Leadership Team

Dr. Franklin Baumann, CEO and Founder of AppriseMD

Dr. Franklin E Baumann

Our Founder

Franklin E Baumann MD

Dr. Franklin Baumann has worked in the healthcare field for 30 years. He is an experienced surgeon who practiced in the Chicago area performing general, vascular, thoracic and trauma surgery. He has worked directly with patients and review boards seeing both sides of what it means to be responsible for the care and well-being of a sick individual as well as the system delivering that care.

Dr. Baumann founded AppriseMD in 2018 after serving for more than eleven years as a medical director for UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest insurance carriers in the country. As a Care Guidelines Specialist (Utilization Management) as well as an MD expert in post-service pre-payment claim reviews, he gained invaluable experience with healthcare claims issue which he now uses to help clients and lead the AppriseMD team.

Dr. Baumann completed his general surgery residency at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago earning the Senior Surgery Resident Trauma Award at Cook County Hospital and the Junior Surgery Resident Top Teaching Award. Before completing medical school at Rush Medical College, he earned a MS in medical physics from Rush Graduate College and a BS in physics from Illinois Institute of Technology.

He also served as the CMO of Emdeon (now Change Healthcare) overseeing all clinical activities of the medical fraud and abuse Special Investigations Unit.

Dr. Baumann is the CEO of AppriseMD and is the co-founder and chief medical officer of SmartLight Analytics. He lives in Illinois with his wife and four children.

Connect with Dr. Franklin on Linkedin

AppriseMD Leadership Team

Monika Mlynarski, MD, Director of Analytics and Client Reporting

Monika Mlynarski, MD
Director of Analytics & Client Reporting

Mary Perez, MD
Director of Provider Services

Holly St. Clair
Director of Business Development & Client Services

Jennifer Standeford Director of Administration and Human Resources

Jennifer Standeford
Director of Administration & Human Resources

Nadia Taklan, MD
Manager of Payer Services

Anne Clavero-Nash, MD
Manager of Provider Services

Samina Zahid, MD
Manager of Provider Services

Dr. Andrea De La Hoz, manager of provider services

Andrea De La Hoz , MD
Manager of Provider Services

AppriseMD Advisory Board

Dr. Jeremy Smiley, Chairperson

Bio

Jeremy Smiley, MD, FACEP, FACP, CHCQM-PHY

Dr. Jeremy Smiley proudly serves as the chairperson for the AppriseMD Advisory Board. Dr. Smiley is an accomplished physician who brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the Advisory Board. Dr. Smiley is board certified in internal medicine, emergency medicine, and health care quality and management.

Dr. Smiley works as an attending emergency medicine physician in a large multihospital healthcare system. His career has a remarkable balance between clinical practice and administrative leadership. Dr. Smiley is currently serving as the medical director for care management and oversees the daily utilization management activities of the physician advisor program. Dr. Smiley’s extensive knowledge and experience in healthcare quality and care management coupled with his clinical acumen helps him to successfully lead AppriseMD’s advisory board.

Dr. Smiley graduated summa cum laude with an honors biology degree from the University of Illinois. Dr. Smiley attended medical school at the University of Illinois in Chicago, where he subsequently completed a combined internal medicine and emergency medicine residency program.

Outside the hospital, Dr. Smiley enjoys spending time with his family, the outdoors, and playing tennis.

Dr. Deepak Ahuja

Bio

Deepak Ahuja, MD

Dr. Deepak Ahuja began his career in 1990 in Rock Island, IL, as a Board-Certified Internal Medicine physician practicing General Internal Medicine for 10 years, and then transitioned to managed care with a national insurer where duties included network management, case management, accreditation, and utilization review. He left managed care in 2016 for UnityPoint where he was involved in accountable care work, clinical leadership and quality improvement with the ambulatory enterprise, hospital utilization. He was the UnityPoint Accountable Care CEO at the time of retirement in 2021.

Dr. Ahuja has lived in the Illinois Quad Cities since 1990 where he and his wife raised three daughters. He loves to spend time with family and friends including his three granddaughters. He also enjoys outdoor activities such as skiing, scuba diving, disc golf, and ice hockey.

Chris Hostert, AppriseMD Advisory Board Member

Mr. Chris Hostert

Bio

Chris Hostert

Chris Hostert is the Chief Financial Officer at Sertifi, Inc., a Chicago based SaaS company. With over 20 years of experience in CFO and Controller roles, Chris is focused on providing insightful and trusted recommendations to C-Level members on both financial and strategic issues. He started his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young and has worked in a variety of industries and roles, including finance consulting for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Italy and as Director of Finance at ASP-One where he helped successfully scale the start-up until it was subsequently acquired.

Chris graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BBA from Loyola University of Chicago and is a Registered CPA.

Dr. Moshe Sweet

Bio

Moshe Sweet, MD

Dr. Moshe Sweet is a Regional Medical Director for Utilization Management in a large healthcare system. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and specializes in Hospital Medicine. He has extensive experience and expertise in Revenue Cycle, Utilization Management, denial management and hospital quality process improvement. He has lectured on these topics nationally.

Dr. Sweet graduated from Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine, completed his Residency in Internal Medicine at University of Chicago (NorthShore) where he also served as Chief Resident.

Outside his professional life, Moshe enjoys spending time with his wife and four children.

DENIAL MANAGEMENT

PHYSICIAN ADVISORY

UTILIZATION CASE REVIEW

Optimize patient care, reduce denials and maximize reimbursement through our unique approach to achieving excellence in utilization management.

Discuss your hospital’s utilization and denial management needs with our team.

CONTACT OUR TEAM

Leadership Team

Dr. Franklin E Baumann

Our Founder

AppriseMD Leadership Team

AppriseMD Advisory Board

Dr. Jeremy Smiley, Chairperson

Dr. Deepak Ahuja

Mr. Chris Hostert

Dr. Moshe Sweet

Optimize patient care, reduce denials and maximize reimbursement through our unique approach to achieving excellence in utilization management.

Get In Touch!

Denial Management Physician Advisor Solutions
for Revenue Integrity

Leadership Team

Dr. Franklin E Baumann

Our Founder

AppriseMD Leadership Team

AppriseMD Advisory Board

Dr. Jeremy Smiley, Chairperson

Dr. Deepak Ahuja

Mr. Chris Hostert

Dr. Moshe Sweet

Optimize patient care, reduce denials and maximize reimbursement through our unique approach to achieving excellence in utilization management.

Get In Touch!

Denial Management Physician Advisor Solutionsfor Revenue Integrity

Denial Management Physician Advisor Solutions
for Revenue Integrity