Shannon Sumner Heads PYA Nashville Office Expansion

Pershing Yoakley & Associates (PYA), which has served the Nashville area for a quarter of a century, has announced the hiring of a local healthcare executive to lead an expansion of its consulting, litigation support and accounting services in Middle Tennessee.

Shannon Sumner, formerly Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for CHAN HEALTHCARE, has been named a Principal of PYA and will head its Nashville office. PYA’s office is located on Centerview Drive in Brentwood with Healthcare Horizons Consulting Group (HHCGI), a PYA affiliate company.

“We have served numerous healthcare, legal, and other clients in Middle Tennessee for over 25 years, and we are delighted to add such a capable leader in Shannon to our team,” Ed Pershing, president of PYA, said. “Our growth and that of our affiliate companies are additional reasons that factor into expanding our presence in the important Middle Tennessee market.”

PYA is ranked by “Modern Healthcare” as the nation’s 10th largest privately owned healthcare management consulting firm and recently was named a 2013 All-Star Accounting Firm by “Inside Public Accounting.”

Pershing noted, “PYA has served numerous hospital and healthcare companies and healthcare providers in Middle Tennessee by providing healthcare consulting and management services, fair market appraisals, business advisory opinions, healthcare regulatory compliance; financial audits, mergers and acquisitions facilitation, and litigation support.”

In addition to HHCGI, which currently does more than $6 billion in annual claims analysis for Fortune 500 companies, PYA affiliate companies include Realty Trust Group, PYA Analytics andPYA Waltman Capital, an investment advisory firm serving Knoxville and East Tennessee.

Before joining CHAN HEALTHCARE in 1997, Sumner was a Senior Consultant in Audit and Physician Services with PYA.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Shannon ‘back home,'” said Marty Brown, PYA’s Managing Principal of Consulting Services. “She knows our values, culture, and dedication to outstanding client service. We believe it’s a perfect fit for us and for Shannon.”

Sumner said, “I am thrilled to return to PYA where I started my career in healthcare and learned the foundational elements of service excellence, integrity and a commitment to quality. I have great respect for the firm’s Leadership and I am honored to represent the firm in Nashville.”

The announcement of the Nashville office comes on the eve of PYA’s 30th anniversary. Pershing and Doug Yoakley left a then-“Big Eight” accounting firm in December 1983 and opened their own company in Knoxville. Today, PYA has offices in Atlanta, Kansas City, Knoxville and Tampa Bay, serving clients in 48 states and the Virgin Islands. PYA and its four affiliate companies have over 250 employees.

Utilizing new data analytical tools developed by PYA that audit large volumes of health claims without relying on often unreliable sampling techniques, HHCGI opened its doors in 2000 and named PYA staff member John Graham president. In addition to Brentwood, it also has a Knoxville office.

Realty Trust Group, which “Modern Healthcare” consistently ranks as one of the nation’s Top 25 healthcare real estate development companies, was founded in 1998. It has participated in developing more than $220 million in successful projects across the United States ranging from single facility clinics to multi-facility healthcare campuses.

PYA Analytics, the newest affiliate, is bringing ‘big data’ applications to healthcare, business, government and non-profit organizations. Headed by the top two former data scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pershing said the new analytics company offers great potential to state and local government agencies for improving efficiency and reducing waste and fraud. PYA Analytics President Brian Worley established and led the 170-member Computational Sciences Section at ORNL. He directed a strategic collaboration between the laboratory and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that developed a framework to address the current and future big data needs of the national healthcare system.

Pershing said he believes the growth of the Nashville area and its healthcare market bodes well for PYA, its affiliate companies and the state.

“Having Shannon join our other full-time employees in Nashville is a significant step forward for us,” he said. “Also, an expanded office will make it easier for those in our Knoxville, Atlanta, Kansas City and Tampa Bay locations to serve our Middle Tennessee clients.”

As Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at CHAN HEALTHCARE, Sumner was a member of the Executive Leadership Team, and she led leadership development, strategy, and knowledge management. She is a Certified Public Accountant who holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Accountancy from the University of Tennessee.

Contact:
Ed Pershing
epershing@pyapc.com
865-673-0844