As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Marki Flannery oversees the largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organization in the United States. With annual revenues of approximately $2 billion and over 13,000 employees serving the five boroughs of New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties, and parts of upstate New York, VNSNY offers a comprehensive array of programs and health plans designed to meet the diverse health care needs of their patients and members. On any given day, VNSNY has over 48,000 patients and members in its care.
Ms. Flannery joined VNSNY in 1982 and transferred to Partners in Care, VNSNY’s licensed home care agency, in 1983. In 1996, she was appointed President of Partners in Care. Under her guidance, Partners in Care became the largest agency of its kind in the greater New York City area, expanding staffing, service geography, and growth in its different product lines. Ms. Flannery went on to serve as VNSNY’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Provider Operations from 2015 to 2017. After five months away from the organization, she returned in April 2018 in her current position as President and CEO.
With over 35 years of home health care experience, Ms. Flannery is a frequent presenter at statewide and national conferences, and has held leadership positions in a number of industry associations. In addition to being published in various home care journals, she has been a featured blogger on the Huffington Post. Ms. Flannery holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees from New York University.
Marki Flannery
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Hany Abdelaal, president of VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans, has devoted his professional training and medical career to improving the quality and coordination of health care for older Americans. A firm believer in a strong, person-centric primary care system that embodies a holistic approach and is built upon a strong “medical home” foundation, Dr. Abdelaal and his colleagues work to develop and implement innovative managed care solutions designed to ensure that those who are most vulnerable among us do not fall through the cracks in our ever-evolving health care system.
VNSNY CHOICE is an affiliate of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, our nation’s largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organization. Dr. Abdelaal has been a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and also contributes to Medium.
Hany Abdelaal, DO
President, VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans
Michael Bernstein is Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the nation’s largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organization. Appointed in June 2018, Mr. Bernstein is responsible for corporate functions including Marketing, Development, Communications, Facilities, Administrative Services, Quality, Customer Experience, and ESPRIT Medical Care.
Throughout his more than 30 years in health care and other industries, Mr. Bernstein has demonstrated the ability to combine strategic planning with operational management to deliver superior brand-building and revenue-generating results across direct-to-consumer and business-to business platforms. He previously held key leadership roles at VNSNY from 2005 through 2015, first as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer and then as Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Chief Marketing Officer. In his previous time at VNSNY, Mr. Bernstein’s responsibilities included leading the organization’s business development activities, overseeing Government Affairs, and supervising VNSNY’s Population Health Management Department. His achievements over that period include the comprehensive rebranding of the organization, oversight of several successful ad campaigns, relaunch of the VNSNY websites, and driving triple-digit membership growth year over year for five consecutive years for VNSNY CHOICE Health Plans as well as seven percent or greater revenue growth each year for five years in VNSNY’s private-pay home care services. During this prior tenure, Mr. Bernstein developed a singular understanding of VNSNY’s unique place in the health care sector, as well as an in-depth knowledge of the organization’s operations, which serve to inform the initiatives he currently manages.
Mr. Bernstein left VNSNY in 2014 to help found Extend Fertility, the first enterprise in the country to be focused exclusively on providing elective egg-freezing services to women, offered at an affordable price in a unique environment tailored to their needs. Earlier in his career, he served as Senior Vice President of Atkins Health and Medical Information Services for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., with responsibility for the consumer and business marketing of the company’s nutritional approach. Prior to Atkins, he spent nine years working in licensing and marketing for Major League Baseball.
Mr. Bernstein holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School.
Michael Bernstein
Chief Administrative Officer
As Executive Vice President and Chief of Provider Services for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), Andria Castellanos is responsible for oversight of all initiatives related to Provider Services. She leads VNSNY Home Care, VNSNY Hospice & Palliative Care, Partners in Care and Community Mental Health Services, as well as the Population Health and Business Development divisions. Enterprise functions including Patient Care Services and Clinical Support Services also report to her. She applies her combination of strategic vision and operational management expertise to directing this vitally important part of the organization, with the goal of helping to ensure that the care VNSNY delivers meets the highest standards of quality, patient satisfaction and safety, operational efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
Before joining VNSNY in October 2018, Ms. Castellanos spent more than three decades serving the healthcare sector in a wide range of capacities, with a particular focus on clinical operations and big-picture strategic planning. For much of that time, she held senior positions at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), where she was accountable for a variety of functions. Most recently, she was Group Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at the NYP/Columbia Campus. This position entailed leading operations, strategic and capital planning, and day-to-day execution at Milstein Hospital, the Allen Hospital, and Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/Sloan Hospital for Women, encompassing 1,200 beds in all.
