Staff and Consultants
Management Team
John Freedman, MD, MBA, Principal at Freedman HealthCare, has 20 years' experience in systems management, managed care, health care quality measurement and quality improvement, physician profiling, clinical laboratory development, health economics, and medical informatics. His experience comes from leadership roles at nationally recognized organizations, such as Kaiser Permanente, Tufts Health Plan, MA Health Quality Partners, Focused Medical Analytics, and the MA Quality and Cost Council. While at Tufts Health Plan, Dr. Freedman helped them climb to a #2 National Committee for Quality Assurance ranking with market-leading efforts in MD profiling, pay for performance (P4P), tiered network products, public reporting, disease management and innovative member outreach programs. He received a 2004 Innovator’s Award from America’s Health Insurance Plans for the creation of Navigator, a value-based tiered network insurance product. Dr. Freedman attended Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Alison Glastein, MEd, brings 20 years experience serving health and human services organizations in senior-level positions and as a consultant. She has demonstrated experience planning, implementing and evaluating evidence-based health and education programs, with content knowledge in a range of public health issues. Ms. Glastein has a strong track record of creating successful proposals and concept papers in response to private, state and federal guidelines, and develops effective strategic partnerships to strengthen programs and services. Most recently, Alison helped Freedman HealthCare expand the firm's offerings in breadth and depth. As the lead writer for many projects, Ms. Glastein has created print and online content for clients' internal and external needs. She is also expert on utilizing data to write compelling case statements in support of health initiatives. Prior to Freedman HealthCare, Ms. Glastein was President of PEAR Associates LLC, a firm that has provided content development and writing services to organizations since 1999, including many in the health care domain. Ms. Glastein has also served as Executive Director of Breakthrough Cambridge and Healthy Malden, an award-winning community health coalition. She has a graduate degree in professional education from Suffolk University, where she also obtained a Bachelor of Science.
Linda Green, MPA, Vice President - Programs at Freedman Healthcare, has 30 years of experience in state and local government addressing complex public policy questions, including those related to effective health care services and contracting. Ms. Green’s recent projects include strategic planning support in state health care reform and long term care re-engineering. As the former Director of Health Data Analytics for the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, Ms. Green oversaw the APCD and hospital discharge data sets, including, regulatory process; data release policies; data intake, editing and verification procedures; harmonization with other states; measurement calculation; and website reporting implementation. She successfully streamlined the agency's data release operation, and developed a similar process for the Health Care Quality and Cost Council. Her prior experience as Director of the Managed Care Reimbursement Unit for Commonwealth's Office of Acute and Ambulatory Care involved taking the financial lead for a $1.7B managed care program.
Consultants
Elizabeth Capstick, Senior Consultant at Freedman HealthCare, has over 30 years of experience in state government, most recently serving as Massachusetts Deputy State Auditor where she had broad responsibilities to direct and integrate the agency’s administrative, financial, information technology development and investigative operations. In that capacity, she was appointed to serve on the MA Health Care Quality and Cost Council (QCC). As Treasurer of the QCC, Ms. Capstick worked to ensure adequate funding levels for the Council’s work, in particular its development of the consumer oriented cost and quality website “My Health Care Options,” and oversaw the procurement processes for the management of the website and the all payer claims database (APCD). Ms. Capstick also served as the Co-Chair of the QCC’s Quality and Patient Safety Committee, guiding diverse work groups through a complex public process of selecting appropriate performance measures. Prior to joining the State Auditor’s Office, Ms. Capstick served as the Research Director for the MA Joint Legislative Committee on Human Services and Elderly Affairs, where she managed a team of policy researchers in the analysis of annual legislative and budgetary proposals, facilitated Committee hearings and meetings, provided subject matter support to legislators, and ensured public input in compliance with open meeting requirements. She is a candidate for a Master of Science in Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, McCormack Graduate School of Public Policy and Global Studies where she has focused her thesis on patient safety.
