NAMM California leadership

Patricia Gutierrez has more than 20 years of experience in Human Resources in the areas of health care and management. She joined NAMM in 1997 following a career in the manufacturing industry. 

Gutierrez’s current responsibilities include oversight of all HR functions, including recruitment and retention programs, management training and company-wide customer service educational programs. 

Gutierrez is an active participant in the Employer's Group (Human Resources Organization) and Society of Human Resources Management.

Demara Nuzum has more than 20 years of managed care experience in the area of medical management, which has included UM, QI, credentialing, risk management and case management. 

Nuzum has also worked as a private consultant for health plans and with IPA/MSO entities in the area of medical management, as well as assisting in preparation with regulatory audits and DHMC license filings. 

Nuzum joined NAMM in 2002 as Director of Corporate Compliance. In 2004, Ms. Nuzum assumed responsibility for Medical Management. 

She has maintained an active role in the Industry Collaborative Effort for Healthcare Association (ICE), serving on numerous workgroups focused on standardization of medical management processes.

Amber Romero joined NAMM in 2016. She has over ten years of experience in the health care sector and has been a practicing attorney for seven years. 

She has deep experience with provider and payor contracting and supports the business by providing legal advice on laws and regulations, risk mitigation and dispute resolution. 

Prior to NAMM, Romero worked at Apria HealthCare, Assurant Health, Quest Diagnostics and Johnson & Johnson. 

Romero received her JD degree from Western State University College of Law and holds a B.A. in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Shawna Kamper has over 16 years of managed care experience in the areas of network operations, health plan contracting and claims operations, along with managed care operations. Kamper joined NAMM in 2000. 

Kamper’s areas of responsibility include transactional service operations comprising of claims, EDI, configuration (both provider and benefits), eligibility and provider capitation. Prior to Operations, her focus was within Health Plan Contracting. 

Kamper earned her undergraduate and Master of Science in Health Services Administration degrees from California State University of San Bernardino.

Vicki Medlen has more than 20 years of managed care experience in the area of medical management, which has included QI, credentialing and UM. 

Medlen joined NAMM in 2002 as a UM Supervisor and moved to Quality in 2003. She is active on ICE teams and has led the organization in various quality collaboratives to improve the health of our members.

Vera Grodzen joined NAMM California in 2017. Her regional responsibilities include oversight for PrimeCare Chino, PrimeCare of Inland Valley, PrimeCare of San Bernardino and PrimeCare of Redlands. 

Grodzen has worked in managed care and medical group operations for the majority of her career. She joins us from DaVita HealthCare Partners (DHCP) where she held various roles including accountability for medical group operations for the San Gabriel Valley. 

Grodzen earned her Bachelor of Science in Physiological Science from UCLA and a Masters degree in Health Administration from USC. 

Bio coming soon...

Yvonne Muñoz joined NAMM California in June 2017. Her background includes managed care and IPA management. 

Muñoz previously worked at Physician Health Partners (PHP). Her responsibilities included provider contracting, payer contracting, provider relations and network management, development of alternative product lines and oversight of organizational compliance.

She earned her B.A. in Political Science from Regis University and her Juris Doctorate from Denver University College of Law.

Leigh Hutchins has over 25 years of health care management experience. She joined NAMM in 1993 and has held various positions with NAMM California/PMNI in the areas of payor and provider contracting, network development, transactional services and IPA operations. 

Prior to joining NAMM, Hutchins worked for FHP HealthCare in staff model and IPA operations. She actively participates in charitable organizations such as the American Heart Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Cancer Society. 

Hutchins is a board director for CAPG, a trade association for Accountable Physician Groups. She sits on the Integrated Healthcare Association’s Technical Payment Committee in support of the Pay for Performance Program. 

Hutchins received her B.A. degree with honors in Pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her M.B.A. from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Jamie Phillips is the president of NAMM California and PrimeCare Medical Network, Inc. (PMNI). She has over 30 years of experience in health care and medical practice management. 

Prior to joining NAMM in 2016, she worked at DaVita HealthCare Partners as senior vice president of Operations and senior vice president of the New Market Integration team. She also worked for CareMore Medical Management Company and for Galaxy Healthcare South Africa. 

Phillips has an extensive background in all areas of managed care including both IPA and medical group operations, network development and population management. She previously served as the chairman of the Long Beach Network for Health, a community HIE initiative.

Phillips is an alumni of and advisor to the California Healthcare Foundation, Leadership Fellowship. She earned her B.S. in Nursing from Creighton University and her Masters in Health Administration from the University of LaVerne.

Dr. Lim joined NAMM California in 2020 and came from Healthcare Partners Medical Group where he served as a practicing physician and held various leadership roles for more than 20 years. His scope of responsibility has included leadership development, oversight of inpatient and outpatient bed day strategies, specialty network alignment, hospital relationships and clinical integration. In addition, his responsibilities included the development of clinical programs across the markets, specifically as it related to care coordination, transitions of care and population health management.

