W. William Ward, Jr.

President

Mr. Ward, President of Provenance Health Partners, L.L.C., provides support assistance in the areas of financial management, strategic financial planning, financial feasibility, merger and acquisition analysis, capital finance, cost accounting, managed care contract negotiations, and Medicare and Medicaid third party reimbursement. He has extensive experience in both the practical and technical aspects of health care financial management. He has also served over the past 30 plus years as audit senior for an international public accounting firm, controller of a 1,000 bed university teaching hospital, partner with a regional health care financial consulting firm, and vice president for finance of a national hospital management company.

Mr. Ward is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and is a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Mr. Ward's experience includes:

• Providing long-term financial management support services to both urban and rural Virginia acute care hospitals, including half-time contractor status at one facility. In this capacity, he has been responsible for Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement management, monthly third party accounting review, managed care contracting and payment audits, and capital project feasibility analysis;
• Assisting hospitals with managed care rate negotiations;
• Preparing debt capacity studies to assist hospitals with strategic capital acquisition decisions;
• Preparing multi year financial forecasts to analyze the implications of various consolidation initiatives between merging health care providers;
• Assisting hospitals with preparation of interim financial statements, reconciliation of third party payments and adjustments, review of Medicare/Medicaid cost reports, and other operational finance issues;
• Preparing preliminary financial feasibility studies for tax exempt bond financing purposes related to hospital construction/expansion programs;
• Preparing financial forecast studies used for bond refinancing/advance refunding purposes;
• Serving as financial advisor on bond underwriter teams for hospitals issuing tax exempt bonds;
• Managing/preparing/evaluating the financial implication of strategic long range plans for health care facilities;
• Preparing the strategic financial plans for health care providers;
• Managing business office improvement studies which contributed to improved cash flow and accounts receivable management for these facilities;
• Managing a physician practice acquisition study for an acute care facility attempting to increase its market share;
• Assisting a health care system develop an internal audit program for use among its 35 managed facilities;
• Assisting hospitals with fixed and flexible budgeting by using a comprehensive computer- modeling package to calculate and forecast revenues, expenses, and contractual allowances, to determine full management costs related to the services offered by the hospitals, and to determine the optimum rate increases necessary to meet their financial objectives;
• Performing reimbursement maximization reviews for facilities, including assistance in correcting the Medicare DRG payment rate;
• Performing prior year reimbursement studies on Medicare and Medicaid cost reports recouping hundreds of thousands of dollars for the facilities involved;
• Analyzing the reimbursement implications of changes in the Medicare DRG reimbursement program at acute care institutions and assisting in the achievement of maximum prospective payment reimbursement at these facilities;
• Organizing and directing several operational appraisals of hospitals designed to assess the facilities' strengths and weaknesses, with recommendations for improvement;
• Analyzing the third party reimbursement implications of alternative uses for excess acute care beds at hospitals;
• Analyzing the financial benefit of service collaboration initiatives between competing health care providers;
• Analyzing the reimbursement implications of several hospital based home health and skilled nursing programs as part of the hospitals' COPN applications;
• Assisting hospitals with the re living of existing assets and developing automated property records to maximize reimbursement and cash flow;
• Conducting instructional sessions related to Medicare cost report preparation for Medicare certified hospitals and hospices;
• Assisting several small, rural hospitals develop shared service arrangements for data processing and laundry services; and
• Assisting a hospital based hospice program maximize revenues from third party payers.

Mr. Ward has spoken to a variety of healthcare professional associations, including the Virginia and North Carolina chapters of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and the National Hospice Organization.

He has volunteered his skills to various not-for-profit and faith-based organizations, having served as Treasurer of the NHO's Board of Directors, as Treasurer of the Hanover (VA) Mental Health Association, as Interim Treasurer of Anglican Frontier Missions, and as Treasurer and Capital Campaign Chairman for his church.

Myles P. Lash

President Emeritus

Mr. Lash is founder and president emeritus of Provenance Health Partners, L.L.C. He has managed complex consulting engagements and brings to each assignment extensive experience in the administration of large healthcare institutions. Mr. Lash is nationally recognized as a strategic thinker and problem solver. He has served as both a facilitator and interlocutor during the development of unique inter-organizational relationships crafted to respond to future market dynamics.

Prior to founding Provenance, he was the President of Lash Group and directed its provider and purchaser consulting division. This organization was sold to a Fortune 200 company in 1999 and is still operating from Charlotte, NC and employs close to 1,000 employees nationwide. Prior to founding Lash Group, he was the Director of the National Healthcare Group for an international public accounting firm. In that capacity, Mr. Lash was responsible for developing new products; enhancing business opportunities in consulting, audit and tax engagements; serving as a technical advisor on selected engagements and maintaining a liaison with the industry.

Mr. Lash has extensive experience managing large, complex university hospitals. He served as the director of operations for a 1,000 bed Midwest university teaching hospital. Mr. Lash then served as the executive director of a 1,000 bed Mid-Atlantic university teaching hospital where he coordinated a comprehensive building replacement project and was nationally recognized for his leadership in turning around a very troubled setting. In addition, he has served on the faculty of several graduate programs in hospital and healthcare administration and as the director of planning for a community oriented multi-hospital system. He has advised a diverse set of clients throughout the Nation; some of his projects include assisting the University of Kansas Medical Center and Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital. He was also the key consultant in the formation of the Long Island Health Network and the Atlantic Health System. Mr. Lash is especially skilled at framing collaborative solutions that create win-win scenarios which are responsive to complex inter & intra-organizational challenges. He has cultivated special sensitivities to the unique challenges of complex hospital systems and Academic Medical Centers and their faculty. He has focused on the special opportunities that exist between these institutions. In his consulting and hospital operational endeavors, he has always enjoyed a special relationship with the medical staffs, because of his ability to understand and empathize with their perspective on the various issues challenging health service delivery systems.

In 2002-03, at the request of a client, MedStar Health, Mr. Lash agreed to serve as Interim President of the Washington Hospital Center (WHC). As the largest hospital in the District of Columbia, WHC operates a 907-bed acute care teaching and research hospital with 5600 employees, revenue exceeding $1 billion and one of the five largest cardio-vascular programs in the nation. Mr. Lash is credited with stabilizing the Center during an extraordinarily difficult period, re-energizing the spirit of the staff, developing sound operational plans and charting a course so the organization could return to profitability.

Mr. Lash received a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Wayne State University and a Master of Hospital Administration degree from The University of Michigan.

Mr. Lash has lectured and is published in the field of health administration. In 1993, Mr. Lash was the co-author of a widely-distributed AAMC publication entitled "Organizational Networks: Issues for Academic Medicine." He was a founder and later served as President of the University Hospital Consortium. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the start-up LTAC, Semper Care, until its sale in 2004, a former member of the American Hospital Association's House of Delegates and a former Vice Chairman of the AHA's Council on Finance. He has served as President of The University of Michigan's Program in Hospital Administration Alumni Association. He is listed in "Who's Who in America 1982" and also has been on the Editorial Board of Frontiers of Health Services Management. In 1982, Mr. Lash was the recipient of the Robert S. Hudgen's Memorial Award, "Young Hospital Administrator of the Year," presented by the American College of Hospital Administrators.