David I Samuels, FHFMA, MPA

Hospital management, marketing and operations expert, Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Expert and professional educator.

His hospital background includes professional work experience as the Director of Development and COO of Lincoln West Medical Center in Chicago, IL, which is presently a Tenet-operated facilitated, then owned by National Medical Enterprises. He also held the position of Assistant Administrator of Kirksville Osteopathic Medical Center, located at the founding osteopathic medical school in Kirksville, Missouri.  David has held numerous University Faculty Appointments including Program Faculty, University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy, Center Of Excellence in Health Care Management program, and Adjunct Faculty at Chapman University in Orange, California.  He was also the Manager of Marketing Services for UCLA Medical Center where he provided supportive marketing and promotion services to the 900-member UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) Medical Group as well as the 700-bed UCLA Medical Center. At that position, he managed practice enhancement and managed care positioning efforts on behalf of the Division of Gastroenterology's Digestive Disease Center and crossover with liver transplantation program.

David authored six books, including Capitation: New Opportunities in Healthcare Delivery, several Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Study Guides, and more than 15 peer-reviewed publications in various professional journals.  He has delivered hundreds of professional presentations to colleagues, associations and educational institutions across the United States. In 1995, Mr. Samuels was a member of the first class of Certified Managed Care Professionals, conferred by the Healthcare Financial Management Administration (HFMA), and became a Fellow the following year. In 1998, Samuels authored his second book, The Healthcare Financial Management & Budgeting Toolkit.

President and CEO of EthiCare, which provides regulators & managers “early warning system” tools using Lean & Six Sigma principles together with  business process re-engineering at all levels to help hospitals, health plans, as well as healthcare vendors, provider, and other organizations to pinpoint / correct process and productivity errors, thereby self-managing adherence to their own external and internal benchmarks.  David has practical experience through his service on the Board of Examiners of the HFMA with certification testing, psychometrics, validity testing, score setting, syllabus congruence to study materials, study guide writing, and examination test writing. During his BOE Appointment, he oversaw the setting of new cut-points and validity testing for the examination, and in promoting the examination to larger pools of candidates to ensure more consistent pass rates.

In 2007-2008, Mr. Samuels’ efforts to promote HFMA certification testing led to the development of the Association’s first computer-based practice test and online certification coaching. At its June 2008 Chapter Awards, Mr. Samuels’ Nevada Chapter received a Gold Award for Certification, with 4 of its members first attaining certification in part due to Mr. Samuels’ CBT design and online coaching approach. Throughout his rich and rewarding career in healthcare administration, he was formerly the Vice President of Development at CompCare, responsible for new development activities in the following areas of this 100,000-live behavioral health managed care organization where he analyzed markets for new and existing company products and/or managed care contracts, which were developed/contracted/sold locally and/or regionally. He also developing disease management contracts for new and mature capitation markets, and assisted the Quality Management Department of a Management Services Organization with 240,000 lives in writing procedures and preparing necessary documentation for compliance with NCQA/HEDIS & URAC accreditation. and Served as a Board Director at WATTSHealth Foundation/UHP Healthcare, an HMO serving 100,000 underserved HMO members receiving Medicare and Medicaid services.

Upon publication of his Toolkit book, HFMA invited him to contribute managed care content to its certification self-study guide in Patient Financial Services, published in June 1998. Later that year, Samuels contributing self-study questions for both PFS and the Accounting and Finance correspondence courses, and assisted in the review and revision of certification examination questions in both specialties. That winter, Samuels was recommended for election to HFMA’s Board of Examiners in the specialty for Managed Care, to which he was seated from 1999 to 2002; during 2001-2002, Mr. Samuels served as Chair of Managed Care Specialty certification examinations.

He is a husband to Lori, a professional case management nurse for a major California HMO, and father to two brilliant sons, both in college. One is currently pursuing a MD/PhD.  David speaks fluent Hebrew and sings as a Cantor in his Synagogue.

Special Interests

Hospital Management and Marketing
LEAN for Healthcare
Six Sigma for Healthcare
Revenue Cycle Improvement
Medical Tourism Program Development
Performing Arts Medicine Program Development