Direct Contracting in Action: Inside an Employer’s Advanced Primary Care Strategy

Linda Brady is a Benefits Specialist at Boeing. In her role, Linda manages the overall portfolio of Boeing’s direct-contracting initiatives, from the initial design/concept, through contract development, implementation and sustainment. She takes an active role in partnering with the health care provider community, other employers, associations, and other industry stakeholders to explore innovative improvements to health care delivery systems through direct contracting. Linda joined Boeing over a decade ago in 2015. She has over 20 years of experience in the health care industry and studied at the University of Illinois. Prior to Boeing, she was a consultant at two of the leading health benefits consulting firms, where she advised large complex organizations on their health care benefits strategy, including direct contracting arrangements, TPA integration, ACO implementations and health care analytics.

Dane Guarino is a co-founder of Handpicked Health, where he serves as CEO. Handpicked Health is the culmination of Dane’s numerous pursuits to vastly improve how people experience healthcare. When someone has a health concern it should be easy to schedule an appointment with a provider that fits their particular needs and preferences. High quality, connected, accessible care. At a reasonable price. Dane holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and lives in Chicago with his family.

Meaningful benefits start with getting people to the right care at the right time. Handpicked Health was built by employers for employers, because we believe no one should have to navigate that alone. We deliver a national advanced primary care network as the foundation and human-guided navigation as the bridge for every member's care journey. Together, members have a trusted relationship with a provider who knows them, and informed referrals that ensure every specialist and surgical decision is high value and in sync. The result is a benefits strategy that's simple to offer and delivers on what employers need and what members deserve: 6x more members reaching high value providers, better outcomes, and lower costs.

Arielle Miliambro practices within the firm’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Departments, where she focuses on healthcare regulatory, transactional, and compliance matters. She regularly works with providers, conveners, and other stakeholders to arrange and develop value-based care and alternative payment models, including direct primary care, bundled payment arrangements, and value-based enterprises.

She counsels clients on complex healthcare transactions, HIPAA and data governance matters, management services arrangements, and evolving regulatory requirements. Arielle advises pharmacies, providers, laboratories, healthcare technology companies, and digital health stakeholders on telehealth and digital health models, healthcare privacy and data security, fraud and abuse compliance, and pharmacy regulatory issues.

Daniel B. Frier, Esq. co-founded Frier Levitt in 2000, and serves as the Chair of the firm’s Healthcare Group and co-managing partner. With 30 years of experience, he has built a strong reputation for his knowledge representing healthcare organizations and providers in corporate transactions, regulatory compliance, corporate and government affairs and advocacy.  Clients turn to Dan not only for legal counsel but for the kind of frank, forward-looking guidance that shapes how they grow.

His client base spans large medical practices, individual physicians, healthcare start-ups and entrepreneurs, provider networks such as independent practice associations (IPAs), clinically integrated networks (CINs) and value-based enterprises (VBEs), private equity investors, ambulatory care facilities, management services organizations (MSOs), physician-owned pharmacies and dispensaries, hospitals and not-for-profit healthcare organizations, healthcare technology companies, and laboratories.

Dan’s approach is direct and strategic. When he works with clients, he challenges their assumptions, not only about what legal services they need, but the broader direction of their business.  That combination of creative thinking but conservative counsel, and commitment to his client’s growth and wellbeing has earned him decades-long relationships with clients at every stage of their growth.

His regulatory practice covers federal Stark Law and Anti-Kickback compliance. He advises physicians seeking to sell their medical practices as well as investors seeking to purchase medical practices across the country.

Dan is a passionate advocate for his healthcare clients, proactively defending their interests before Congress, congressional leaders, and federal agencies on the policy and legislative issues that directly impact their ability to conduct business effectively.

Dan has deep experience in the formation and expansion of CINs, including pediatric and oncology CINs operating nationally. He advises these organizations on mergers, payor contract negotiations including Medicaid managed care agreements, data commercialization, antitrust considerations, and the development of governance structures, policies, and procedures.

Dan is a national leader in the formation of Management Services Organizations (MSOs). He assists local, regional, and national companies in using this model to achieve their business and clinical goals, structuring these arrangements to navigate corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting requirements across state lines.

