Three seasoned healthcare executives, Douglas Tardio, William Moore and James Albano join United Rheumatology

NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, United Rheumatology (UR) announced a new executive leadership team with deep roots in managed care and specialty benefit management.  The management services organization, with over 500 independent rheumatologists in 34 states as members, was founded in 2014 by Dr. Max Hamburger, a New York rheumatologist, founder of the NY State Rheumatology Society and former NIH researcher. UR offers rheumatologists practice management support and access to group purchasing while offering health plan payers, ACO's and self-funded employers the opportunity to work with the industry's leader in rheumatology care management. With inflammatory conditions reaching an annual spend by commercial health plans of over $150PMPM and incurring annual trends of over 15%, UR has developed new physician-driven care delivery programs to address the cost and quality of care in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, osteoporosis, ankylosing spondylitis and lupus.  "Over the last four years, UR has developed evidence-based pathways, a robust member EMR-supported clinical data repository, and the only national network of rheumatologists committed to collaborating with payers on initiatives to help manage the total cost of care for our patients. I am thrilled that Doug, Bill and Jim have joined our team. Their knowledge of the payer landscape and successful specialty benefit management is unparalleled," stated Dr. Hamburger.  

UR's new CEO, Douglas Tardio, brings 28 years of healthcare experience working at health plans including Aetna and Oxford Health. Over the course of 14 years as President, COO then CEO of CareCore National (now eviCore Healthcare), Doug guided the organization from a regional radiology benefit manager to the largest specialty benefits management company in the country handling more then 40,000 clinical reviews and customer enquires per day while collecting and reporting on over 8 billion healthcare clinical interactions per year.

At CareCore National, William Moore supported Doug and the rest of the organization as CTO. Bill brings a diverse technology background as UR's Chief Technology Officer, from a highly successful start-up in college to working with AT&T on their backbone network design. Working with major health plans including: UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Cigna's technology departments, Bill enabled best in class B2B interfaces enabling CareCore to manage 34 health plan customers representing over 40 million insured. 

Jim Albano joins UR as Executive Vice President of Payer Relations and Operations, after a decades long series of executive leadership roles at Horizon BCBS New Jersey and Emblem Health. While at Horizon BCBSNJ, Jim held a number of operations roles working directly with Horizon's largest customers. From 2006-2012, Jim was Vice President of Network Management with responsibility for all hospital, ancillary and physician relationships.  From that point, Jim assumed the role of VP of Healthcare Innovation Strategies becoming Horizon's spokesperson on population health, patient centered medical homes and accountable care organizations, followed by a similar role at EmblemHealth.

"As a Board Member for the past 4 years, I have had the opportunity to watch United Rheumatology become the pre-eminent organization supporting rheumatologists and their practices.  With only 2,500 independent rheumatologists in the country, I see an incredible opportunity for UR to provide support and guidance to our members while engaging health plan payers and self-funded employers in an open dialog around managing the cost of the most expensive class of drugs in the world," stated Douglas Tardio.  

SOURCE United Rheumatology