Conference Speakers

Mike Ferris, Principal, Simione Healthcare Consultants, Chapel Hill, NC.

Mike is a national expert in the areas of marketing, sales and customer service for home care and hospice agencies. He has trained more than 1,000 successful sales people in more than 10 years of conducting training workshops for home health, hospice and private duty organizations.

Barbara Gray, Senior consultant, Beth Carpenter and Associates, Lake Barrington, Ill.

Barbara Gray has accumulated more that 20 years of experience in health care management and operations. She has a successful record as a leader and innovative problem solver creating organizations capable of delivering on their promises of revenue growth, margin performance and outstanding service. As an executive of an industry leading hospice care organization, she focused on developing partnerships with physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and other providers to assure that hospice services became a respected and well integrated part of the community’s health care continuum.

Tanya Lukomski, Sales consultant, Integrity Home Health Care, Troy, Mich.

Tanya Lukomski has 14 years of health care sales experience, including home health, home infusion, private duty and hospice. This led to her recent employment as director of market development of Vitas Innovative Hospice Care, the nation’s largest provider of end-of-life care. Before joining Vitas Lukomski served as a community liaison, then director of business development at Triumph Home Health Care, was a sales and marketing representative at Beaumont Home Infusion, a private duty sales and marketing representative at Trinity Health and a specialty account representative at Gentiva Health Services’ Rehab Without Walls program.

Robert Markette, Attorney, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, Indianapolis, Ind.

Robert W. Markette, Jr., CHC is of Counsel with the law firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP.  His primary areas of practice are health law, Medicare/Medicaid compliance, fraud and abuse, employment law and litigation.  Robert is certified in health care compliance by the Health Care Compliance Board.  He assists clients including county health departments, home health agencies, private duty agencies, hospices and physicians with a wide range of health care compliance and litigation issues. 

Joanne Moore, Director of marketing and business development, Family Home Health and Centered Hospice, Addison, Ill.

Joanne Moore has been in a senior marketing role in health care for over twenty years.  Joanne joined Family Home Health as director of marketing and business development in 2007. Prior to that, she worked for the Joint Commission in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill, marketing the organization’s accreditation programs and disease specific care certification programs.  She also served as director of marketing for an academic medical center in Chicago and served in a variety of marketing roles while at the American Hospital Association. 

Lori Moshier, Marketing consultant, Novaetus, Novi, Mich.

Lori Moshier has an extensive marketing and sales background with a heavy emphasis on marketing healthcare and home health care services, having worked in various sales and marketing capacities for over 20 years. As an independent consultant, she has worked with several private duty agencies to successfully innovate their business, and developed collateral materials, press campaigns, marketing plans, websites, and sales presentations that helped them separate themselves from the competition and increase hours and revenue.

Katherine Northcutt, Senior project manager, Simione Consultants

Katherine Northcutt is a senior project manager for the marketing, sales and customer service consulting division at Simione Consultants. She has worked with agencies all over the country to assist them in improving access to care in the communities they serve. She is also a presenter at state and national conferences and the Simione Consultants sales training boot camps.

Kara Osborne, Senior project manager, Simione Consultants

Kara has extensive sales and sales management experience in hospice and information technology. In the hospice industry, she has distinguished herself as a national sales manager, where she was responsible for development and execution of corporate sales and marketing strategy. In her role as a consultant to home care and hospice agencies she has provided expert guidance in the design and delivery of sales training programs, support to sales managers, interim management of referral centers, redesign of referral to admission management programs and assistance with social media and online marketing.

Patrick Thompson, Executive vice president of administration and CIO, Amedisys Baton Rouge, La

Patrick Thompson has served as executive vice president of administration and chief information officer of Amedisys since January 2010. He is responsible for providing oversight and direction to administrative functions and is responsible for the company’s entire information technology division. Patrick has 25 years of experience in streamlining business processes and improving operational efficiencies, most recently as executive vice president and chief administrative officer at the Shaw Group, a Fortune 500 company. He’s been named to ComputerWorld Magazine's Top 100 and featured in a CIO Magazine cover story.

Sylvia Woods, Independent consultant, home health care business development

Sylvia Woods is an independent consultant specializing in business development in home health care. She has more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing at home health agencies large and small, most recently as vice president for business development at Mansfield, Texas-based Angmar Medical Holdings, which operates more than 60 home health agencies in nine states. She has helped agencies successfully grow their business through the development of collateral materials, marketing plans, websites, training programs for marketers, educational material for referral sources and sales presentations that helped each agency differentiate itself from the competition, while successfully growing both census and revenues.

Elizabeth Zink-Pearson, Attorney, Pearson & Bernard, Edgewood, Ky.

For more than 10 years, Elizabeth Zink-Pearson has served the needs of health care providers around the country. Prior to private practice, she worked as an Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor. She lectures frequently for state and national trade associations on many legal topics including Medicare compliance, fraud and abuse, corporate compliance, employment discrimination and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Liz served as education counsel for the former American Federation for Home Care and also is a frequent contributor to trade association journals and newsletters.