Legal consultant, has over 25 years of health care and finance expertise. On matters such as mergers, she represents healthcare providers and payers, including healthcare systems, continuing care retirement organizations, managed care organizations, and physician groups. Her principal work is in acquisitions, joint ventures, affiliations and reorganizations, and related regulatory matters, health care contracting, licensure, antitrust planning and compliance related issues. Joanne has significant experience with the development and regulatory issues associated with long-term and rehabilitation hospitals.

She has worked with a number of healthcare systems and providers in the following areas:

• Developed legal structure for healthcare systems to develop long-term acute care hospitals "hospital within a hospital structure". Her work has met with CMS regulatory approval
• Worked with a national rehab provider to develop the first "hospital within a hospital" LTACH for a multi-faceted acute care system. This project was the first such project nationwide
• Acted on behalf of post-acute providers in researching regulatory issues (CMS related) pertaining to post-acute, acute care, and the interface between them

Prior to her legal career, Joanne held chief financial and chief executive officer positions in health care, specifically acute care systems.

Education:
Joanne received her B.S. in Accounting from St. Joseph's University, is a CPA, and graduated with honors from Villanova University School of Law. She is a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association, served as its National Chairman, and was honored in 1999 with its national lifetime achievement award. She recently served on the HFMA/AHA Patient Friendly Billing Task Force. She was honored in 2000, as one of Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business.