The Forecast for Federal Health IT Acquisitions - Ongoing Needs and New Priorities
February 20, 2025
5:30 - 6:15pm - Networking
6:15 - 6:30pm - Welcome & Announcements
6:30 - 7:30pm - Program
7:30 - 9:00pm - Networking
Location: LMI Building
7940 Jones Branch Dr. Tysons, VA 22102
Join the HIMSS NCA Chapter this February for an insider's look at the future of federal health IT acquisitions! Our event, "The Forecast for Federal Health IT Acquisitions - Ongoing Needs and New Priorities," features a panel of current and former federal officials who will provide expert insights into the evolving landscape of health IT procurement. Gain valuable knowledge about the government's ongoing technology needs, new administration's priorities, and the latest acquisition trends. This is a must-attend event for anyone involved in the federal health IT space, offering a unique opportunity to interact with industry leaders and stay ahead of the curve.
Moderator
Ms. Carole Johnson
Former Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Ms. Carole Johnson is a senior fellow with The Century Foundation. She previously served as Administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, where she successfully led the agency’s expansion of health care services in historically underserved and rural communities. Her tenure focused on policy actions integrating mental health and substance use disorder treatment into primary care, growing school-based health services, and expanding access to care in rural communities. She led unprecedented investments in scholarships, loan repayment and stipends to recruit and train the next generation of the physicians, nurses and other health care providers, and launched new services like the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline to respond to postpartum depression. Johnson joined HRSA from the White House COVID-19 Response Team where she led mitigation and surge response efforts, including deploying health care personnel to support bipartisan Governors’ needs across the country.
She previously served as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, leading the largest state agency in the 11th largest state and providing health care and social services to one-in-five New Jerseyans. During her tenure, she expanded Medicaid coverage of mental health and substance use disorder services, created new Medicaid benefits to improve maternal health outcomes, substantially increased child care rates for the first time in a decade, and expanded food assistance benefits. She also served for more than five years in the Obama White House, working on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, combatting the opioid epidemic, responding to public health challenges like Ebola and Zika, and advancing public health priorities. Ms. Johnson also spent several years on Capitol Hill as health staff.
Panelists
Ms. Naomi Escoffery
Director, Industry Engagement, DHA
Ms. Naomi Escoffery is the Director, Industry Engagement at the Defense Health Agency. In this role, she is responsible for leading strategic initiatives that strengthen collaboration between the Defense Health Agency (DHA) and public and private sector partners. Ms. Escoffery ensures effective industry engagement to drive innovation, improve partnership resilience, and meet the operational needs of DHA – aligning with the agency's mission of enhancing military health and readiness.
Ms. Escoffery most recently served as the Chief Accelerator Officer and Innovation Program Manager for DHA. Ms. Escoffery led the modernization efforts of the Military Health System (MHS) healthcare delivery model. Her keen focus on innovation and strategic initiatives played a crucial role in transforming healthcare services within the MHS. As the Acting Deputy to the Deputy Assistant Director, Acquisition and Sustainment, Ms. Escoffery served as the senior acquisition strategic manager, in support of the Component Acquisition Executive (CAE). She operated as DHA’s leading expert in customer and industry relations through the integration of Category Management.
Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Ms. Escoffery holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Bioscience and Biotechnology from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University (NDU) Eisenhower School. She holds the following certifications: Senior Acquisitions; Program Management Professional®; Program Management Level III and Information Technology Level I Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWA); and Information Technology Infrastructure Library Version III®.
Mr. Ian Komorowski
Executive Director of Strategic Investment Management (SIM), VHA
Mr. Ian Komorowski serves as the Executive Director of Strategic Investment Management (SIM), Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Ian leads SIM’s mission to facilitate sound decision making by VHA for the development, acquisition, and maintenance of health-focused IT investments. SIM ensures leadership has a comprehensive understanding of needed VHA business capabilities including business requirements, processes, information needs, IT strategy & priorities and investment analysis.
In his most recent role, he served as the Acting Chief Consultant to the Deputy Under Secretary for Health (DUSH) as the co-lead for VHA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) Reset efforts. His primary focus was coordinating with VISNs and VA Medical Centers on their EHR requirements, in partnership with the EHRM Integration Office (EHRM IO) and the VHA Office of Health Informatics (OHI).
Ms. Seileen Mullen
Former Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, DoD
Ms. Seileen Mullen served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs until January 2025. In this role, Ms. Mullen was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness for all Department of Defense health and force health protection policies, programs, and activities. This position oversees the day to day operations of the DoD’s healthcare system which includes oversight of the $60B annual Defense Health Plan budget and 9.4M beneficiaries.
Melissa Starinsky
Former Head of the Contracting Activity for the Office of Acquisition and Grants Management (OAGM), CMS
Melissa Starinsky is the Managing Member of Starinsky Consulting, LLC, a contract management consulting firm. She retired from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2021 after a distinguished 30-year career in the Federal Government. Highlights of her career include her service as a retired member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), where she held leadership roles in three large Executive Branch Agencies: the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and the General Services Administration (GSA). From 2016 to 2021, she served as the head of the Contracting Activity for CMS, overseeing more than $9 billion in annual discretionary contract and grant spending. Additionally, she was Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the award-winning Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy, where she led operations at five schools that trained and certified over 40,000 members of the VA acquisition workforce. She also served as the Director of the Federal Acquisition Institute from 2015 to 2016, where she managed training and certification programs for the entire civilian agency acquisition workforce, including contracting officers, contracting officer representatives, and program managers.
In addition to her career accomplishments, Ms. Starinsky served as the National President of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) from 2020 to 2021, the leading nonprofit organization for the contract management community. She continues to contribute to the field by serving as a Director on the Procurement Round Table and as a member of the NCMA Board of Advisors. Through these roles, she remains active in addressing broad Federal contract management issues.