Ms. Castellanos’s earlier roles included Director of Ambulatory Care Services and Associate Director of Professional Services for New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center; Director of Operations for Oxford Health Plans; health care consultant for both Peat Marwick Main & Co and Rogatz, Myers and Rosenfeld (RMR); and research assistant in the Graduate Program in Health Care Administration at Baruch College/Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Ms. Castellanos previously served on the Board of Trustees of NYP/Lawrence Hospital and ColumbiaDoctors/NYP-Imaging and is a current member of the Board of Trustees for the Billion Oyster Project, whose mission is to restore oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a Master of Business Administration, Graduate Program in Health Care Administration from Baruch College/Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Andria Castellanos
Chief of Provider Services
Ritchell R. Dignam, MD, is Chief Medical Officer for Provider Services at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). She also serves as Hospice Medical Director for VNSNY Hospice and Palliative Care, the largest hospice provider in New York State, and as Program Director of VNSNY Hospice’s Physician Fellowship Training Program, the largest such program in the country.
Dr. Dignam has more than three decades of experience as a geriatrician and has held a number of different leadership positions in the fields of geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative care. Before joining VNSNY, Dr. Dignam was a Hospice Medical Director at VITAS Healthcare. Prior to that, she served as Medical Director at several New Jersey hospice agencies and other medical institutions. Board-certified in internal medicine, geriatric medicine, and hospice and palliative medicine, Dr. Dignam also served as a geriatrician and an assistant professor at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine’s New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging (formerly known as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey), where she has practiced since 2000. The co-author of numerous research publications, she presents frequently on end-of-life area issues.
Dr. Dignam’s professional honors include being selected for a Geriatric Academic Career Award, a five-year grant sponsored by the Health Resources & Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Born in the Philippines, Dr. Dignam attended undergraduate and medical school at Far Eastern University in Manila, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in medical technology from the School of Medical Technology, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Dr. Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation. She did her transitional internship at Frankford Hospital in Philadelphia; her internal medicine residency training at Graduate Hospital, an affiliate of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital; and her geriatric fellowship training at Temple University Hospital. She also completed Harvard Medical School’s Palliative Care Education and Practice course for palliative care clinical and education leaders.
Ritchell Dignam, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Rose Madden-Baer is the Senior Vice President of Population Health and Clinical Support Services at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), a position that includes overseeing VNSNY’s recently launched care management organization, VNSNY Care 360° Solutions. Prior to that role, she held positions in Clinical Operations Strategy and Program Development and Behavioral Health. Before joining VNSNY in 2004, she spent 18 years at the Metropolitan Jewish Health System, most recently as Vice President, Quality Management. In that position, she directed quality management and performance improvement for the organization’s skilled nursing facility, home health, hospice, primary care center, and Medicare Advantage and MLTC businesses. In addition to her position at VNSNY, Ms. Madden-Baer is a Consultant Associate Professor at Duke University and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University, and serves as Chair of the National Advisory Board for Duke University School of Nursing’s Executive Leadership DNP program.
Ms. Madden-Baer earned her undergraduate degree from Long Island University and her graduate nursing degree at Hunter College. She holds a Master of Health Administration degree from St. Joseph’s College and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Duke University. She also received an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University. She is board-certified as an Advanced Practice Nurse in community health, and received post-graduate certificates from Duke University in Population Care Coordination (PCC) and in Population Health from the Jefferson College of Population Health. Ms. Madden-Baer was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing, and as a Fellow for the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing. She served on the CMS-Technical Expert Panels for Population Health Measures: Multisector Collaboration in 2016, for Home-Based Care Models in 2017, and for Home Infusion Payment Models in 2018. In addition, she has served on various care models governance committees under New York State’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program.
Ms. Madden-Baer’s professional honors include the Innovative Leader of the year award by the Visiting Nurse Association of America and the Duke University School of Nursing’s Distinguished Alumna award. In addition, she was recognized in 2019 with the United Hospital Fund’s award for Healthcare Excellence for her organization. She has published and presented nationally on care model innovation in “home-visit based care model programs,” including her operational oversight of VNSNY’s BPCI Model 3 bundle payment model for cardiac disease populations and VNSNY’s various value-based care models with health plans. In 2015, she participated as a panelist for “Exemplar of Models of Care in Approaches to Payment” for the National Academies of Health and Medicine. Ms. Madden-Baer’s work has been described in “The Future of Home Health Care: Workshop Summary” in The National Academies Press, and she has presented at several CMS-sponsored events on community-based value-based care and payment models.
Rose Madden-Baer, DNP
SVP Population Health
As Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer of Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Kerry Parker is responsible for directing and overseeing the Legal Affairs, Risk Management, Human Resources, Board Governance, Government Affairs, and Internal Audit functions for VNSNY and its subsidiaries and affiliates. He also oversees VNSNY’s Provider and Corporate Compliance and Privacy functions led by the V.P. of Compliance. He joined VNSNY in July, 2012.
