Forefront Dermatology — Account Dossier

Why This Company

Fit:

• PE-backed (Partners Group, ~$1.5B valuation) dermatology MSO — 270+ locations, 31 states, largest single-specialty dermatology group in the US, ~1.5M+ patient encounters/year, HIPAA environment, cloud EHR (ModMed) — Forefront About, Axios, Tracxn

Pain:

• Outsourced overseas call center failing catastrophically — patients report agents who "do NOT speak English or understand it," being "hung up on EIGHT times," offices unreachable during business hours, messages never delivered to clinics — Trustpilot, Sept-Oct 2025, BBB
• Billing department unreachable — 30-50 min holds, one patient documented 5 calls over 4 months (Jan-May 2025) with no resolution; 12 BBB complaints in past 12 months, escalating pattern — BBB Complaints

Timing:

• M&A accelerating — every acquisition compounds the communications integration challenge. 6+ acquisitions closed 2024-2025 (Swann Dermatology 5 locations Dec 2025, Dermatology Specialists of Omaha Dec 2025, Wichita Oct 2025, Advanced Dermatology Houston Sept 2024). Dedicated Chief Integration Officer managing 61 practice integrations across 125 locations. CFO actively building RCM function (hiring SVP Revenue Cycle). — PR Newswire, Tracxn, LinkedIn

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Decision Makers

Angela Zipperer — Senior Director, Patient Access Department

Champion

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-zipperer-613b2aba/
• Email: Angela.Zipperer@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • Call center performance — manages the Patient Access Department dealing with high call volume, high turnover ($15.50-$17/hr), and weekly procedural changes that staff can't keep up with — Indeed, Glassdoor
  • Patient experience — her department is responsible for the outsourced call center complaints, disconnections, and unreturned messages — Trustpilot, BBB
• Why they matter: Operational owner of the exact pain IntelePeer solves — at comparable-scale Benevis (1.2M patients/year), only 13% of calls required a live agent post-deployment.

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Tricia Wagner, PT, MBA, CHC — Chief Pathology Services Officer; Chief Compliance Officer

Champion / Influencer

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tricia-wagner-pt-mba-chc-8593381b0
• Email: Tricia.Wagner@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • Rapid, standardized integration of acquired practices — manages 61 practice integrations (125 locations, 246 providers, 1,120+ staff); every acquisition brings new phone numbers, new staff communications, new patient scheduling workflows — The Org
  • HIPAA compliance across all channels — serves dual role as Chief Compliance Officer with CHC certification — LinkedIn
• Why they matter: 21-year tenure gives her exceptional internal credibility; every acquisition creates communications integration needs that IntelePeer's number porting and centralized management directly address.

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Matt Mellott — Chief Executive Officer

Decision Maker

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-mellott-brightree/
• Email: Matt.Mellott@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • Operational transformation through technology — career pattern of scaling healthcare platforms: CEO of Brightree/ResMed (HME SaaS, 2016-2023), co-founder of MedBridge Healthcare (140 sleep centers, 22 states) — BusinessWire
  • PE-mandated value creation — Partners Group's stated thesis: "investing in technology" and "improving operational excellence" — Partners Group
• Why they matter: PE-installed operator (since May 2023) with healthcare tech CEO DNA — evaluates vendors as platforms, not point solutions. Has brought trusted Brightree/ResMed colleagues into key finance and architecture roles.

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Dan Doyle, MBA — Chief Financial Officer

Budget Authority (verify current status before outreach — secondary ZoomInfo listing at ATEC noted, though LinkedIn shows Forefront as current and ATEC has a different confirmed CFO)

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dandoyle2/
• Email: Dan.Doyle@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • RCM and collections optimization — was actively hiring SVP Revenue Cycle (Aug 2024); billing department documented as unreachable by patients — LinkedIn, Aug 2024, BBB
  • Financial rigor — Kellogg MBA, inactive CPA, KPMG/Arthur Andersen background — LinkedIn
• Why they matter: His Aspen Dental DSO experience means IntelePeer can reference the dental MSO playbook directly (Jefferson Dental, Benevis, 42 North). Controls budget approval and PE sponsor ROI validation.

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John Weatherbie — Chief Technology Officer

Technical Decision Maker

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnweatherbie/
• Email: John.Weatherbie@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • Cloud migration and platform modernization — career arc includes CTO at MatrixCare (healthcare SaaS), VP Digital Health at ResMed, Director at Eastlink (Canadian telecom) — The Org
  • Scalable infrastructure — leads 55-person IT department managing technology across 270+ clinics in 31 states — RocketReach
• Why they matter: Primary technology decision maker with telecom industry background — understands communications infrastructure natively and would evaluate platform architecture, ModMed integration, and implementation feasibility.

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Brittney Johnston — Revenue Cycle Director

RCM Buyer

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittney-johnston-505a2818/
• Email: Brittney.Johnston@forefrontderm.com
• Cares about:
  • Billing operations and collections — operational owner of the function generating the most intense patient complaints (30-50 min billing holds, patients making 5+ calls over months for single issues) — BBB
• Why they matter: Direct buyer for collections/RCM automation — IntelePeer's documented results at multi-location healthcare organizations ($5.5M receivables collected, $900K/quarter bad debt recovered) map directly to her challenges.

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Entry Strategy

Recommended Entry Point: Angela Zipperer

She owns the patient access operation generating severe complaints — outsourced overseas call center, disconnections, unreturned messages, high turnover (Trustpilot, Indeed). IntelePeer directly reduces her team's workload and improves her metrics. At Benevis (comparable scale), only 13% of calls required a live agent post-deployment — that outcome transforms her operation.

Note: No warm introduction paths exist. Zero matches found across all IntelePeer connection vectors (military, NICE/inContact, Genesys, Vonage, Microsoft/Nuance, Wharton, Interactions Corp, AT&T, Stevens Institute, IBM, PE portfolio). This is a cold outreach account — healthcare MSO case studies and the documented communications infrastructure pain are the entry wedge.

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Key Context

• EliseAI is not a competitor — and its internal champion just left. EliseAI provides conversational AI for scheduling only. It does NOT provide telephony, UCaaS, enterprise voice, or contact center infrastructure. Forefront's phone pain (disconnections, overseas call center, dropped calls) is infrastructure-level — problems EliseAI can't solve. Colin Kennedy (Chief Innovation Officer) selected EliseAI and presented publicly about the partnership — he departed Forefront in January 2026. With his exit, the EliseAI relationship loses its internal champion, creating an opening for IntelePeer to either complement EliseAI (providing infrastructure underneath) or replace it with SmartAgent + full platform. — EliseAI Healthcare, EliseAI Dermatology, Trustpilot
• CEO Mellott's inner circle thinks in platform terms. D'Mario Riggins (Sr. Dir FP&A, ex-Brightree) and Eric Clermont (VP Platform Architecture, ex-ResMed) both followed Mellott from Brightree/ResMed — the financial and technical evaluation will come from people with SaaS/platform company DNA. — ZoomInfo, LinkedIn
• COO vacancy since approximately late 2023 — Scott Goss departed and is now CEO at Playground Pediatrics (since May 2024); no public replacement. Operational leadership is in transition, which may affect decision-making speed and ownership. — LinkedIn

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Quick Reference

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