VGM Speaker Bureau

Mike “Ike” Isaacson is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations for VGM Group. In his role, he focuses on advocating for and elevating the DMEPOS industry. Ike is a consummate coach who excels at mentoring others to serve as grass root champions for a better climate to serve customers. Working with the Government & Regulatory Team, healthcare providers, and other industry advocates, Ike is dedicated to advancing the life changing work that our members do in their communities. 

Prior to joining VGM Group in 2017, Ike spent 23 years as a state and national leader in not-for-profit community-based healthcare settings. His work advocating alongside individuals, families, communities, and healthcare partners at the state and federal levels centered on providing access to high quality healthcare and consumer choice.  

Staying true to his service roots, Mike sits on the Board of Directors for several non-profit agencies in his local area, assisting them in fund development, legislative initiatives, and community outreach. Over the years, Ike has become a sought-out speaker on leadership and employee development. Utilizing his “student of the game” approach, he has helped to guide and develop leaders across the country. His real-world delivery, using his personal and professional life experiences, provides entertaining and thought-provoking presentations. 

Ike and his wife Teresa spend their time raising and following their four children in all the activities and directions they take in life. 

He has a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s in public policy from the University of Northern Iowa. 

Topics

• Professional Development
• Customer Obsession
• Authentic Leadership
• Coaching
• Motivation & Engagement

Adam Miller is the Vice President Of Government Relations. Prior to joining the Government Relations team, Adam served as President Of Orthotics Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA) within VGM & Associates, a membership organization that provides comprehensive business services to more than 1,200 independent O&P practitioners nationwide. Adam began his career at VGM in 2014, serving most recently as the Director Of National Accounts for VGM Insurance, which afforded him in-depth knowledge to the challenges and issues HME providers face.

Adam currently serves on several boards and committees within various DMEPOS industries related to state and federal advocacy to further legislation designed to help providers.

Topics

• Federal and State Legislative and Regulatory Updates
• Grassroots Advocacy
• Legislative Best Practices

As a payer relations and regulatory expert, Melanie Ewald has honed her skills in payer contracting, enrollment, credentialing, compliance, and audits. Her ability to navigate complex regulatory landscapes and optimize payer relationships has earned her recognition as a leader in the field.

Melanie's commitment to the healthcare industry extends beyond her professional roles. She has been actively involved with several durable medical equipment (DME) associations, including serving as a former board member of the Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Services (OAMES) and participating on the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) Payer Relations Council.

Melanie is also an attorney specializing in health law with a career deeply rooted in the healthcare industry. Her extensive experience includes roles in a holistic hospital-based clinic, the Minnesota Hospital Association, and the DME sector. Melanie's contributions have consistently focused on improving healthcare systems and operations, making her an asset to the VGM Government Relations team and our industry partners. 

Emily Kettman serves on the Government Relations And Regulatory business unit of VGM. Emily’s career at VGM began on the managed care side when she worked for HOMELINK in 2001. During her time there, Emily was a Patient Care Coordinator, where she spent her time coordinating DME, O&P, urology/ostomy supplies, and complex rehab for work comp patients. She also spent five years on the HOMELINK Training And Development team. In 2014, she transitioned into her current role as Operations Manager for VGM Government Relations.  

Topics: 

• Federal and State Legislative and Regulatory Updates
• Grassroots Advocacy and Legislative Best Practices
• State Association Collaboration

Alan has 18 years of experience in the healthcare field. He has a strong background in industry analysis and research, especially related to business opportunities and strategies. He uses his extensive knowledge to help VGM's members and vendors have insights necessary to implement effective business strategies. Alan worked for VGM from 2007 to 2014 and again since 2022. He has given keynotes, seminars, and webinars on healthcare trends that affect DMEs.

He also has experience in leading an analytics function for a large midwestern health system. There, he guided a team of internal consultants and analysts who worked on healthcare areas such as strategy, finance, clinical, operations, and value-based contracting. He also gained expertise in healthcare policy, strategic partnership management, and performance management.

