Ann Shimek, MSN, BSN, RN, CASC

Executive Director, ASC Quality Collaboration

Ann Shimek, MSN, BSN, RN, CASC, is the executive director of the ASC Quality Collaboration.

Prior to joining the Quality Collaboration, she was senior vice president of clinical operations for United Surgical Partners International (USPI), responsible for all clinical oversight for the organization. During her tenure with USPI, from 2003 to 2019, she held several senior management positions, with responsibilities including the oversight of the company’s materials management and strategic initiatives.

Ms. Shimek holds a master’s degree in nursing, is a registered nurse and is CASC certified. She has served on the Board of Directors for ASCA, on the Technical Committee for the ASC Quality Collaboration and on ASCA’s Electronic Health Record Stakeholder Committee.

Donald S. (Buck) Cross, MD, FACC

Cardiologist, Waco, TX

Dr. Donald S. (Buck) Cross is board-certified in cardiovascular disease and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He is a practicing cardiologist with Waco Cardiology Associates in Waco, Texas. Dr. Cross received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from The University of Texas in Galveston, Texas. He completed both his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Scott & White Hospital/Texas A&M College of Medicine in Temple, Texas.

More recently, Dr Cross received a master’s degree in healthcare delivery science from Dartmouth College/Tuck Business School concentrating on outpatient healthcare issues. He also serves as the national medical director for National Cardiovascular Partners, an outpatient cardiac ASC company.

Sundar Rajendran, MD

Anesthesiologist, Colorado Springs, CO

Dr. Rajendran has been a practicing anesthesiologist in Colorado Springs for the past 20 years. He is a passionate proponent and practitioner of the use of nerve blocks for non-narcotic based postsurgical pain management. He is also a member of several county and state coalitions working to reduce opioid addiction.

Dr. Rajendran received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and completed his residency at St. Luke’s UMKC program in Kansas City.

Bill Prentice

Chief Executive Officer, Ambulatory Surgery Center Association

For more than a year, members of Congress have been conducting hearings and debating plans for reducing the cost of healthcare, eliminating surprise billing and improving patient access to the information they need to make informed choices about their healthcare. In June, President Donald Trump joined the conversation, issuing an executive order aimed at improving price and quality transparency in healthcare.

ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice discusses ASCA’s position on price and quality transparency, what ASCs can do to reduce the burden of surprise billing on patients and ASCA’s support for greater network adequacy that would support improved competition and pricing for outpatient surgery.

Leah Binder

President and Chief Executive Officer, The Leapfrog Group

Leah Binder is the president and chief executive officer of The Leapfrog Group, an independent national not-for-profit organization representing employers and other purchasers of healthcare. She has been named on Becker’s list of the 50 most powerful people in healthcare and consistently cited by Modern Healthcare among the 100 most influential people and top 25 women in healthcare. Ms. Binder holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and two master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, one from the Annenberg School for Communication and the other from the Fels Institute of Government.

For 19 years, The Leapfrog Group has collected and publicly reported inpatient hospital quality and safety data through the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. More than 2,000 hospitals voluntarily report to the Leapfrog Hospital Survey annually, and Leapfrog publishes data by hospital for use by health plans, individual employers, consumers and publishers of health ratings. This year on April 1, Leapfrog launched the first annual Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey.

Elizabeth Munnich

Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Louisville

Munnich is known for her groundbreaking research into ASC quality. Her work published most recently shows that for high-volume procedures, patients who were cared for in ASCs were less likely to visit an emergency room or be admitted to a hospital shortly after surgery than those who were cared for in a hospital outpatient department.