Board and Committees

Lawrence A. Allen, Member of the Defense Health Agency and Ambulatory Coding Consultant, U.S. Air Force Medical Service
lawrence_allen@att.net
Lawrence A. Allen is a member of the defense health agency and the ambulatory coding consultant for the U.S. Air Force Medical Service. His experience includes medical coding, medical coding auditing, coding training, writing program guidance and strategy, writing performance work statements and position descriptions, developing cost estimates and budgets, and developing and executing projects.

Tracy Cahoon, MBA, CHRI, Director of Revenue Integrity, Southwest General Health Center, Brecksville, Ohio
tcahoon@swgeneral.com
Cahoon is the director of revenue integrity for Southwest General Health Center, a non-profit, 350-bed community hospital serving the greater Cleveland area. She joined Southwest General in 2003 and has over 15 years of experience in healthcare finance and revenue cycle. In her current role, Cahoon oversees the revenue integrity department which consists of the revenue integrity supervisor, charge capture specialists, billing analysts, and hospital cashier. 

Erin Brearley Cutter, MBA, CPC, COC, CHRI, CRCR, Director of Revenue Integrity, Concord Hospital Health System, Concord, New Hampshire

Cutter has 13 years of progressive revenue cycle and revenue integrity experience and developed Concord Hospital Health System’s revenue integrity department. Cutter oversees charge description master (CDM) design, maintenance, and optimization; charge capture design, optimization, and reconciliation; denial prevention; reimbursement optimization; revenue cycle analytics; and third-party and internal audits.

Stephanie Ellis, RN, BSN, COC, CHRI, Revenue Integrity Director, UChicago Medicine Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Ellis is the revenue integrity director with responsibility for oversight of various divisions within the revenue cycle, including revenue integrity at UChicago Medicine Medical Center. Prior to transitioning to the revenue cycle, she had experience with fraud and abuse investigations for the Illinois Medicare MAC.  She has 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including utilization review, outpatient facility coding compliance, denials management, and operations. 

Christian S. Gabriel, National Director of Revenue Integrity at CommonSpirit Health, Dublin, California 
christian.gabriel@dignityhealth.org
Gabriel is the national director of revenue integrity at CommonSpirit Health, a newly formed by the alignment between Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Dignity Health, in Dublin, California. He has more than 25 years of healthcare experience, 15 years of management, 16 years of revenue cycle/coding, six years of chargemaster experience, five years of experience in Epic implementation with various implementation roles and project management engagements, including attainment of various Epic certifications, and more than three years of experience in the health plan setting. Gabriel has a proven track record in identifying and implementing broad-scale revenue integrity initiatives that helped increase profitability, drive efficiency in operations for several of his health system roles. 

Sarah L Goodman, MBA, CHCAF, COC, CHRI, CCP, FCS, President/CEO, SLG, Inc.
slgincconsulting@aol.com
Goodman is president/CEO and principal consultant for SLG, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a nationally known speaker and author on the charge description master (CDM), outpatient facility coding, and billing compliance, and has more than 30 years’ experience in the healthcare industry. Goodman has been actively involved and held leadership roles in a number of professional organizations on the local, state, and national levels. 

Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, CHRI, Vice President, R1 Physician Advisory Services
rhirsch@r1rcm.com
Hirsch is vice president of R1 RCM in the physician advisory services division and a general internist and HIV specialist. Previously, Hirsch was the medical director of case management at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Illinois. He is certified in healthcare quality and management by the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians. In addition, he is a member of the American Case Management Association, a member of the American College of Physician Advisors, and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. His is the co-author of The Hospital Guide to Contemporary Utilization Review, published by HCPro.