Topics

• Industry trends and the future of DME
• DME's role and opportunities in the healthcare ecosystem
• Business strategy
• Financial and operations benchmarking
• Regulatory updates and navigation

Wayne van Halem founded The van Halem Group in 2006. The Atlanta-based firm merged with VGM Group in 2014, and Wayne currently serves as President as they assist providers navigate complex issues related to audits, appeals, enrollment, and compliance. As a CMS contractor for 10 years, he spent a majority of that time as a fraud investigator and national Appeals Director. Wayne is also a published author and well-known lecturer. He is an Accredited Healthcare Fraud Investigator through the National Health Care Anti-fraud Association (NHCAA); a Certified Fraud Examiner through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), and an active member of the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA). He has served on the faculty for each of these national organizations. Wayne sits on the American Association for Homecare’s Regulatory Council, Medtrade’s Educational Advisory Board, Medicare DME MAC Jurisdiction D Advisory Council, Advisory Board for HME Business Magazine, and Board of Directors for Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) and the Georgia Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers. He has also served as an expert in various criminal and civil proceedings. Since 2006, his company has saved clients over $150 million in overpayments and denial recoveries.

Topics

• Audits
• Appeals
• Compliance Programs
• Compliance Issues
• Regulatory Issues
• Enrollment Issues
• Medicare Policy
• Industry Updates
• Alternative Payment Arrangements

Kelly Grahovac serves as General Manager for The van Halem Group where she focuses on audits, appeals, education and training, and business development. Kelly is a known lecturer in the DME industry, speaking at national conferences, state associations, and for private events. Kelly has nearly 10 years of experience at one of the nation’s leading Medicare contractors where she worked for the Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carrier (DMERC), Qualified Independent Contractor (QIC), and A/B Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC). Her various roles with Medicare include working as a senior provider relations representative, QIC Adjudicator and Training Specialist. Kelly has in-depth knowledge in Medicare appeals, policy and education and training. In addition to her client work at The van Halem Group, Kelly is also a contributor to several industry publications nationally.

Topics

• Audits
• Appeals
• Compliance Programs
• Compliance Issues
• Regulatory Issues
• Enrollment Issues
• Medicare Policy
• Industry Updates

Ann Thomas is VGM’s Director of Learning & Development and Emerging Technology Education. She combines a master's degree in education and informational resources with a graduate level computer science endorsement and advanced certifications, including Microsoft Innovative Educator, Google Gemini AI, a Civic & Online Reasoning certification from Stanford, and a Behavioral Research certification from the CITI Program. She is also a licensed Insights Discovery Practitioner, a certified Cloverleaf AI trainer, and a Gallup CliftonStrengths Global Coach. Since generative AI’s public debut in November 2022, Ann has trained thousands of leaders and frontline teams with practical, responsible AI skills such a prompt engineering and strategies that deliver measurable workflow improvements through Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. She transforms complex concepts into clear, role-specific playbooks and interactive exercises tied to real tools and processes. Participants leave with actionable knowledge about generative AI they can apply immediately. Beyond AI, Ann’s broader L&D initiatives strengthen retention, close skill gaps, and cultivate high-performing cultures of learning. At the heart of her work is a proven approach to building trust in teams, establishing psychological safety, shared language, and transparent practices that enable candid feedback, faster collaboration, and durable performance. She is passionate about leadership and providing differentiated and targeted educational experiences throughout all levels of business.

