Rusty Dennison, MA, MBA

President and founder of Parker Dennison & Associates, Ltd.

Rusty has nearly 30 years clinical, administrative, and consulting experience in behavioral health. He has assisted providers, governmental authorities and managed care organizations in over 40 states providing training, consulting, project management, and technical assistance. Rusty has provided consultation services to more than 30 state, regional and local jurisdiction authorities. Services have focused on system transformation issues and have included readiness reviews for operational areas, technical training on key functions (utilization management, crisis, central access, prior authorization, post payment review, service definition development, Medicaid state plan assistance, Medicaid waivers, claims, service definitions, needs assessment, network development and management), and operational supports during start up. In addition, Rusty has provided training and technical assistance to over 400 behavioral health providers, focusing on operational responses to changing funding environments and methodologies, with an emphasis on honoring and preserving the non-profit and community-based values. Service training, viability assessments, and turnaround strategy development are frequently requested services. He has also worked with six national public sector behavioral managed care entities ranging from the very largest, national firms to non-profit regional and local managed care organizations. Always operational in focus, Rusty’s managed care work has included assisting with bids including assessing provider network needs, care management strategy development, provider training needs and actual proposal management and drafting. Rusty has been a key team lead for nearly a dozen public sector mental health, substance abuse, and child welfare managed care implementations. Rusty has an MA in Sociological Practice from Drake University, and an Masters in Business Administration (Healthcare) from the University of Colorado-Denver.

Susan Parker, CPA, MT

Executive Vice-President and founder of Parker Dennison & Associates, Ltd.

Susan has significant experience with the fiscal and operational aspects of publicly funded community behavioral health systems, having worked with providers, state and local funding authorities and managed care organizations in more than 40 states. Ms. Parker focuses on assisting with design and implementation of new and re-structured service, reimbursement, regulatory and managed care initiatives, bringing her extensive experience with provider operations for a practical approach. Specific activities have included assistance with development of rate setting methodologies for Medicaid and non-Medicaid behavioral health services in Arizona, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina, Hawaii, and Louisiana, implementation of managed care behavioral health carve out systems in Massachusetts, Arizona, and Iowa, implementation of an administrative service organization model in Illinois, privatization of state-operated community mental health centers in Missouri and implementation of HIPAA privacy, security and claims requirements. Ms. Parker has most recently assisted with implementation of Medicaid rehabilitation and recovery-focused services within fee for service structures in Illinois, District of Columbia, Georgia, Connecticut and Louisiana. These efforts have included a range of rate setting activities, provider training, claims processing and utilization management activities. Ms. Parker has extensive hands-on experience assisting providers in making the operational adjustments necessary for successful performance in fee for service Medicaid rehabilitation environments having worked with hundreds of providers in large group training and individual provider site visit settings. She is a certified public accountant and has a Master’s from the University of Denver.