Navigant announced a series of new hires to enhance its investments in its payment transformation, payer, and government healthcare solutions. Russell Ackerman has joined Navigant as a managing director, where he will oversee the healthcare actuarial consulting service line. Ackerman brings more than 25 years of consulting and health plan experience across the public and private sectors. He previously served as national practice leader at Aon, where he led Medicaid actuarial service offerings including assisting states with program development, rate setting, public exchange, and accountable care organization (ACO) strategies. Colby Schaeffer has joined Navigant as a director. He is a credentialed actuary who recently served as a vice president at Aon, where his responsibilities included Medicaid capitation rate development, reserve analysis, and health reform modeling for state agencies. Schaeffer has additional actuarial consulting experience with such value-based purchasing arrangements as ACOs and patient-centered medical homes. Bill Van Antwerp has joined Navigant as a managing director. Van Antwerp is an accomplished senior executive with significant experience advising health plans and provider networks on digital, operational, and transformational initiatives. Most recently he worked at Accenture where he managed and led the growth and development of its go-to-market strategy for health plans, with specific focus on consumerism, member engagement, operations, technology, and digital health. Eric Cahow has joined Navigant as a director, where he leads risk adjustment, quality improvement, and revenue optimization solutions for health plans, including provider-sponsored plans. Cahow supports clients through development and implementation of population health management programs aimed at improving revenues for Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care organizations through risk adjustment programs, Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Sets (HEDIS), Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), and Pharmacy Quality Alliance measures. Cahow has more than 25 years of experience, most recently serving as the national leader of Medicare revenue at Anthem and previously leading Aetna’s Medicare Stars efforts. He also worked at WellCare as vice president of product management. J.T. Lane has joined Navigant as a director, bringing extensive experience in health policy innovation and implementation. He previously served as the chief state public health official for Louisiana, where he led state public health and Medicaid program collaboration to create quality improvement and payment reform projects for Medicaid managed care. He also launched the Center for Population Health Informatics and a statewide program aimed at improving the health of Louisiana residents. Scott Simerly, PhD, has joined Navigant as a director. He spent more than two decades with Myers and Stauffer, where he led hospital and physician reimbursement system design, development, and implementation.