Topics:

• AI (Demystifying AI, AI Adoption, Prompt Engineering, AI Ethics & Responsible Use, Maximizing AI for Productivity)
• Building Hight Trust Teams
• Change Management & Leading Through Change
• Creating Cultures of Learning
• Leadership Development
• Retention through Development

Jeremy Kauten, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President Of Information Technology at VGM Group, has spent his entire career in the cyberworld. He currently focuses on protecting computers, networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access, change, or destruction. In addition, he coordinates the optimization of technology throughout VGM’s business units. Jeremy's involvement at VGM started in 1997, when he committed himself to growing VGM Forbin and positioning the organization as a leader in healthcare web development and online security. He is a regular contributor to the trade press and is a frequent technology speaker at industry events. Jeremy earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and business management from Upper Iowa University with additional credits from the computer information systems program at the University of Northern Iowa. He also holds an AAS in law enforcement and an MBA from the University of Iowa Executive Master of Business Administration Program.

Dave Lyman, BA, RRT-SDS is Executive Vice President of VGM & Associates. Dave’s experience as a respiratory therapist coupled with his knowledge of clinical, operations, billing, management, and sales in the DME industry has been instrumental in overseeing several of VGM’s programs. Dave started his career as a respiratory therapist at the Cleveland Clinic and has more than 20 years of experience in the DME industry. Along with guiding VGM’s Member Success Team, he also serves on multiple committees dedicated to patient outcomes and care including co-chair for the education committee for OAMES and AAHomecare Respiratory focus group. 

Cassi Price is the President of VGM Forbin. Cassi joined VGM in 2007 after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations from the University of Northern Iowa. Throughout her professional career with VGM, she has been instrumental in developing strategic web marketing services and leading creative teams to bring maximum exposure to businesses of all sizes through social media marketing, search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Today, Cassi is responsible for collecting, structuring, managing and prioritizing a wide range of business needs across all VGM business units. With her strategic and service-oriented approach, Cassi works with the executive management of VGM and VGM business units to bring the company forward through initiatives in software, facilities, training, and process.

Topics

• Project Management
• Servant Leadership
• Promoting Your Brand Online

Dave Lyman, BA, RRT-SDS is Senior Vice President of Customer Success at VGM & Associates. Dave’s experience as a respiratory therapist coupled with his knowledge of clinical, operations, billing, management, and sales in the DME industry has been instrumental in overseeing several of VGM’s programs. Dave started his career as a respiratory therapist at the Cleveland Clinic and has more than 20 years of experience in the DME industry. Along with guiding VGM’s Member Success Team, he also serves on multiple committees dedicated to patient outcomes and care including co-chair for the education committee for OAMES and AAHomecare Respiratory focus group.

Topics

• Medicare Reimbursement for Mobility Products
• Medicare / Medicaid Compliance
• Billing
• Medicare Standard Operation Procedures (SOP)
• Medicare Updates
• Clinician Education on Medicare Documentation Requirements

Ryan Ball has worked in the healthcare industry for VGM Group for more than a decade as director of VGM Market Data and various analyst roles within VGM Government Relations. Prior to working as a regulatory analyst, Ryan worked as a political campaign consultant, focusing primarily on developing and analyzing data to identify statistically-significant market trends and make recommendations on efficient resource allocation. In his role as VP of VGM Market Data, Ryan works with VGM members to provide market intelligence data to identify key referral source opportunities in their markets and provides tools to provide actionable intelligence to post-acute health care sales/marketing teams.

In today's high tech world, data is being utilized to increase efficiencies and identify new opportunities for growth. The Affordable Care Act allocated billions of dollars to incentivize health care providers to utilize electronic medical records over the past several years, and that investment has led to a technological boom in data available to target key physicians. It seems everyone is utilizing "big data," so why aren't HMEs? This presentation will identify healthcare claims data that is available on DME products and traditional referral sources. 

