Articles by Briana Contreras

Matthew Bennett is senior vice president of Evernorth Care Delivery, a health services company and subsidiary of Cigna. Bennett is one of the emerging health leaders featured in the October 2021 issue of Managed Healthcare Executive. In this video he talks about the career achievement that has given him the greatest satisfaction, dissects his recent promotion and who has had the greatest influence on his life.

The FDA released information on booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines before their public meeting that begins Thursday.

In this video series, Agboola addresses two questions asked in the annual Emerging Health Leaders series: Which career accomplishment has given you the greatest satisfaction? and who has had the greatest influence on your life?

Cigna has expanded its Medicare Advantage plans for the third consecutive year in as Medicare Advantage premiums lower per month in 2022.

This week, MHE editors Briana Contreras and Peter Wehrwein chat with MHE Editorial Advisory Board Member Cindy Hundorfean for the latest episode of the Meet the Board podcast series. Hundorfean, who is CEO of Allegheny Health Network, told MHE a few things about her time with the Cleveland Clinic, where Allegheny Health Network stands in the competitive Pittsburgh healthcare market and what the organization is doing to improve the health of the population.

In a study conducted by JAMA, results were recently released sharing children with active asthma had reduced symptom days, but not significantly, in the use of a school-wide integrated pest management program or a high-efficiency particulate air filter purifier in recorded 2-week time periods.

In this week's episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast, Briana Contreras of MHE chatted with Daniel Drake, president and CEO of Trinity Health PACE, or Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. Dan and Briana discussed the specifics of how PACE has grown in recent years, the outlook for these programs in the future and how PACE is benefitting older patients’ wellbeing and their healthcare costs.

A recent City of Hope study claims a therapy that combines a drug that disrupts DNA repair with chemotherapy cisplatin and gemcitabine does not prolong progression-free survival for patients with urothelial cancer.

Committee's two votes are only recommendations but a narrower booster emergency use authorization now seems likely.

Senior Vice President of OptumRx, Savitha Vivian, shares with MHE when expected upcoming biosimilars are coming to market and the challenges she's seeing with biosimilar acceptance.

Briana Contreras of MHE met Stephanie Mercado, CEO and Executive Director of NAHQ (National Association for Healthcare Quality) for this week's episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite. The two discussed NAHQ’s mission to improve healthcare quality and what improvements, as well as shortcomings have been made. She also shared what steps need to be taken in healthcare as a whole to continue improving the quality of care.

In this week’s episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast, MHE Associate Editor Briana Contreras interviewed VillageMD’s Senior Medical Director of Village Medical at Home, Dr. Tom Cornwell. Dr. Cornwell discussed the main benefits of primary care at home, which includes the benefit of cost savings for patients, maintaining control of hospital readmissions and others. Dr. Cornwell also noted what has changed in the industry of at-home care and if there has been interest from payers like insurance companies and medicare in the service.

In this final part of a three-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE, spoke with Dr. Maria Hernandez, founder and CEO of Impact4Health. Maria shared not only how healthcare inequities remain to be an issue and what needs to be addressed, but also the progress that has been made over time through awareness, conversations and laws, especially due to the heightened awareness of inequities caused from the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more - which have now occurred over a year ago.

In this final part of a three-part video series, Managed Healthcare Executive® Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein recently interviewed Kulleni Gebreyes, M.D., director of Deloitte's new Health Equity Institute about her career, healthcare disparities and equity issues and the work of the institute.

In this second of a three-part video series, Managed Healthcare Executive® Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein recently interviewed Kulleni Gebreyes, M.D., director of Deloitte's new Health Equity Institute about her career, healthcare disparities and equity issues and the work of the institute.

In this first of a three-part video series, Managed Healthcare Executive® Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein recently interviewed Kulleni Gebreyes, M.D., director of Deloitte's new Health Equity Institute about her career, healthcare disparities and equity issues and the work of the institute.

In this second part of a three-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE, spoke with Dr. Maria Hernandez, founder and CEO of Impact4Health. Maria shared not only how healthcare inequities remain to be an issue and what needs to be addressed, but also the progress that has been made over time through awareness, conversations and laws, especially due to the heightened awareness of inequities caused from the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more - which have now occurred over a year ago.

In this first part of a three-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE, spoke with Dr. Maria Hernandez, founder and CEO of Impact4Health. Maria shared not only how healthcare inequities remain to be an issue and what needs to be addressed, but also the progress that has been made over time through awareness, conversations and laws, especially due to the heightened awareness of inequities caused from the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more - which have now occurred over a year ago.

Survey highlights level of compliance preparedness and increasing skepticism towards new regulations.

Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE, spoke with Dr. Maria Hernandez, founder and CEO of Impact4Health. Maria shared not only how healthcare inequities remain to be an issue and what needs to be addressed, but also the progress that has been made over time through awareness, conversations and laws, especially due to the heightened awareness of inequities caused from the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more - which have now occurred over a year ago.

In this second part of a two-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE caught up with MHE Editorial Advisory Board member David Calabrese, who is market president of Health Plans/PBMs at OptumRx. Calabrese shared his thoughts on the approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, as well as the Biden Administration's interest in putting more generics and biosimilars in the market.

In this part one video, Briana Contreras, associate editor of MHE caught up with MHE Editorial Advisory Board member David Calabrese, who is market president of Health Plans/PBMs at OptumRx. Calabrese shared his thoughts on the approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, as well as the Biden Administration's interest in putting more generics and biosimilars in the market.

In this week's episode, editors of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein and Briana Contreras caught up with MHE Editorial Advisory Board member David Calabrese, market president of Health Plans/PBMs at OptumRx, for another segment of the Meet the Board series. The three discussed Calabrese’s career history, his personal wellbeing lifestyle, and his thoughts on the approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, as well as the Biden Administration's interest in putting more generics and biosimilars in the market.

In this final part of a two-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Summit Health’s Chief Quality Officer Ashish D. Parikh, MD, and Chief of Population Health Jamie Reedy, MD, about value-based care programs and contracts within Summit Health and what it takes to invest and implement these programs into your healthcare organization.

In this first part of a two-part video series, Briana Contreras, associate editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Summit Health’s Chief Quality Officer Ashish D. Parikh, MD, and Chief of Population Health Jamie Reedy, MD, about value-based care programs and contracts within Summit Health and what it takes to invest and implement these programs into your healthcare organization.

Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, highlights how value-based care models affect treatment decisions for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Managed Healthcare Executive had a conversation with Kelly Chillingworth, RPh, director of business development at RxBenefits this week about the unique connection between pharmacy and telemedicine, what impact telemedicine & its pharmacy costs have on self-funded employers and how the right virtual care services a health provider offers to their members can be essential to building a competitive benefit.

A key opinion leader describes treatment access considerations among patient with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

In this special episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast, MHE Associate Editor Briana Contreras met with HM Insurance Group Sales Director Adam Gottesman to discuss the ongoing and critical need for reinsurance in healthcare.

Gurpreet “Sunny” Singh, chairman of the board at Edifecs, said he follows a philosophy in life that stretches from his time at Montana State University in the 1980s, directly to his work today, at Edifecs, and in India to improve the lives of billions through innovative wellbeing initiatives with RoundGlass. “My father always encouraged me to pursue my passions and to dream big. He also raised me to be generous and compassionate – to honor the human spirit. This is something that I’ve carried with me for my entire life, and it’s shaped the work that I do. ”