With over 26 years of managed care experience in both clinical and administrative roles, he has held senior leadership positions with other large medical groups and IPA’s in Southern California, such as Chief Medical Officer of Prospect Medical Group and Senior Medical Director for Regal Medical Group, an affiliate of Heritage Provider Network.

Dr. Lim is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. He received his medical degree from Loma Linda University and his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from UC San Diego. He received his internship and residency training at Huntington Memorial hospital in Pasadena, CA.

Jennifer Rapp has over 20 years of experience in the health care industry. She joined NAMM California in 2017 and is responsible for defining and executing the strategy for NAMM's provider-centric operations, including Network Operations, Customer Service and Provider Contracting. 

Rapp is also responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing the strategic relationships with NAMM’s provider and hospital partners. 

Most recently, she was responsible for Provider Experience and Operations for UnitedHealthcare's Community and State Division (Medicaid), where here she led a national team focused on improving the way we support and engage with our providers.

Prior to that role, Rapp spent nearly 13 years at Cigna. She has extensive experience in managing large scale Operations, Network Development and Provider Relations, Portfolio Delivery and Execution, and Member/Consumer Engagement solutions.

Greg Prieto joined NAMM California in 2018. Prieto has over 16 years of IT leadership experience with 13 of those years in health care IT. 

Prior to joining NAMM California, Prieto was the director of Information Technology Services for Monarch HealthCare and OptumCare Medical Group, where he led Infrastructure and Operations Teams.  

In addition to experience in IPA and clinical IT management, he gained experience leading IT services in a hospital setting while assigned as the IT director for Riverside Community Hospital. 

Prieto has extensive experience in leading initiatives ranging from acquisition integrations, process improvements, data center management and security compliance. Mr. Prieto holds an MBA and numerous industry certifications. 

He also recently completed an Executive Leadership and Management Certification Program from the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business.

Dr. Siegel joined NAMM California in 2013. He attended Universidad Del Noreste, School of Medicine in Mexico and did a Fifth Pathway thru New York Medical College. 

Dr. Siegel is a Board Certified Pediatrician, originally from Maimonides Medical Center/Coney Island Hospital in New York. 

He comes to us from Regal Medical Group, where he held the position of regional medical director with primary responsibility over utilization, quality, contracting and hospital relations for their South Region for eight years. 

Prior to that, he worked with Gateway Medical Group overseeing Pediatric and Adult Utilization Review. Dr. Siegel’s current responsibilities with NAMM include direct oversight for several aspects of outpatient utilization management and care coordination services. 

He (and a colleague) recently participated and won the OptumCare Clinical Transformation Challenge.

Dr. Gureghian assumed the role of regional medical director in 2016, focused on inpatient care and transitions, and is now one of the senior regional medical directors. 

He possesses extensive experience in patient care and managed care medical management, including high-risk case management, utilization management, physician education and provider relations. 

Dr. Gureghian is passionate about providing high-quality, cost-effective health care and leading other health care professionals in achieving the same goals. His previous role was serving in a lead physician capacity for Regal Medical Group in Southern California.

Dr. Gureghian is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. He works closely with Dr. Marciano overseeing NAMM's In-Patient Management program.

Dr. Chung joined NAMM California in 2017. He fully supports quality and care planning efforts across NAMM. He works closely with our senior regional medical director in the outpatient utilization management space, overseeing several IPAs within our region. 

Dr. Chung joined us from WellStar Health System in Georgia, where he served as AVP Physician Advisor with responsibilities involving utilization management, quality improvement and care coordination.

Prior to WellSar, he was in clinical practice at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, where he specialized in medical imaging and nuclear medicine. Dr. Chung attended Tufts University in Boston, where he obtained his MD and MBA degrees. 

Trisha Daniels has over 20 years of managed care experience in the areas of payer and provider contracting, claims and managed care operations. She has worked for MSO entities and has managed physician practices. 

Daniels joined NAMM in 2003. Prior to assuming contracting responsibilities in 2006, she was the director of Transactions. 

Her current responsibilities include health plan negotiations, hospital and network contracting operations, claims and EDI transactions; including provider and benefit configuration, eligibility and capitation expense processing in the company's managed care system.

Don Thompson has more than 20 years of experience in the accounting and auditing fields. He began his career with an international public accounting firm and has worked in the health care industry since 1991, in both hospital and managed care settings. 

Thompson joined PrimeCare in 1997. He is currently responsible for oversight of the Accounting, Eligibility and Capitation departments. 

This includes financial and health plan reporting, investment and treasury management, financial and regulatory audits, California Department of Managed Health Care reporting, member eligibility maintenance and provider capitation payments.