Fran Jurcak, MSN, RN, CCDS, CCDS-O, Chief Clinical Strategist, Iodine Software, Austin, Texas
fran@iodinesoftware.com

Jurcak is the chief clinical strategist at Iodine Software, an ML-AI healthcare technology firm. She has more than 30 years of success in healthcare practice, education, consulting and technology. Prior to her work at Iodine, she was a healthcare consultant at Huron Consulting, where Jurcak leveraged her clinical and coding knowledge to support process improvement in the mid-revenue cycle particularly in the clinical documentation integrity space. In her current role, Jurcak is focused on employing innovative AI/ML technology to minimize mid-revenue cycle leakage. These process improvements have allowed her many clients to successfully maximize financial and quality outcomes.

Lisa Kanivetsky, BA, CPC, CHRI, Revenue Integrity Director, Tufts Medicine
Elizabeth.Kanivetsky@tuftsmedicine.org
Kanivetsky is the revenue integrity director at Tufts Medicine. After graduating from the University of Minnesota she spent a few years trying out different opportunities until the revenue cycle and IT bug caught her. Prior to joining Tufts Medicine, Kanivetsky worked for twenty years at several healthcare organizations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, California.

Kay Larsen, CHRI, Revenue Integrity Specialist, Adventist Health Glendale
kay.larsen@ah.org
Larsen is a revenue integrity specialist at Adventist Health Glendale in Glendale, California. She has enjoyed 17 years working in healthcare, including many years as a CDM coordinator. Larsen’s favorite part of her job is working with departments maximizing revenue through education and charge review. In her years of work, she has experienced standardization projects, extensive price reviews and conversion of financial systems and still is passionate about revenue integrity.

Debra May, Executive Partner, Bluetree Network 
debra.may@tegria.com
May is an executive partner with Bluetree Network in Reno, Nevada. Previously, May served as Renown Health’s VP of revenue cycle and director of revenue integrity, with a focus on developing a team to cover all aspects of revenue integrity. May has over 25 years’ experience in both the hospital and professional revenue cycle, is a certified Transformational Health Care leader involved in process improvement projects across the health network, and is an active member of the HFMA Nevada Chapter.   

Valerie Rinkle, MPA, CHRI, President, Valorize Consulting, LLC
valerie.rinkle@valorizeconsulting.com
Rinkle brings almost 40 years of expertise in healthcare, which started at the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and included 10 years as a revenue cycle director of a health system. She advises hospitals, health systems, and manufacturers on reimbursement issues and the operational practices. She has served as an expert witness in litigation. Rinkle is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences, including Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) meetings and the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) Institute on Medicare and Medicaid Payment Policies, and she has published numerous articles and books on reimbursement and regulatory issues.

Irene Sachakov, CHRI, CRCR, CSPR, Director of Revenue Integrity/CDM/Charge Capture, HonorHealth

Irene Sachakov, CHRI, CRCR, CSPR, is the director of revenue integrity/CDM/charge capture at HonorHealth in Arizona. She has over 15 years of experience in healthcare revenue cycle including healthcare IT, workflow optimization and automation. She has experience leading multiple projects to completion that have improved internal operating efficiencies and the cash flow of the institution as whole. While her main focus has been in revenue operations, Irene has touched clinical, and patient centered workflows that have allowed her to have a well-rounded understanding of the impact that these areas have on the downstream revenue cycle operations. Irene has a BS degree in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University. She is also EPIC certified in CDM and Contract Management, holds certifications in organizational leadership, CRCR, CSPR, CHRI and is an active member of HFMA and runs the Arizona chapter of NAHRI. She hopes to raise awareness of the integral role revenue integrity plays in the success of healthcare organizations.

Anna Santoro, MBA, CCS, CCS-P, RCC, System Director Revenue Integrity/CDM, Hartford Healthcare
Anna.Santoro@hhchealth.org
Santoro is a revenue integrity system director at Hartford Healthcare in Newington, Connecticut. She has 20 years of experience with charge master, claim edits, denials, and coding. 

