Eric Shell, MBA, CPA, is a leader in supporting rural healthcare through the industry’s transition to population health. He is the longtime leader of the firm’s Rural practice and Chair of the firm’s Board of Directors. With nearly 30 years of experience in healthcare financial management and consulting, Eric’s areas of focus include assisting Rural & Community Hospitals, rural health clinics, and physician group practices to improve financial and operational performance and develop strategic and operational plans.
As healthcare moves away from fee-for-service reimbursement and toward payment for value, Eric and his team provide vital financial and operational improvement services to ensure that Rural & Community Hospitals continue to provide local, high-quality, and accessible patient care.
Eric is often a featured speaker at rural conferences presenting on the future of rural healthcare, CAH financial, and reimbursement issues, as well as Rural & Community Hospital performance improvement. He has worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement a financing vehicle that enables Rural & Community Hospitals access to capital markets; he also assisted in the development of a national program for Rural & Community Hospital performance improvement and performance measurement. Further, he has helped develop new rural demonstration payment programs for frontier clinics and hospitals. Eric currently serves on the National Rural Health Association’s (NRHA) Rural Health Congress and has recently served on NRHA’s Governmental Affairs Committee and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s Rural & Community Hospital Issues Group.
Before joining Stroudwater, Eric was the director of finance and administration for Rochester Community Individual Practice Association, Inc. in Rochester, New York, where he provided leadership and financial management to a 2,500-provider community-based IPA that contracted with a local HMO to provide physician services to nearly 500,000 enrollees. He has also held positions at a local accounting firm and at Arthur Andersen & Co.
Eric’s recent work includes:
- Improving financial and operational performance of CAHs and other Rural & Community Hospitals
- Assisting Rural & Community Hospitals in developing an affiliation strategy with larger urban hospitals
- Assessing the financial feasibility of CAHs accessing significant capital under HUD or USDA programs
- Facilitating strategic plan development for small and Rural & Community Hospitals taking into account the rapidly changing rural healthcare landscape
Eric earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and his MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) from the W.E. Simon Graduate School at the University of Rochester. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maine Society of Accountants.
