Berkeley Research Group Expands Health Analytics Practice

EMERYVILLE, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 14, 2012) - Berkeley Research Group's Health Analytics practice continues to grow with the addition of five experts. The new experts are Kathy Talbot, Kathleen Dunleavy, and Kathleen Schneider, based in BRG's Baltimore office; Denise Pedulla, based in Boston; and Cheray Lynch Sieminski, based in Philadelphia.

"We are proud of the depth of health care industry consulting experience our new experts bring to BRG," said David J. Teece, BRG Chairman and Principal Executive Officer. "Our strong and quickly expanding Health Analytics team provides expert solutions to clients' most complex problems across the health care industry continuum."

Director Kathy Talbot provides a variety of consulting services including evaluation and assistance with implementing state and federal reimbursement policies, health care reform initiatives, and project management. Prior to joining BRG, she was Vice President of Reimbursement for a health system with nine hospitals, where she built and managed a team of 31 professionals in the areas of reimbursement, coding quality assurance, and charge description master. She has extensive experience with Maryland and federal reimbursement policies, participating in numerous statewide workgroups to develop reimbursement policies.

Principal Kathleen Dunleavy's consulting services include project management, clinical documentation improvement, and the development of educational tools for physicians, clinicians, and health care administrators. Before joining BRG, she was engaged at a national health care consulting firm, dedicated to providing documentation, coding, and data solutions for improved reimbursement, compliance, and patient care. With more than 30 years' health care industry experience, she has held senior management positions within hospitals in the role of director of health information management as well as leadership of the utilization review, discharge planning, social services, and medical staff services departments.

Principal Denise Pedulla previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at an international orthopedic medical device company, where she was responsible for developing and managing its domestic and international corporate compliance and ethics program and assisting the company in the defense of several federal health care investigations related to legacy business practices. An attorney, Ms. Pedulla has more than 20 years of experience in health care regulatory compliance.

Principal Kathleen Schneider specializes in work with payors, analytics, and care management. Her 25-plus years of experience span many sectors, including managed care, informatics, outcomes measurement, and medical review. She has assisted clients with cost/outcomes analyses, design and development of payment systems, and evaluation and implementation of care management strategies and tactics. Previously, she served in medical informatics and medical management capacities at two large payor organizations, provided product development and consulting services at an outcomes-measurement software company, and managed medical review operations for Medicare and Medicaid in Delaware.

Principal Cheray Lynch Sieminski provides forensic analysis and regulatory advisory services to health care and life sciences companies and their legal counsel. She develops innovative, efficient solutions and analytical tools to examine and quantify business and legal issues in the context of commercial litigation, government investigations, and other regulatory-driven initiatives. She has substantial experience in the execution of complex, high-profile, data-intensive projects with multidisciplinary teams.

About Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Berkeley Research Group, LLC is a leading global expert services and consulting firm that provides independent expert testimony, litigation and regulatory support, authoritative studies, strategic advice, and document and data analytics to major law firms, Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, and regulatory bodies around the world. BRG experts and consultants combine intellectual rigor with practical, real-world experience and an in-depth understanding of industries and markets. Their expertise spans economics and finance, data analytics and statistics, and public policy in many of the major sectors of our economy including health care, finance, banking, information technology, energy, construction, and real estate. BRG is headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., with 19 offices in the United States and London, UK.

BRG's Health Analytics practice provides clients with extensive health care industry expertise combined with data-driven, objective, and innovative solutions to their most complex problems. We have specialized and dedicated experience in health care policy, finance, care delivery and clinical economics, reimbursement, regulatory compliance, health data and data management, as well as investigations, litigation, and dispute resolution. Our team includes professionals with advanced degrees and certifications including Ph.D.s, MBAs, CPAs, and CFEs, who have backgrounds in health care economics, information technology, management and administration, finance, accounting, government regulation and enforcement, and academia.