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- About Maria
- She's Innovative
- She's Experienced
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About Maria Todd
"Maria inspires a corporate culture that is creative, practical, accountable, solutions-oriented and fosters sustaining and disruptive innovation, and she looks for a similar ilk in the clients she accepts as a consultant and the team that surrounds her."
Maria Todd is an award-winning speaker, corporate trainer, and the author of 9 best-selling professional reference books for health administrators and medical tourism industry professionals. She is a highly sought after domain expert and speaker at hospitals, universities, government strategy sessions, and international industry conferences, worldwide. Maria enjoys speaking to organizations and senior management and government agencies on topics surrounding healthcare business operations, reimbursement, medical staff leadership, service line strategy, and market growth blended with the commitment to meet the vision of the organization.
She generously shares her hands-on practical experience in healthcare management and health travel (medical tourism) in her recently released medical tourism titles, The Handbook of Medical Tourism Program Development, and the Medical Tourism Facilitator's Handbook (2012, Productivity Press, New York). Her other books on managed care contracting and physician employment contracting, both now in 2nd edition, have enjoyed high acclaim, and her book on integrated health delivery systems has been the organizational and operational "bible" for many IPAs, PHOs, MSOs, and ACOs.
These books, together with her expertise is in the realm of leadership development, strategic planning, financial turn-around projects, marketing, and small business development set her apart from every other trainer, speaker and consultant in the healthcare industry when it comes to the intersection of managed care, health travel, medical tourism, and expatriate group health benefit design. Her "See one, Do one, Teach Many" philosophy is world renowned.
More than 750,000 physicians, and over 54,000 independent and chain pharmacies are under contract together with home health nurses, air and ground ambulance, dialysis, lab, imaging, vision, hearing, dental, alternative and complementary medicine, behavioral health, chiropractic, and many other ancillary service providers.
Read more...Maria has a natural ability when it comes to bringing together hospitals, doctors, Ministries of Health, Tourism, Economic Development, insurers, employers, hotels, airport authorities, and case managers to work together to develop complex infrastructure and promote an image of safe, high-quality healthcare to establish a “brand” for the healthcare destination worldwide. Her unique background in travel, surgical nursing, insurance and healthcare business administration lends perspective rarely found in a project manager.
Maria is pictured with Dr. Meong-Geun Song discussing clinical outcome comparisons of heart valve transplants and CARVAR procedures in the SICU at Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea. Dr Song is the pioneer of the CARVAR procedure. Konkuk established a cardiac center named after Song, and he has been one of the main driving forces to put the school on the international medicine scene.
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Maria is pictured at the podium in Johannesburg, South Africa delivering a Comparative Analysis and Contrast of International Hospital Accreditation Programs at the Inaugural South African Health Tourism Congress. The Congress was supported by the patronage of the South African Ministry of Health and Mpumalanga Tourism Board to prepare for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Both Maria and Mercury Healthcare's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael J Silvers, were invited to present. Following the Congress, the two were hosted on Safari in Kruger National Park.
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Section 1311. Affordable Choices Health Benefit Plans
- Requires each State to establish and American Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange).
- Directs the Secretary to develop:
- A rating system that would rate qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in each benefits level based on relative quality and price. Enrollee satisfaction will also be measured
- and reported.
- Criteria for the certification of health plans as qualified health plans. Such criteria includes requiring plans to implement a quality improvement strategy, defined as a payment structure that provides increased reimbursement or other incentives for:
- Improving health outcomes through the implementation of activities that shall include quality reporting, effective case management, care coordination, chronic disease management, medication and care compliance initiatives, including through the use of the medical home model, for treatment or services under the plan or coverage;
- The implementation of activities to prevent hospital readmissions through a comprehensive program for hospital discharge that includes patient-centered education and counseling, comprehensive discharge planning, and post discharge reinforcement by an appropriate health care professional;
- The implementation of activities to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors through the appropriate use of best clinical practices, evidence based medicine, and health information technology under the plan or coverage; and
- The implementation of wellness and health promotion activities.
- To enhance patient safety, beginning January 1, 2015, a qualified health plan may contract with:
- A hospital with greater than 50 beds only if such hospital:
- Utilizes a patient safety evaluation system, and
- Implements a mechanism to ensure that each patient receives a comprehensive program for hospital discharge that includes patient-centered education and counseling, comprehensive discharge planning, and post discharge reinforcement by an appropriate health care professional; or
- A health care provider only if such provider implements such mechanisms to improve health care quality as the Secretary may by regulation require.
- A hospital with greater than 50 beds only if such hospital:
- An Exchange shall establish a program under which it awards grants to entities described above to carry out certain duties including public education activities to raise awareness of the availability of qualified health plans, distributing information, facilitating enrollment, etc. Such entities may include professional associations.
States must establish an Exchange no later than January 1, 2014.
- The Secretary must determine an Exchange’s initial open enrollment; that determination must be made no later than July 1, 2012.
- States must ensure that an Exchange is self-sustaining beginning January 1, 2015.
Appropriations
- Authorizes appropriations out of the Treasury, out of any moneys not otherwise appropriated, an amount necessary to enable the Secretary to make awards, no later than one year after enactment (March 24, 2011), to States for establishing Exchanges.
- Exchanges must establish a grant program to entities to serve as a navigator. Funds for these grants will be made from the operational funds of the Exchange (not federal funds received by the State to establish the Exchange).
