Executive Team

John joined Health Payment Advocates after spending 6 years with Viant Health Payment Solutions as an Assistant Vice President of Marketing.  In this capacity John managed market research, competitive intelligence, lead generation and product marketing for the firm.  With over 14 years of marketing experience and an MBA from Babson College, John is a key member of Health Payment Advocates executive team. 

Rick Delgado:  Vice President of IT

Rick brings over 20 years of Fortune 500 IT expertise, developing scaleable enterprise level solutions and promoting repeatable methods, standards and practices essential to the maturity of an IT organization.  His ability to evaluate emerging technologies and their relevance to providing client benefits is a proven commodity.  After leaving IBM in 1983, he founded Information Engineering Group, a software engineering firm, where he co-authored 2 nationally recognized health insurance cost containment products and led numerous enterprise-wide software development engagements.   Most recently Rick has served as founder and Chief Technology Officer for Cost Management Technology where he led development of industry leading cost containment solutions.

Board of Advisors

Steve Nelson:  Principal & Founder

In 1990, Steve founded two new health care cost containment companies: Medical Bill Review, Inc. (MBR), a workers’ compensation specialty bill review company, and Preferred Payment Systems, Inc. (PPS), a group health professional fee negotiation and bill review services company.  He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of MBR until the sale of the company to MediCode, Inc. in 1993.  At PPS, Steve served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer since its’ inception until late 1997 when PPS was sold to Concentra, Inc.  After the sale, PPS became known as Concentra Preferred Systems, Inc (CPS), a Concentra, Inc. subsidiary of which Steve served as president of until January 2000. 

From 1997 through late 2007, Steve served on the Board of Directors for Concentra, Inc. until its’ split into two entities, Concentra, Inc., a workers compensation health care provider, and Viant, Inc., a group health provider of PPO networks, network services and bill review services.  Since the split, Steve served on the Board of Directors on Viant, Inc. until its' sale to Multiplan, Inc. in early 2010.

Byron Smith:  Principal & Founder

As co-founder of Medicode, Inc. and Medical Data Research Inc., which later became Ingenix, Byron has been an instrumental member of the US healthcare industry for over 30 years.  In addition to founding these organizations, Byron was also a co-founder of Health Network Systems and Preferred Payment Systems, both of which were later acquired by Concentra.   In addition to his extensive business background, Byron is a board certified physician with over 15 years of clinical practice experience.  Byron’s extensive healthcare start-up experience will be key in the development of Health Payment Advocates.

Jim Doody:  Principal & Founder

In addition to being one of the founders of Health Payment Advocates, Jim is the former Senior Vice President of Viant Health Payment Solutions, a specialized healthcare management services company.  In October of 1999, he was a founding partner of Health Network Systems LLC, a leading provider of preferred provider organization and health maintenance organization network management services.  In 1990, Jim was a founding partner of Preferred Payment Systems, Inc., a national provider of healthcare bill review services. Both of these firms were acquired by Concentra.

HPA has extensive experience in working with medical claims and interacting with the provider community.  HPA is focused on serving employers, payers, administrators and brokers with solutions to help minimize administrative and customer service expenses associated with managing members whom have high out-of- pocket liability.