Prior to joining VNSNY, Mr. Parker practiced health care law, labor and employment law and litigation as a partner with the law firms of Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C. and Gibbons, P.C. He has served in various leadership roles in other non-profit organizations, including as a Trustee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Springpoint Senior Living, Inc., the leading New Jersey provider of senior living and care. Mr. Parker received his Juris Doctor with honors from Seton Hall University Law School and served a judicial clerkship in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
Kerry Parker
General Counsel & Chief Risk Officer
Timothy Peng, PhD, has served the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) for more than 20 years. As Chief Data and Analytics Officer, a position he has held since 2018, he manages the VNSNY Business Intelligence and Analytics team, which supplies the organization’s leadership and clinical and operational teams at all levels with meaningful, timely data related to the provision of health care, as well as the data analysis, interpretation, and guidance needed to inform enterprise initiatives and drive business and operational strategy and efficiency.
The data analytics produced by Mr. Peng’s team are used to address a broad range of VNSNY’s business needs, including payment and reimbursement policy planning and analysis; quality measurement and monitoring; program evaluation; customer satisfaction; clinical, operational, and financial outcomes; operations analysis; and performance monitoring and improvement.
Mr. Peng began at VNSNY as a Research Scientist for the Center for Home Care Policy & Research and subsequently was named Vice President of Data Science and Strategic Analytics. Among his many areas of investigation, he has been responsible for research regarding understanding and improving home health care patient outcomes; access to long-term care; quality measurement; payment systems and provider response to policy incentives; value-based purchasing; and chronic disease management in clinically complex patient populations. He holds a doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan’s Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Yale University.
Timothy Peng
Chief Data Analytics Officer
Robert Plaszcz, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, has a unique blend of experience in technological innovation and information management, and a background extending more than 30 years in health care covering both managed care and delivery spheres.
In his role as CIO at VNSNY, Mr. Plaszcz is responsible for strategic planning and oversight of all aspects of information services. His initiatives, designed to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and grow profit margins, include software improvements to VNSNY patient care management, as well as systems for health plans to improve member experience. He also had the foresight to transition all VNSNY employees to cloud-based platforms providing flexibility and streamlined emergency response capabilities.
Mr. Plaszcz “grew up in the IT world.” Prior to joining VNSNY in 2017, Mr. Plaszcz spent five years consulting for hospitals in a variety of capacities and 17 years at Allina Hospitals & Clinics in Minneapolis, Minnesota, most recently as Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Plaszcz holds a bachelor’s degree in Information and Technology Management from Concordia University in St. Paul, MN and an M.B.A. from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, as well as almost nine years in service to our country.
Robert Plaszcz
Chief Information Officer
David Rosales is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the nation’s largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organization. Appointed to his position in June 2018, Mr. Rosales oversees VNSNY’s Strategic Program Development, Performance and Innovation, Government Programs Management, and Government Grants functions. He applies his considerable experience in health care planning and strategy to the development and execution of initiatives designed to support and further the organization’s mission-driven goals.For the past two decades, Mr. Rosales has held positions of increasing responsibility across the health care sector. He previously served VNSNY as part of the organization’s Performance and Innovation internal strategy/operations consulting group from 2006 through 2008 and from 2011 through 2014, most recently as the department’s Vice President. His focus areas in that role included managing complex business transformation initiatives to support VNSNY’s strategy and mission, spearheading programs enabled by health care reform, and providing strategic thought partnership to senior leadership.
After leaving VNSNY in 2014, Mr. Rosales served in senior positions at the national healthcare consulting firm Manatt Health, where he led complex strategic planning and delivery system redesign engagements for large health providers and policy-makers, with a focus on Medicaid and value-based payment reform initiatives. From 2010 to 2011, he participated in an administrative leadership program at Boston’s prestigious Brigham and Women’s Hospital as Deland Fellow in Health Care and Society. He also previously held positions with Goldman Sachs and the Oliver Wyman consulting company.
Mr. Rosales holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.
David Rosales
Chief Strategy Officer
In his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dan Savitt is responsible for providing overall financial and strategic direction and guidance to the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the nation’s largest not-for-profit home and community-based health care coordination organization. In addition to the Finance Department, Mr. Savitt oversees Information Technology, Managed Care Contracting, Revenue Cycle, and Data Analytics and Reporting.
Mr. Savitt, who joined VNSNY in January 2018, came to VNSNY with extensive experience as a Chief Financial Officer. His most recent role was at US Acute Care Solutions, a national provider of emergency medicine services, where he was accountable for all financial functions, as well as payer contracting and managed care services. Prior to US Acute Care Solutions, Mr. Savitt was CFO and EVP of Technology and Co-founder at Landmark Health, LLC, a California-based organization that provides home-based, physician-led primary care focused on the most chronically ill and frail in the managed care environment. In addition, he has an extensive background in finance and operations with such organizations as UnitedHealth Group, Northwest Airlines, and the Ford Motor Company.
Mr. Savitt holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Daniel Savitt
Chief Financial Officer