John Peters, FACHE

Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society  

1. Name of your organization and your current role/title:
Executive Director of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). 

2. How long have you been engaged as an Alliance member? 
Since I was installed as the ED for UHMS in 2014. 

3. What is an example of when the Alliance added value to the wound care space or to your business specifically?
Most recently, the Alliance provided invaluable support to the UHMS and the specialty of UHM by leading the effort to raise awareness within CMS to the ~42% drop in the HOPD G0277 payment rate in the final rule as compared to the proposed, and to convince CMS to correct the error before the beginning of the calendar year. This monumental lift required the Alliance to finesse its existing relationships within CMS leadership as well as working with the UHMS to reach out across the specialty to help bring awareness to the UHM community which resulted in an enormous ground swell effort that was felt across the country, ending in D.C. 

4. What career advice do you live by? 
Be relentless, resourceful, resilient, respectful, and most importantly, be humble. 

5. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why?
Former CMS administrator, Don Berwick, MD. He coauthored Eliminating Waste in Healthcare, which in my opinion, is one of the most powerful/impactful papers published to date on the unsustainable cost of healthcare and the role that waste, fraud, and abuse plays in the equation. We need to act now to correctly bend the trajectory of the cost curve and not by cutting physician or hospital payments but to elimintate waste, fraud, and abuse, and work with those two important stakeholders, along with Congress and patient rights groups to align how care is provided in this country. 

6. What does an ideal day off look like to you?
My ideal day off is hanging with my family, the P5, whether that's hiking, biking, canoeing, or playing frisbee.