Amy Lischko, PhD is Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, where her research is focused on using claims databases to assess overutilization of health care services and the effects of cost sharing on consumers’ use of health services. Dr. Lischko is a leading expert on health insurance exchanges, and has published articles and spoken at national venues to share her knowledge. As Commissioner of MA Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, Dr. Lischko led the development of the MA health care reform bill, including strategic planning and analysis. She has 20+ years of experience conducting applied health services and policy research using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Dr. Lischko consults with a number of states around health care reform implementation, specifically, using state-level data and analysis to guide policy decisions.
Gail Sillman, JD, MPH is an affiliate consultant working with providers, purchasers and payers to realign incentives for quality and cost under global payment contracts. As a co-founder and Executive Vice President of a mid-size Independent Physician Association, Gail has worked in the healthcare management systems sector for more than 25 years. She has also practiced health care law for many years and has advised and negotiated agreements on behalf of physician, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, nursing homes and integrated delivery systems. Her extensive experience in strategic planning, managed care contracting and implementation, risk performance management and health information management systems coupled with her background in health care law uniquely positions her to advise clients regarding the legal and regulatory aspects of structuring health care arrangements and the creation of sustainable organizations with practical, cogent enforceable business plans. Gail earned a degree in political science from Brandeis University, a law degree from Washington College of Law and a Masters Degree in Health Policy and Management from Harvard School of Public Health. Gail also holds a license to practice law in Massachusetts and Florida.
Greg Spino, CFA, Affiliate Consultant at Freedman HealthCare, oversaw the Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence program for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which includes 16 EOHHS agencies. The platform supports all analytics for the nine billion dollar Massachusetts Medicaid Program, the MA Health Insurance Exchange (Health Connector), the EOHHS performance management environment (EHSResults). Mr. Spino was responsible for managing the procurement process for the Business Intelligence platform, designing and procuring the hardware infrastructure, designing and building the analytic and reporting portal as well as building the analytics team. Mr. Spino also oversaw all architecture and development for the data warehouse, as well as a portfolio of related projects including the technical components of EHSResults, a Secretariat-led initiative, which is a performance management reporting application that tracks several hundred quality and performance metrics. Most recently Mr. Spino managed the development of the Medical Homes application and reporting interface that will support the provider community during this critical transition.
Project Staff
Annie Jaxon, Operations Manager, offers over 8 years of organizational leadership and effectiveness. She brings vast experience with internal coordination, an acute attention to detail, a focus on both internal and client needs, and a budget consciousness to the Freedman HealthCare team from her previous work in the software/technology field. Ms. Jaxon focuses on improving office policies and procedures and increasing information flow, conducts the overall financial management, facilitates better management level support, and thoroughly coordinates all internal logistics. Ms. Jaxon received a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience from King’s College.
Ben Stewart, a recent Union College graduate, is an analyst at Freedman HealthCare. He is currently conducting statistical analyses on several client projects, focusing on evaluating quality and efficiency measures of Massachusetts healthcare networks. His acute analytical skills have contributed to more in depth exploration of client projects. Mr. Stewart has quickly proven to be a valuable asset on projects, and his quick learning style is allowing him to branch into new areas of expertise. While at Union, Mr. Stewart majored in Economics and Mathematics, as well as studied international business in Lille, France. He also completed an internship in the Wealth Management Division of Merrill Lynch.
Pranali Trivedi, Project Coordinator, recently joined Freedman HealthCare and is working on All Payer Claims Database projects. Ms. Trivedi’s educational background in healthcare policy and management, as well as her particular interest in measures of quality, information technology, and multi-stakeholder work will be an asset to the firm. She is a graduate of Union College where she obtained an undergraduate degree in Sociology, and is now a candidate for a Masters in Public Health from Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Jake Unger, Project Coordinator, is a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC he graduated with distinction (honors) in both History and Communication Studies. He brings a strong research and organizational background to the Freedman HealthCare team. Jake has previously worked in a variety of fields including a research and film production internship in London, UK where he earned a in credit the environmental documentary Animate Earth.