Patty Conner leads the office which is responsible for the development of the Utah Health Exchange. One of only two exchanges currently in operation in the country, the UHE is currently ramping up small and large business portions of the cite to provide an online platform for Utah businesses and individuals who need insurance coverage tailored specifically to their needs and budgets.

Ms. Conner's diverse levels of management, marketing, and financial experience bring a new dimension to OCHS as the health exchange begins to ramp up in 2011. Patty's experience includes an impressive track record of partnership amongst the carrier and broker community which mentors a positive synergy for the director's position.

Conner was senior manager of the Health and Welfare Relationship Management team at Ceridian for seven years. Before joining Ceridian, she worked in management positions for Health Benefits America and employee benefit company ADP. She has a degree in business with an emphasis on management and human resources from the University of Montana and special certifications from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Before joining the state, Dr. Thurston worked for eight years as an assistant professor of economics at Brigham Young University. He has published several articles on health care markets in nationally recognized economics journals.

He is a life-long resident of Utah, growing up in Morgan County. He has native-level fluency in Spanish and was a Fulbright Scholar teaching economics in Argentina in 2001.

Dr. Thurston has a Masters and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, and an undergraduate degree in Spanish and Agribusiness Management from Brigham Young University. His areas of specialty include insurance markets, health care provider markets, labor markets, and public finance/economics.
 

Bob Carey brings more than 15 years of public sector and state health insurance program experience to his role as a senior advisor at PCG, having helped Massachusetts to design and implement new health insurance programs pursuant to the state’s landmark health reform law of 2006. At PCG, he is principally responsible for providing strategic consulting and technical assistance to states in the implementation of the federal health reform law and the establishment of state-based health insurance exchanges.

Prior to joining PCG, Mr. Carey was Director of Planning and Development for the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, an independent authority established to implement the 2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law. In this role, Mr. Carey helped design and implement new health insurance programs, including publicly-subsidized and commercial health benefit plans, as well as health insurance financing arrangements. Mr. Carey was also responsible for coordinating activities across state agencies to implement the numerous components of the Massachusetts health reform law.

Prior to his work at the Connector Authority, Mr. Carey served as Director of Policy and Program Management at the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission, the state agency responsible for providing health and welfare benefits to over 325,000 state and local employees, retirees and dependents. His work experience includes senior research and policy positions with non-governmental research organizations, government oversight boards, and senior policy positions with the US Congress

Mr. Carey received an M.S. degree in public policy and management with a concentration in economics from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.A. in English literature from the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
 

Denise E. Hanna has been involved in health care public policy and transactional matters for more than 20 years. Ms. Hanna has represented health care payors and providers, pharmacy benefit management (PBMs) companies, third party administrators, health and wellness companies, trade associations and other health care organizations in a range of transactional matters and in legislative, regulatory and administrative proceedings. Ms. Hanna has closely tracked the enactment of federal health care reform and now advises clients on implementation issues, compliance obligations and strategic opportunities under health reform.
 
Ms. Hanna has substantial experience representing health care organizations in general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, strategic ventures, financings, complex business transactions and antitrust matters, many of which involve issues and business relationships of first impression. She advises clients of the impact of federal and state health care regulation on a variety of business transactions and has extensive experience in developing and negotiating contracts for her clients’ standard operations, marketing and distribution arrangements and business process outsourcing.

Ms. Hanna also advises PBMs offering managed group health and workers’ compensation pharmacy benefits. She has counseled both health plan and PBM clients on the interpretation of Part D of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, and in the development of contracts for the administration of Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits.

Through her active involvement on the national health care scene, Ms. Hanna has a keen awareness of the most important issues that are shaping the health industry. She was Chair of the National Bar Association’s Health Law section during the 2009-2010 year. Ms. Hanna also participates in seminars across the country and was instrumental in organizing the NBA Health Law Section’s Health Care Law Summit in 2009 and 2010. Ms. Hanna is co-editor of the firm’s Health Care Reform Update.

Ms. Hanna receive her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1986, and her B.A. in Behavioral Sciences with honors, from the University of Chicago in 1983. She was admitted to the Bar in California in 1987.