— OUR TEAM —

Healthcare expertise meets operational rigor.

We're healthcare strategists, financial experts, and operators who've spent careers inside the systems we now help transform. No generalists. No guesswork.

Joseph Cooper

Principal Consultant

Joseph Cooper founded Cooper Healthcare Associates with a straightforward conviction: hospital systems deserve a strategic partner who understands both the financial and clinical pressures they face. As Principal Consultant, he has spent more than nine years working alongside hospital CEOs, CFOs, and managed care leaders to optimize payer contracts, design high-performing provider networks, and drive sustainable margin improvement without sacrificing quality of care.

MBA · Saint Martin's University BA Finance · WWU Seattle, WA

LinkedIn Email

Tammy Anderson

Consultant

Tammy Anderson is a Consultant at Cooper Healthcare Associates with more than 30 years of experience leading claims operations, billing management, and quality improvement across managed care environments. Her career includes senior roles at Dignity Health Management Services Organization — Claims Manager, Claims Director, Director of Claims Auditing, and Program Manager of Claims Quality — building and refining the processes that keep complex healthcare systems financially sound and compliant. Prior to Dignity Health, Tammy spent more than two decades as Billing Manager at San Dimas Medical Group, developing deep expertise in coding, revenue cycle operations, and payer management.

Claims & Auditing Revenue Cycle Bakersfield, CA

LinkedIn Email

David Toft

Consultant

David Toft is a Consultant at Cooper Healthcare Associates, where he applies deep expertise in complex systems modeling and healthcare analytics to the challenges facing hospital systems and managed care organizations. His career spans more than a decade of progressively technical and strategic work — from managed care revenue analysis and enterprise software implementation at The Advisory Board Company, to advanced modeling and analytics at Optum. In 2021, he founded Oriole Health, a health analytics and modeling company, further sharpening his focus on translating data complexity into actionable insight for health system leaders.

Analytics & Modeling Complex Systems New Haven, CT

LinkedIn Email

Cody Wendell

Consultant

Cody Wendell is a Consultant at Cooper Healthcare Associates specializing in managed care analytics, healthcare contract modeling, and systems implementation. He works at the intersection of financial forecasting and operational data — building the models that help hospital systems and multi-entity provider arrangements understand, negotiate, and optimize their payer contracts. His work spans the full analytics lifecycle: constructing contract and claims data models, developing financial forecasts, supporting vendor onboarding, and validating operational reporting to ensure accuracy at every level.

Contract Modeling Managed Care Analytics Brighton, MI

LinkedIn Email

Karen Farris-Barnhart

Consultant

Karen Farris-Barnhart is a Consultant at Cooper Healthcare Associates with more than 25 years of managed care experience spanning provider network development, clinically integrated network strategy, and compliance across Medicare Advantage, MSSP, and ACA Exchange programs. As Sr. Director of Network Services at Ascension, she leads national strategy on contracting, credentialing, and provider onboarding across all Clinically Integrated Networks — with a consistent focus on NCQA and URAC compliance, shared savings alignment, and network growth. Her earlier 16-year tenure at Suburban Health Organization deepened her expertise in shared service development across complex, multi-entity health systems.

Network Services NCQA & URAC Indianapolis, IN

LinkedIn Email

George Liggett

Consultant

George Liggett is a Consultant at Cooper Healthcare Associates with more than 20 years of experience in managed care contracting, strategic planning, and financial analysis for hospital systems, medical groups, and ancillary providers. He brings deep expertise across Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid contract negotiation and administration — built through a decade as Director of Managed Care at Dignity Health and 13 years leading network management at UnitedHealth Group. George holds dual graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MHS) and the University of Southern California (MBA), giving him a uniquely rigorous foundation at the intersection of clinical policy and financial strategy.

Managed Care Contracting Network Management San Francisco Bay Area

LinkedIn Email

— WORK WITH US —

Ready to transform your system?

Schedule a confidential strategy session. No pitch, no pressure — just an honest conversation about where you're headed.

Start a Conversation