Ben Ulrich, CVA

Managing Director

Ben Ulrich is a Managing Director in the Compensation Division at VMG Health and is based in the Dallas office. His focus is providing valuation and consulting services for contractual service arrangements within the healthcare services industry. He has particular expertise in valuations relating to provider employment, on-call coverage, physician administrative and executive services, telemedicine, hospital-based coverage, management / billing, and quality initiatives. Ulrich also developed and manages VMG Health’s FMV Tools service line providing expedited, cost-effective valuation solutions to clients nationwide.

Prior to joining the Compensation Division, Ulrich worked in VMG Health’s Business Valuation division where he provided valuation services related to hospitals, specialty/surgical hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, diagnostic imaging centers, and single and multi-specialty physician practices.

Ulrich graduated summa cum laude and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Financial Consulting from the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He is currently designated as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) and is a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

Chance Sherer is a Managing Director at VMG Health and is based in the Denver office. He specializes in providing financial, valuation, and transaction advisory services to the firm’s healthcare clients. Chance’s clients include health systems, ambulatory surgery centers, surgical hospitals, oncology centers, diagnostic imaging centers, dialysis centers, physician groups, and numerous other ancillary healthcare service businesses. In addition to extensive valuation experience for transaction planning and financial reporting purposes, he has consulted on numerous development, feasibility, and recapitalization analyses for joint venture, restructuring, and de novo business development purposes.

Chance is a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) and is currently a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA). He is also a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Health Law Section and is a Subject Matter Expert in the Business and Transactions Interest Group. Chance received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Don Barbo is a Managing Director with VMG Health and leads the firm’s Litigation & Disputes valuation practice. He has performed valuations exclusively for the healthcare industry for over 23 years involving mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, partnership transactions, leasing arrangements, financial reporting matters, divorces, diminution of value, and commercial damages. His extensive healthcare valuation engagements have included hospitals (acute care, long-term care, critical access, behavioral health, and surgical), physician practices (variety of primary care and hospital-based), ambulatory surgery centers, diagnostic imaging centers, cardiac catheter labs, pathology and clinical labs, cancer treatment centers, and dialysis centers. Barbo has also performed engagements for various contracts between hospitals and physicians, including medical director agreements, on-call agreements, lithotripsy service agreements, professional services agreements, and management services agreements.

Barbo also serves as an expert witness in litigation matters for his clients and has an extensive testifying experience in various state and federal courts. His testifying experience involves a wide range of issues including whistle-blower actions, breach of contracts, shareholder disputes, bankruptcy and distressed businesses, and marital divorces. He has spoken extensively to various legal and valuation organizations and has published articles regarding healthcare business valuation issues. Prior to his valuation career, he served as the chief financial officer for a physician practice management company that provides management services to a variety of physician practices. Before that, he served as the controller/financial officer for various emerging companies. He began his professional career as an auditor with a Big 4 national accounting firm.

Barbo is a CPA, holds the Accreditation in Business Valuation from the AICPA, is a member of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), and is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). He also served on the Technical Advisory Board for the AICPA’s Forensics & Valuation Section Consulting Digest and the Financial Valuation and Litigation Expert newsletter. He holds a BBA in Accounting from Texas Tech University, and an MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Edward J. McGrath is a Managing Director at VMG Health based in the Chicago office. He specializes in physician relationships/partnerships strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, service-line planning and strategy, ambulatory care planning, physician compensation arrangements, and financial analyses.  McGrath’s client base includes large healthcare systems, academic medical centers, single-and multi-specialty physician group practices, and post acute/long term care organizations. Prior to joining VMG Health, McGrath was a partner at Health Care Futures. His background also includes nearly 12 years with KPMG where he spent the last 18 months of his KPMG career as a partner in the National Health Care Strategy Practice leading the Chicago healthcare advisory practice.

McGrath has bachelor’s degrees in accounting and in business administration from Augustana College.  He earned his master’s degree in health administration from St. Louis University.  He has been a member of various committees and boards including multiple hospital boards. McGrath currently serves on an advisory board for a collaboration of Catholic Women Religious.

John S. Trabold III has experience in the valuation of commercial, industrial, and investment-grade properties to estimate Market Value and Fair Market Value for ad valorem purposes, allocation of purchase price, financing, Stark compliance, and investment decisions. Industries served include medical, banking, hospitality, manufacturing, and financial services.

Trabold has extensive experience in the valuation of complex healthcare properties including hospitals, medical office buildings, surgery centers, imaging centers, and long-term acute care hospitals.

Trabold has served clients in 40 of the United States and Puerto Rico. Clients include Glacier Hospital, Capella Healthcare, Wise County Regional Health System, Texoma Medical Center, Reliant Hospital Partners, HCA, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, Henry Ford Health System, Cirrus Health, Saint Joseph Healthcare, University General Hospital, MultiCare Health System, Baylor Health Care System, HMA, LifeCare Hospitals, USPI, CHRISTUS Spohn Health System, CHS, Kutak Rock, LLP, HealthSouth, Emerus, BayCare Health System, Shore Medical Center, Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC, 21st Century Oncology, Citrus County Hospital, Jones Day and Hunton & Williams, LLP.

Jonathan Helm is a Managing Director in the Compensation Division at VMG Health and is based in the Dallas office. He specializes in the valuation of complex contractual arrangements with a focus in provider compensation and management agreements.

His experience includes valuations related to administrative and management agreements, call and clinical coverage, medical directorships, clinical co-management, billing/collection, and ancillary services agreements (laboratory, radiation oncology, and imaging). Clients include for-profit and not-for-profit health systems, publicly owned and privately held healthcare operators, and private equity firms.

