Medical Device Link.

REIMBURSEMENT

Return to Article: Panel Discussion: Developing Reimbursement Strategies

Kuo Bianchini Tong is president and founder of Quorum Consulting (San Francisco), where he works with his clients to understand how economic, financial, and reimbursement forces can be managed and how to influence product acceptance and utilization.

Tong is an active member of numerous professional organizations and societies including the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Public Health Association, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Infectious Disease Society of America, International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, and Society for Investigative Dermatology.

Prior to founding Quorum Consulting, Tong was a senior associate with Corning HTA (now known as Covance; Washington, DC), a healthcare consulting firm. Prior to entering the consulting field, he was active in clinical and health services research at the University of California at Los Angeles neuropsychiatric institute and the University of Pennsylvania department of medicine.

Tong holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in business and management from Johns Hopkins University.

 

Michael Beebe has worked for the American Medical Association (AMA; Chicago) since 1995. He is currently director of current procedural terminology (CPT). In this capacity he is responsible for all CPT content development and maintenance activities, as well as CPT education and licensing efforts.

Prior to assuming leadership over CPT, Beebe was director for the CPT-5 Project, which was an effort by AMA to make needed and practical improvements in the structure and processes of CPT to reflect the procedure-coding demands of the modern dynamic healthcare system.

Before joining CPT, Beebe worked as a senior social scientist in physician payment systems, where he was staff to the AMA-specialty society relative value scale update committee.

Beebe holds a BA from Pennsylvania State University and an MS from Boston University.

 

Robin R. Bostic is vice president for reimbursement at Thoratec Corp. (Pleasanton, CA), a world leader in products to treat cardiovascular disease. Bostic worked in the insurance industry for eight years before moving into medical manufacturing reimbursement. She has successfully worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and private payers to create national and regional coverage, coding, and payment for new innovative technologies as well as managed reimbursement and government affairs departments for medical device companies.

Bostic has been recognized by MX magazine as one of the top executives in the field of reimbursement. She is on the speaker faculty for AdvaMed, the Center of Business Intelligence, and the Institute for International Research.

Bostic holds a BS degree in political science from Baylor University.

 

Tien T. Bui is vice president for medical affairs at Monogram Biosciences (South San Francisco). Bui joined Monogram as national sales director in November 2000, was named vice president of sales in September 2001, became vice president of sales and marketing in November 2002, and was named vice president for medical affairs in March 2006.

Before joining Monogram, Bui was the virology business unit director for DuPont Pharmaceuticals. In addition to her most recent sales management position at DuPont, she served DuPont and DuPont-Merck Pharmaceuticals for more than 10 years, from 1990 to 2000, in various commercial and product development roles, including physician and hospital sales, clinical development and education, healthcare policy and government affairs, and strategic market development.

Bui received her bachelor’s degree in international business with marketing emphasis from San Francisco State University and also studied abroad at the University of Liége, Belgium.

 

Reimbursement consultant Gerald N. Rogan, MD, is principal of Gerald N. Rogan, MD, Consulting (Sacramento, CA). Trained in emergency and family medicine, he practiced as an emergency physician in an underserved county hospital for two years and then moved to John Muir Medical Center (Walnut Creek, CA), where he helped start the East Bay’s first paramedic program. Focusing on less-expensive non-hospital-based primary and urgent care, he opened a family and urgent medical and surgery clinic.

In 1997, Rogan became the Part B Medicare carrier medical director for National Heritage Insurance Company (NHIC) in California, a position he held for more than six years. There, he helped practitioners understand, comply with, and appreciate Medicare billing rules. His responsibilities included claim data review, business planning, policy development, rule making, education, conflict resolution, legal analysis, and law-enforcement support.

Rogan maintains affiliations with the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, and the Butte-Glenn Medical Society. He holds BA and MD degrees from the University of Michigan.

 

Guy P. Nohra is cofounder and managing director of Alta Partners (San Francisco), a leading life sciences venture capital firm that has funded more than 120 companies in the industry since 1996. Prior to cofounding Alta Partners, Nohra was a partner at Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., which he joined in 1989. Previously, Nohra was product manager for medical products with Security Pacific Trading Corp.

Nohra currently serves on the boards of directors of several private companies, including AcelRx, ATS Medical, Carbylan BioSurgery, Coapt Systems, Paracor Medical, PneumRx, and Vertiflex, and he is the chairman of the board of USGI Medical. Nohra has been involved in the funding and development of notable medical technology and life science companies, including Cutera, Innerdyne, R2 Technology, deCODE genetics, and Vesica. He currently serves on the board of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association.

Nohra holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA in history from Stanford University.