Topics

• Identify opportunities within HME industry to obtain targeted claims data
• Demonstrate specific examples of how HME's can use data to grow their referral base
• Discuss current referral source management techniques
• Discuss strategies to effectively and efficiently engage referral sources

Mandi Rodgers is the Vice President of Events at VGM. In this role, Mandi oversees the strategy, planning, and execution of internal and external events, including conferences, tradeshows, and member engagement initiatives. She leads a team focused on creating exceptional experiences that strengthen relationships and drive business growth. Her responsibilities include developing event concepts, managing budgets, coordinating logistics, and ensuring brand consistency across all event touchpoints. Prior to joining VGM in 2017, Mandi worked at an AV/IT company to help build their customer engagement and communications structure. Her background includes a unique combination of broadcast, public relations, and marketing in healthcare, sustainability, and consumer products, providing her with valuable insights into audience engagement and strategic communications. Mandi holds a BA in Mass Communications and is passionate about delivering innovative, memorable events that align with organizational goals.

Heather Trumm is the Partner Account Manager at VGM. Heather educates VGM members about the importance of diversifying product selection and incorporating aspects of wound care into their product mix. She also educates members in caring for the patient with wounds. Heather’s past nursing experience encompasses medical/surgical nursing, community and public health nursing, home health care nursing, and she also worked in sales for major health care corporations. Heather has lectured at conferences, trade shows and seminars all across the country. She is a member of the National WOCN Society, current Public Policy Committee Member for the WOCN Society, President for the Iowa Affiliate of the WOCN Society, and a supporter of the National Nurses Association.

Lindy Tentinger is the President of VGM & Associates. She was previously President of VGM Forbin and the Senior Vice President Of Marketing for VGM & Associates. Prior to joining VGM in 2017, Lindy worked at a global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company for 11 years. She built the company’s marketing department from the ground up, and led both sales and marketing through a digital transformation and a re-branding/positioning launch. Her marketing leadership helped gain global exposure and year-over-year revenue growth for the company’s multiple business units. She is well-versed in many industry verticals including healthcare, financial services, utilities, government, telecommunications, and higher education. Lindy has a BA in Electronic Media, as well as an MBA.

Sara Laures is the Chief People Officer for VGM Group where she oversees people and culture strategy, human resources, talent acquisition, organizational development, and facilities management, and manages corporate projects that support the success of VGM’s business units and its employees. Sara has held roles in multiple VGM business units during her career. She began at VGM’s HOMELINK business units in 1998 and spent five years developing a foundational knowledge of care coordination and its impact on patients’ access to quality healthcare. For 14 years, she was responsible for leadership of VGM Education, spearheading the development of its robust virtual education platform and content. In her current role, she worked to expand workplace flexibility guidelines when VGM transitioned to a work-from-home policy, improving the work-life balance of all employees – especially working mothers.

Sara has a bachelor’s degree in health services administration from Upper Iowa University. Because of her experience working her way up the corporate ladder, Sara advises and mentors many other aspiring female leaders. And as an associate certified coach through ICF, iPEC certified professional coach and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, she is a knowledgeable resource for women in the workplace. To further support and recognize employee owners at VGM, Sara has grown Women in Leadership (WIL) at VGM, helps guide the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, and emcees the VGM Award ceremony. She also serves on a number of boards and task forces in the Cedar Valley community.

Topics:

• Employee Engagement
• Culture
• Leadership
• Coaching
• People Strategy

As Director of OPGA, Jeff Kessler leads initiatives that help orthotic and prosthetic providers control costs, increase revenue, and advocate for positive change in the industry. Since joining VGM in 2013 after earning a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the University of Northern Iowa, Jeff has held roles spanning patient care, member services, analytics, provider relations, and partner management. Drawing on his expertise in data-driven strategies, he advises members and partners on using claims data to strengthen referral development and improve business efficiency.

Topics:

• Physician Referral Development Strategies

• Leveraging Claims Data for Business Growth

Tyler Coulander is the Market Strategy Manager for VGM & Associates. In his role, he is responsible for supporting VGM and its members, customers, and vendors in understanding market data and trends in the healthcare industry, specifically the durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) space. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Iowa. Tyler has previous experience working for nonprofit health systems in roles ranging from human resources, patient access, growth strategy/business development, healthcare operations, project management, and finance.