Helm also has experience providing valuation services for transactional and financial reporting purposes. Business entities valued include acute-care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, surgical hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, diagnostic imaging centers, single and multi-specialty physician practices, and cancer treatment centers, among others.

Helm serves as a contributor to VMG Health’s FMV Tools™ which allows users to quickly establish compensation levels for employed and independent contractor physicians in various roles based on systematic and unbiased guidelines.

Helm holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Financial Consulting from Southern Methodist University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is designated as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) through the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts.

Pam D’Apuzzo is a Managing Director at VMG Health leading the Coding, Compliance and Operational Excellence Management service line. She is a recognized leader and industry expert in the area of coding and compliance. Pam’s 30-plus years of healthcare consulting experience spans academic medical centers, community hospitals, faculty practice plans and large private practices.

A trusted adviser to New York’s leading healthcare institutions, she conducts educational and training seminars and provides comprehensive compliance programs. Pam also has a successful record of practice management services including operational and billing review, practice assessment, practice start-up assistance and EMR implementation.

Pam is a frequent speaker at conferences sponsored by the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), New York State Society of Physician Assistants (NYSSPA), Suffolk County Medical Society (SCMS) and American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL).

Kevin McDonough is a Managing Director at VMG Health and is based out of the Dallas office. During his tenure at VMG Health, McDonough has provided valuation, transaction advisory, feasibility, and operational consulting services to the firm’s healthcare clients.

His clients include acute care hospitals and health systems, ambulatory surgery centers, surgical hospitals, oncology centers, diagnostic imaging centers, dialysis centers, inpatient and outpatient post-acute care operators, physician groups, health plans and risk bearing organizations, and numerous other ancillary healthcare service businesses. In addition, McDonough helps to lead the firm’s life sciences practice providing valuation services related to many forms of medical device and pharmaceutical consulting arrangements. Finally, he has served as a consultant in the formation and development of numerous physician-hospital joint venture initiatives.

McDonough graduated cum laude and holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, McDonough is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He is a member of the CFA Institute, CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth, Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, American Society of Appraisers (ASA), Healthcare Financial Management Association, and the Physician Hospitals of America (PHA).

Todd J. Sorensen is a Managing Director at VMG Health. He specializes in providing valuation and transaction advisory services to the firm’s healthcare clients. He has acted as financial advisor in transactions with physician groups, acute care hospitals, urgent care and free-standing emergency rooms/departments, home health and hospice, inpatient rehab, inpatient behavioral health, Medicare Advantage plans, imaging centers, radiation therapy (including proton therapy), ambulatory surgery centers, home health agencies, and physical and occupational therapy centers.

Sorensen has also assisted buyers and sellers with purchase price allocations including intangible asset and personal goodwill valuations for tax planning.

Prior to joining VMG Health, Sorensen was with the Financial Advisory Group of Ernst & Young. Sorensen helped play an integral role in the development of healthcare valuation services. He has assisted in the development of financial tools that allow clients to make better decisions concerning efficient deployment of capital. Sorensen holds an MBA degree and is designated as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA).

Victor H. McConnell is a Managing Director in VMG Health’s Real Estate Services division and is based in the Denver office.  He has real property valuation & consulting experience in 42 of the United States, including extensive experience with the valuation of healthcare related properties.

McConnell has provided Fair Market Value and Fair Market Rent analyses to a variety of hospitals, physician groups, for-profit and non-profit health systems, as well as corporate and governmental clients.  McConnell has also provided appraisals and valuation-related consulting services to REITs, lenders, and private equity firms to assist with risk assessment and due diligence. In addition, he has experience with issuing commercial reasonableness opinions and is well versed in the regulatory nuances specific to the healthcare real estate sector. Consulting services performed by McConnell include constructing frameworks to assist with leasing compliance programs as well as profits distribution between equity partners in new developments.

Specific property types McConnell has analyzed include acute care hospitals, cancer clinics, on and off campus medical office buildings (MOBs), ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), diagnostic imaging centers, dialysis facilities, proton therapy centers, sleep labs, cath labs, seniors housing projects, low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects, independent living facilities (ILFs), assisted living facilities (ALFs), skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), biomanufacturing facilities, surgical hospitals, micro-hospitals, rehab hospitals (IRFs), long term acute care hospitals (LTACHs), psychiatric facilities, hospice wings, laboratories, physical therapy clinics, and drugstores. McConnell’s valuation experience also includes “zero cash flow” properties, corporate headquarters, and a variety of other commercial assets.

McConnell graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and began his valuation career with a boutique commercial real estate firm in 2006.  He has an MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute, an ASA designation from the American Society of Appraisers, and a CRE designation from the Counselors of Real Estate.

McConnell presents regularly at healthcare real estate industry conferences, and was selected as an Emerging Leader in Healthcare Real Estate in November 2015 by Globe Street. He has published in venues such as AHLA, ABA, and Becker’s Hospital Review. Clients served include six of the ten largest for-profit health systems and seven of the 15 largest non-profit health systems.

Sector Experience

Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Behavioral Health
Dialysis
Hospitals
Hospital-Based Medicine
Imaging & Radiology
Oncology
Physician Practices
Laboratories
Medical Device & Life Sciences
Post-Acute Care
Telehealth & Healthcare IT
Urgent Care & Freestanding EDs

Areas of Expertise

Fair Market Value Opinions
Physician Compensation
Management & Administration Agreements