As direct-to-employer (DTE) healthcare models reshape how self-insured employers pay for and deliver care, Dan has positioned Frier Levitt at the forefront of this space. He has experience negotiating direct-to-employer contracts between and among employers, conveners, and providers. In May 2026, he hosted a first-of-its-kind national conference with the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), bringing together large employers, providers, and other industry stakeholders for an open discussion about this disruptive payment and treatment model. He advises plan sponsors, provider networks, and convener organizations on the full range of DTE structures, including convener-facilitated networks, bundled payment programs, direct primary and specialty care arrangements, shared savings models, and 340B-integrated plan designs. His counsel addresses ERISA fiduciary obligations, anti-kickback and fee-splitting compliance, state insurance and third-party administrator requirements, HIPAA data governance, and contract structuring, helping clients build models that are both operationally sound and legally defensible.

Dan also serves as a go-to advisor for medical spas, regenerative medicine practices, and wellness businesses operating in one of healthcare’s fastest-growing sectors. He guides clients through practice formation and expansion, MSO structuring, scope of practice compliance, and corporate transactions in the aesthetic, anti-aging, and wellness space. His work covers testosterone replacement therapy, hormone replacement therapy, platelet-rich plasma, GLP-1 and weight loss programs, and other cash-pay service lines, with particular attention to the state-by-state regulatory landscape that governs how these businesses operate and scale.

Dan’s work has been recognized by The New York Times which named him a Top Health Care Attorney and The Ambulatory M&A Advisor, which honored him with its Leading Lawyer Award fromfor four consecutive years.  In 2023, he was honored as one of the “Leaders in Law” by NJBIZ. Dan has been ranked by Chambers and Partners USA every year from 2019 to 2026 and selected to The Best Lawyers in America in Healthcare Law from 2013 to 2026.

Outside the office, Dan is an avid Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Practitioner and teacher, and received his black belt from the renowned Renzo Gracie.

Kim Thiboldeaux is a seasoned, passionate health care leader with experience in both the private and non-profit sectors, spanning multiple disease areas and health care topics including HIV and AIDS, organ transplant, oncology, caregiving, patient navigation, and health equity.

Kim served as CEO of the Cancer Support Community (CSC) for 20 years, from 2000-2020, leading a global nonprofit network that operates at 175 locations, including CSC and Gilda’s Club centers, and in multiple hospitals and cancer clinics. Combined with a toll-free Helpline, a Research Institute, and a DC-based Policy Institute, Kim grew this network of professionally-led services five-fold during her tenure. In her last year as CEO, the organization provided more than $50 million in free support and navigation services to patients and families.

Kim’s service includes appointments to the nation’s premier health care panels and boards. In 2019, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, appointed Kim to the Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee. This panel is focused on providing advice and serving as a transparent forum for discussion of the scientific, safety, and ethical issues associated with emerging biotechnologies. In 2017, Kim was appointed to serve on the Biden Cancer Initiative’s Board of Directors.

In serving as a patient advocate on these high-profile boards and panels, Kim has brought attention to inequities in our health care system. In 2019, she joined Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Dr. Jill Biden, and leaders of the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation in Arizona to mark the opening of the first-ever full-time cancer and support center on an American Indian Reservation. Kim helped convene key Navajo Nation leaders, private sector supporters, and other officials to establish this culturally-adapted program located in an area larger than the state of West Virginia. That work led to the opportunity to develop a full-length, feature documentary, Navajo Nation USA, about the cancer center and the triumphs and challenges of the Navajo people. Kim is Executive Producer and Writer on the film (www.NavajoNationUSA.com).

In 2020, Stand Up To Cancer appointed Kim to its Equity Breakthrough Research Review Team, focusing on cancers affecting underrepresented populations. In 2019, the International Psychosocial Oncology Society presented Kim with the President’s Community Award for Distinguished Contributions at its Global Congress in Canada.

Kim has led numerous other initiatives to help patients and families in need. Most notably, she launched an emergency fund in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that provided financial relief grants to thousands of patients affected by the economic downturn and expanded the organization’s professionally-staffed Helpline as the call volume nearly doubled. In addition, as part of a two-year collaboration she led with Airbnb, more than 3,000 patients in need were provided free housing while traveling for treatment.