Tackling Behavioral Health Provider Shortages: Health Plan Strategies From Access To Engagement

William Wood, MD, PhD, has more than 34 years of extensive senior leadership experience in public and private behavioral health care with a focus on integrated care and mental illness recovery. Dr. Wood is the former Managing Medical Director at Anthem where he was responsible for quality and utilization management for Medicaid and Medicare programs. Dr. Wood supervised the behavioral health Medical and Clinical Directors for the Government Business Division of Anthem. He also provided leadership for 22 state health plans with oversight of the behavioral health programs. Currently, Dr. Wood is a Senior Associate with OPEN MINDS.

Dr. Wood received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine.

Deb Adler, MS, CPHQ, has more than 20 years of experience in executive health care roles, serving in a variety of capacities including network executive, quality management executive and chief operating office. She is the former Senior Vice President of Network Strategy for Optum, where she was responsible for behavioral health network development, contracting, and strategy for over 185,000 providers. In this role she developed the largest, performance-tiered behavioral health network, largest telementalhealth network, and largest medication assisted treatment (MAT) network. She was also responsible for implementing network initiatives to promote medical/behavioral integration, improve member outcomes, and reduce total cost of care through collaborative care models. Currently, she serves as a Senior Associate at OPEN MINDS.

Ms. Adler received her MS in educational psychology and evaluation from Catholic University of America, and is a Certified Professional in Health Care Quality (CPHQ).

Stephanie Asper, BA, is a Project Lead with OPEN MINDS, and brings almost ten years of experience in the health and human services consulting experience to the team. Ms. Asper is responsible for the overall management and performance of the company’s Research and Consulting (R&C) Practice, including project management of all client engagements. Ms. Asper supports the OPEN MINDS team in her role as peer review on client projects, development of project proposals, and supervision of the R&C Practice’s Research Analysts.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Asper began her career in health and human services as an Administrative Assistant for the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, Office of Health Policy, where she tracked national and state legislation and helped manage the Political Action Committee and Health Policy booths for this organization at national conferences.

Ms. Asper received her BA from Pennsylvania State University.