Our people

Meet the Apellica team.

37 professionals across leadership, clinical review, senior appeal handling, operations, engineering, and outside counsel. Every appeal Apellica files is built on the work of this team and signed off by a senior reviewer.

6
Leadership
5
Clinical
12
Senior reviewers
6
Operations
4
Engineering
4
Counsel and advisors
Leadership
6 professionals
AY
Aman Younis
Chief Executive Officer

Sets firm strategy and oversees all client engagements. Personally reviews every escalated matter.

MY
Mohamed Younis
Chief Architect

Designs the operational and technology stack across intake, evidence handling, and secure infrastructure.

MW
Margaret Whitman
Chief Operating Officer

Runs day to day firm operations, queue health, SLA compliance, and reviewer assignments across all 50 states.

DR
David Reinhardt
MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer

Board certified internal medicine. Oversees clinical review standards and medical necessity arguments.

RS
Rebecca Sullivan
JD
General Counsel

Leads firm legal operations, regulatory compliance, ERISA appeals strategy, and engagement structure.

JP
Jonathan Pierce
CHC
Chief Compliance Officer

Owns HIPAA compliance, audit readiness, and the firm wide privacy and security program.

Clinical and medical review
5 professionals
PH
Dr. Patricia Hawthorne
MD, FACP
Director of Clinical Review

Oversees clinical review across all denial categories. Twenty years of internal medicine practice.

MB
Dr. Marcus Bennett
MD
Senior Medical Reviewer

Reviews oncology, complex surgical, and high cost specialty drug appeals.

SL
Sarah Lindholm
PharmD, BCPS
Senior Pharmacy Specialist

Specialty drug formulary appeals, GLP 1 coverage, prior authorization pathways.

DC
Diana Castellanos
RN, BSN
Senior Clinical Reviewer

Mental health, behavioral health parity, residential treatment, and ABA therapy appeals.

TW
Dr. Thomas Whitfield
MD
Medical Reviewer

Cardiology, imaging, and prior authorization clinical review.

Senior appeal reviewers
12 professionals
CW
Catherine Walsh
Senior Appeal Reviewer

UnitedHealth and Aetna commercial denials. Twelve years of insurance operations experience.

MB
Michael Brennan
Senior Appeal Reviewer

Cigna and Humana specialty drug appeals. Former carrier appeals analyst.

EC
Elizabeth Carrington
Senior Appeal Reviewer

BCBS commercial and Medicare Advantage. Specializes in clinical necessity disputes.

JM
Jordan Mathis
Senior Appeal Reviewer

Drafts the appeal letter and coordinates the carrier submission for complex matters.

SY
Sarah Yamamoto
Senior Appeal Reviewer

Medical record assembly, evidence indexing, and quality review across all engagements.

CD
Christopher Doyle
Senior Appeal Reviewer

ERISA and self funded employer plan appeals. Section 1557 and parity matters.

AK
Anita Krishnamurthy
Appeal Reviewer

Medicare Advantage internal and IRE appeals. Five state coverage focus.

RH
Robert Halloran
Appeal Reviewer

Surgical and procedural denials. Peer to peer scheduling and clinical packet preparation.

MP
Maya Petersen
Appeal Reviewer

Imaging, DME, and prior authorization. Urgent designation strategy.

DO
Daniel Okonkwo
Appeal Reviewer

Out of network billing, No Surprises Act, and federal IDR coordination.

LW
Lauren Whitaker
Appeal Reviewer

Commercial PPO and HMO appeals. State external review coordination.

NF
Nathan Foster
Appeal Reviewer

Medicaid managed care and dual eligible matters across multiple states.

Operations and compliance
6 professionals
VH
Vanessa Holloway
Vice President of Operations

Owns intake throughput, queue assignment, and SLA performance across the reviewer team.

EN
Eric Nakamura
CHPC
HIPAA Privacy Officer

Manages the privacy program, breach response readiness, and PHI access controls.

OB
Olivia Brennan
Director of Quality Assurance

Senior level QA on every appeal package before it leaves Apellica. Reviewer coaching.

JW
James Whitcomb
Intake Operations Manager

First contact, triage, and matter assignment for every new client engagement.

PR
Priya Ramaswamy
Member Services Manager

Client communications, status updates, and the post submission follow through experience.

AB
Andrew Beaumont
Senior Operations Analyst

Reporting, audit trail integrity, and cross functional metrics for the partner team.

Engineering and security
4 professionals
TA
Tobias Andersen
Vice President of Engineering

Builds and operates the Apellica platform: intake, evidence portal, workflow, and reporting.

NC
Naomi Chen
CISSP
Director of Security

Owns the security program, encryption posture, access control, and audit logging.

MR
Marcus Rivera
Senior Software Engineer

Workflow engine, evidence pipeline, and the secure portal experience.

HK
Hannah Kowalski
Site Reliability Engineer

Uptime, deployment, and the integrity of the production environment.

Of counsel and advisors
4 professionals
GT
Gregory Tanenbaum
JD
Of Counsel · Healthcare Litigation

Outside healthcare litigation counsel. Advises on complex appeals, regulatory exposure, and external review strategy.

SB
Dr. Samuel Beckford
MD, FACS
Senior Medical Advisor

Surgical second opinion advisor. Bariatric, orthopedic, and oncology surgical denial review.

LV
Linda Vasquez
Insurance Industry Advisor

Twenty five years inside carrier operations. Advises on internal appeal processes and procedural levers.

AR
Dr. Aisha Rahman
PharmD
Pharmacy Advisor

Specialty pharmacy formulary advisor. Tier exception strategy and manufacturer documentation.

Apellica's professional team includes employees, contractors, of counsel, and outside advisors. Specific reviewer assignment for any matter is confirmed at intake. The firm is not a law firm and does not provide legal or medical advice. Outside counsel and medical advisors are engaged in advisory capacity only.

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