Melissa Brown
Chief Operating Officer
Gravity Healthcare Consulting
Melissa Brown has over 15 years of experience as an Occupational Therapist and consultant in the skilled nursing, hospital and home care settings. Melissa has served as a compliance officer and clinical liaison for regional contract rehabilitation companies. She focuses on pragmatic and practical solutions that are cost effective and realistic. She is a self-proclaimed “PDPM Nerd” and has read and studied over 3,500 pages of regulations and Technical Expert Panel reports to analyze the payment model. Some of her other specialties include fall prevention, interdisciplinary pain management, wound care, wheelchair positioning, and oversight of all aspects of rehabilitation. Additionally, she is an expert in improving team dynamics and assisting with efficiency and task delineation within an organization. In her free time, she enjoys walking her pet Yorkie, Professor Rolo, or volunteering at her church as an annual church school “Garage Sale Queen” and running the church’s food pantry ministry.
Lane Bowen
Chief Strategic Officer
Avalon Health Care Group
Lane Bowen has been a Director of the Board of Avalon Health Care, Inc. since 2016. He is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Strategic Officer at Avalon Health Care, Inc. Mr. Bowen was President and Chief Operations Officer of Sava Senior Care, a large provider of health care services including rehabilitation and skilled nursing. Beginning his career as a physical therapist and holding numerous executive positions in health care companies, he has spent more than 35 years working to improve delivery and quality of services in post-acute care.
Prior to joining Sava Senior Care in 2014, from 2005 to 2014, Mr. Bowen was Executive Vice-President and President of the Nursing Center Division of Kindred Healthcare, a national company with annual revenues of $2.3B. Mr. Bowen served Kindred in several positions, first in 2001 as Senior Vice President of their Southern Region, then the Pacific region. From 2002 to 2005, he was President of its Health Services Division, responsible for over 200 skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities.
Mr. Bowen was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Life Care Centers of America from 1995 to 2000. From 1991 to 1995, he was Vice President of The Hillhaven Corporation’s Specialty Services Group after working for Hillhaven first as Director of Rehabilitation Services (at a subsidiary of Hillhaven), and then as Executive Director of Rehabilitation. He co-owned and served as Vice-President of Physical Therapy Association, Inc., a privately owned physical and occupational therapy business from 1977 to 1985.
He currently serves on the board of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) as Treasurer and also as a member of AHCA’s Workforce Committee since 2007. He has served on the boards of organizations such as the National Alzheimer’s Association, National Sub-Acute Association, National Association for the Support of Long Term Care, as well as on the boards of Accelerated Care Plus Medical Advisory Board and Novartis’ Provider Segment/Consultant Advisory Board.
Mr. Bowen has presented on topics ranging from management of facility-based rehabilitation programs to therapist recruitment and retention to Medicare coverage and reimbursement. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from The University of Utah and has physical therapy licenses in Idaho, Utah, Washington and Tennessee.
Tara Roberts
Vice President of Rehabilitation & Wound Care Services
Nexion Health
As a licensed physical therapist for the past 21 years, Ms. Roberts has practiced in acute care/outpatient, home health and long term care providing direct skilled therapy and wound care services as well as management, education and clinician development for the advancement of best practices, policies and procedures. She is the owner of the SUCCESSTM platform for skin and wound care services and the developer of the 3 Cs of Skin and Wound Care concept and iCARE road map for skin and wound care delivery. Her passion is advancing excellence and strategic market advantages in the area of rehab and wound care services by building competent, confident clinicians and LTC providers while advancing the quality assurance agenda.
Outside of rehab and wound care, Ms. Roberts is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Association for the Support of Long Term Care (NASL). She also serves on the AHCA Quality Improvement Committee and AHCA Political Action and Involvement Committee. Other AHCA Quality Initiative work includes: development of a short and long stay quality measure for unintended healthcare outcomes and development of an infection prevention control officer tract and certification.
Ms. Roberts has been a guest speaker at Louisiana and Texas nursing home association conferences and boot camps and frequently blogs as a guest columnist for McKnight’s Long term Care News, covering various healthcare, advocacy and quality subjects. Tara currently co-chairs the LNHA Quality Improvement Initiative Committee for Pressure Ulcers and is serving on the Technical Expert Panel for CMS on improving the Short Stay Pressure Ulcer Quality Measure. Ms. Roberts is a 1995 Graduate of Georgia State University with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy.