Eric Shell

Co-Investigator

Eric K. Shell, CPA, MBA is a Principal with Stroudwater Associates. He has over 24 years of experience in healthcare financial management and consulting. Since joining the firm in October 1997, his areas of responsibility are assisting rural hospitals improve financial and operational performance by developing effective strategic, financial, and operational plans, and evaluating and designing affiliation strategies between rural hospitals and larger hospitals that optimize the combined relationship. He has worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement a financing vehicle that enables rural hospitals access to capital markets and assisted in the development of a national program for rural hospital performance improvement and performance measurement. Over the past nine years, Eric has worked with a workgroup of frontier clinics, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a Medicare payment model that would enable frontier clinics to treat patients that require extended stays. As part of this project, Mr. Shell developed the original payment methodology, evaluated and modeled the financial performance each of the demonstration sites with the new payment model, and prepared an overall financial assessment of the program for the FORHP. He continues to be involved in workgroup discussions most recently participating in a 2-day meeting to develop future goals for the program. Eric is currently working on a second demonstration program that would enable frontier CAHs improved reimbursement. Eric recently served on the National Rural Health Association's (NRHA) Rural Health Congress and FORHP's Rural Hospital Issues Group and currently serves on the NRHA Governmental Affairs Committee.