Topics:

• Industry trends and the future of DME
• Trends across the healthcare continuum that impact DME
• DMEs role in the healthcare ecosystem
• Business Strategy
• Financial and Operations Benchmarking

Kelsey Burke is the Vice President of Human Resources for VGM Group. She has been with VGM since 2007.  In her role, Kelsey develops and facilitates strategic initiatives to support achievement of the organization’s goals, particularly from the perspective of the impact on people.  Kelsey consults with leaders and maintains a knowledge base of progressive HR practices and key trends.  She is responsible for creating, evaluating, and implementing policies that align with the company’s culture.  She oversees employee relations, onboarding, employee engagement, legal compliance, risk mitigation, as well as benefit and wellness initiatives and strategy.  She provides analytical oversight of workforce data to inform business decisions. 

Topics:

• People, Processes, and Mitigating Risk
• HR Trends
• Feedback and Effective Performance Management
• Crucial Conversations
• Using Data to Drive People Decisions
• HR Compliance (FMLA, ADA, PWFA, and more!)
• Navigating Difficult People Scenarios
• Mental Health in the Workplace

Nick Dideriksen is the Vice President of Technology Innovation at VGM Forbin. Nick has been with VGM since 2012 and currently leads strategic initiatives across VGM’s external technology offerings, including consulting on vendor management, IT operations, cybersecurity, AI solutions, and other emerging technologies. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and brings over 20 years of experience in technology, spanning corporate IT, IT consulting, and managed service environments. As a foundational member of VGM Forbin’s Managed IT business unit, Nick has played a pivotal role in shaping technology strategy, service offerings, and long-term growth. His expertise spans cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and aligning technology with business outcomes. Whether discussing digital transformation, the future of work, or practical strategies for leveraging business technology, Nick brings a unique perspective and contagious enthusiasm to every speaking engagement. He is passionate about helping organizations build resilient, forward-thinking cultures through innovation, education, and strategic planning. With a focus on actionable takeaways, Nick empowers audiences to embrace change, seize opportunities, and create a brighter future. VGM Forbin is a leading provider of comprehensive technology solutions, including IT services, website development, digital marketing, enterprise application development, and business workflow integrations. Nick’s deep understanding of these offers enables him to provide valuable insights and guidance to clients seeking to optimize their technological infrastructure, technology operations, and digital presence.

Topics:

• IT Strategies
• Customer Success within an IT Environment
• AI Solutions
• HIPAA Compliances & IT Auditing
• Cybersecurity Landscape

Brooke Kraft is the Vice President of Talent Management at VGM Group, where she leads the strategic direction of recruiting, hiring, and learning and development (L&D). With a strong focus on leadership training, career pathing, and skills-based recruiting, Brooke plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s talent strategy to support organizational growth and employee success.

She holds a master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology, which underpins her data-driven and people-centric approach to talent management. Brooke is also deeply committed to community impact and serves as the Board President of Inclusion Connection, a local nonprofit dedicated to fostering inclusive opportunities for individuals of all abilities.

With a passion for empowering people and building strong, future-ready teams, Brooke continues to drive innovation in talent development and organizational effectiveness.

Topics: 

• Talent management and leadership development 
• Recruiting and the value of the candidate experience 
• Hiring efficiencies 
• Learning ecosystem 
• Skill-based hiring 
• Building high-performing teams based on role objectives 

Kayla Mahler is the Senior Director of Marketing. She previously served as the Marketing Manager for Digital, Systems, and Data at VGM & Associates, where she managed all aspects of digital marketing, data, and marketing systems. Kayla also held the position of Operations Manager at Essentially Women for 1.5 years and at U.S. Rehab for 4.5 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Central College in 2009 and her master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Northern Iowa in 2017. In her free time, Kayla enjoys running, biking, kayaking, and singing.