts: Conversion, training and database design within the Carpenters Union benefit plan, OR Industrial Insurance and Network Health Plan. Connection of the Panorama City retirement complex's billing software to bill medical charges to multiple private, retirement and government medical plans. Project management at Purple Cross, where I was also designated as a temporary executive, for one week! Part time sales support for the Hardin Physicians Billing System.

Over 30 years consulting experience.

Founder and frequent board member of a computer users group.

Volunteer board member, responsible for traffic and safety, of American Diabetes Assn. walk and cycling fund raising events.

Regular volunteer, assisting team leadership and coaching in personal development courses offered by

Context International. Topics include win/win negotiation, conflict resolution, & communication skills.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Troy Nordlund- Pacific NW Insurance Brokerage, Inc. - President

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Troy Nordlund- cont.

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SHOP TAC Nominee

Tyson Fuehrer- Polestar Benefits, Inc. - Sr. President/CEO

Tyson is an expert in the issues surrounding small business health insurance, and has spoken frequently

to business groups, as well as the insurance industry. He has travelled to Washington D.C. on multiple

occasions, and met with members of Congress from the states of Washington and Oregon. Small

business owners and insurance professionals rely on his expertise, as they try to understand the

complexities of the evolving health care reform legislation.

You could not ask for a better member for a committee whose task it is to, “provide expertise,

experience and professional perspectives related to small business participation in the Exchange.” In

fact, I’m participating in a webinar he is delivering this morning entitled, “"Is it time to pay or play? ...a

modeling scorecard to keep and grow your business". He has developed a modeling tool for small

businesses to determine the cost benefit ratio of “paying or playing” in the new health care reform

environment.