Nov

07

Revenue Cycle Institute’s RAC Readiness Summit faculty announced

By Andrea Kraynak, CPC-A

HCPro’s Revenue Cycle Institute has announced the faculty for its seminar: Recovery Audit Contractor Defense: A RAC Readiness Summit to be held March 19-20, 2009 in Phoenix, AZ.

Faculty include the following:

• Patricia Blaisdell is vice president for postacute care services with the
  California Hospital Association. She provides membership support and advocacy for hospital-based medical rehabilitation and skilled nursing facilities, including policy analysis and interpretation, communication with regulatory bodies and third-party payers, and planning and implementation of educational programs.
• Yvonne Focke, RN, BSN, MBA, is a national revenue cycle consultant
  who has conducted training and education sessions for hospital clients as part of HCPro, Inc.’s Revenue Cycle Institute. She is a former regional director of revenue cycle management at Mercy Health Partners in Southwest Ohio. Prior to that position, she was director of Access and Care Management for TriHealth Inc. in Cincinnati. She has also served as a presenter on the national stage for professional organizations including HFMA and NAHAM.
• Adriana van der Graaf, MBA, RHIA, CHP, CCS, is currently Vice
  President, Revenue Cycle for Cymetrix. She is based at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA. She is responsible for the management of the entire hospital revenue cycle, including Patient Access, Health Information and Patient Financial Services. She has more than 20 years of experience in HIM in roles ranging from a diagnostic coding instructor to many years as an HIM director, and has been responsible for overseeing the medical records functions and policies of numerous separate clinics with staff members working in multiple areas.
• Stacey Levitt, RN, MSN, CPC, is director of patient care management at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She has a solid clinical nursing background in both critical care and public health. Her ongoing administrative experience includes over twenty years in healthcare management settings in New York and Pennsylvania. Her areas of expertise include utilization and denial management, reimbursement analysis, performance improvement, professional staff development, and project management. She is known for her in-depth knowledge of Medicare egulations and her passion for effecting increased efficiency, productivity, mastery of insurance coding rules, and realization of appropriate reimbursement. She is an expert in data management and analysis relating to hospital and physician reimbursement.
• Tanja Twist, MBA/HCM, is director of patient financial services at
  Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia. In her current position she is responsible for oversight of the admitting and business offices at Methodist Hospital, a 460-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving the central San Gabriel Valley, CA. She has been in healthcare management for more than 20 years and is the current national finance chairperson for the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM), the government relations chairperson for the
  Southern California chapter of AAHAM, and a current member of the HFMA. She also sits on the advisory board of HCPro, Inc.’s The RAC Report.
• Joe Zebrowitz, MD, is executive vice president and senior medical director of Executive Health Resources (EHR) in Newtown Square, PA. In this role, he developed EHR’s suite of clinical revenue cycle management services—endorsed by the American Hospital Association as “Best in Class.” EHR’s programs focus on clinical denial reduction, length-of-stay management, governmental claims, compliance, and physician education through daily physician-to-physician interaction. Zebrowitz works as a physician advisor and medical director at EHR client hospitals, leading clinical denial management and length-of-stay programs, quality initiatives, documentation and compliance programs, and independent peer review processes.

Click here for more information about the Recovery Audit Contractor Defense: A RAC Readiness Summit.