John D. Settlemyer, MBA, MHA, CPC, CHRI, Associate VP Revenue Cycle, Atrium Health
John.Settlemyer@atriumhealth.org
Settlemyer is an adjunct instructor for HCPro’s Revenue Integrity and Chargemaster Boot Camp^®. In addition, he is an assistant vice president, revenue cycle, with Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. Atrium Health is one of the leading healthcare organizations in the Southeast and one of the most comprehensive public, not-for-profit systems in the nation. Settlemyer has 25 years’ experience in healthcare finance and reimbursement, and has been with Atrium Health for more than 15 years. His focus is in chargemaster (CDM) compliance, charge capture, and revenue integrity. He has direct oversight or consulting oversight of the CDM for all Atrium Health hospitals and their associated outpatient care locations, such as provider based clinics, healthcare pavilions, and freestanding emergency departments.

Jugna Shah, MPH, CHRI, Founder and CEO, Nimitt Consulting Inc.
jugna@nimitt.com
Shah is a nationally recognized expert in health care policy with over 25 years of experience in addressing health care systems’ complex challenges. Shah leads Nimitt’s team of experts who help providers, payers, professional organizations, and industry to understand and thrive under existing payment systems and to create new models. Shah applies her in-depth expertise in payment systems and provider operations to identify effective reimbursement strategies. She has had notable successes in in medical oncology and most notably in stem cell transplant and CAR-T cell therapy reimbursement improvements. She led a multi-organization advocacy effort that successfully secured coverage for novel cell therapies, obtained new CPT and ICD-10 diagnosis and procedure codes, and revised payment policies for these innovative technologies to accurately value these medical advancements appropriately. Shah has been involved with Medicare’s Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) for her entire career, and was part of the team that created what became Medicare’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS), first implemented in 2000. 

Denise Williams, COC, CHRI, Senior VP, Revenue Integrity Services, REVANT Solutions
dwilliams@revantsolutions.com
Williams is senior vice president of the revenue integrity division and compliance auditor at Revant Solutions in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has more than 35 years of healthcare experience, including a background in multiple areas of nursing. For the past 20 years, Williams has been in the field of coding and reimbursement and has experience performing E/M, OP surgical, ED, and observation coding chart reviews for both facility and professional providers based on documentation, compliance, and reimbursement perspectives. She is a recognized chargemaster (CDM) expert, providing assistance with all aspects of chargemaster set up and maintenance. She has contributed content for several books and numerous OPPS/APC articles for HCPro and other publishers.

Caroline Znaniec, Managing Director, Protiviti, Baltimore, Maryland
Caroline.Znaniec@protiviti.com
Znaniec is Protiviti’s healthcare revenue cycle practice leader. She has extensive professional consulting and industry experience in the healthcare industry. Znaniec works with various healthcare provider organizations including hospitals, health systems, home care, physician specialty groups and clinics, free-standing ambulatory care providers, payers, private equity groups, and investors. Prior to joining Protiviti, she led the development and client delivery of revenue integrity consulting services for CohnReznick LLP, Grant Thornton LLP and Navigant Consulting, Inc. She has experience serving in industry roles such as corporate compliance officer and director of revenue integrity for integrated health systems. She is a recognized industry speaker and author in the areas of revenue integrity, revenue cycle transformation, regulatory compliance, electronic health record design, implementation and optimization, and data analytics..

Ashley Allers, MBA, CRCE, CRCS, CRIP, CRCR, Director of Revenue Cycle, Integrity, Compliance & Privacy Officer, Van Diest Medical Center, Webster City, Iowa
aallers@vandiestmc.org
Allers is the director of revenue cycle, integrity, compliance and privacy officer at Van Diest Medical Center, a MercyOne affiliate, in Webster City, Iowa. She has nearly 10 years of healthcare experience in management, revenue cycle, chargemaster, and Cerner EHR implementation. She has presented at several Cerner conferences on implementation successes and best practices within a clinically driven revenue cycle. Allers holds her CRCE, CRCS, and CRIP certifications from the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM) and CRCR through the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).  

Catherine Boerner, JD, CHC, President, Boerner Consulting, LLC
2016–2020
cboerner@boernerconsultingllc.com
Boerner is the President of Boerner Consulting, LLC in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Since 1997, she has supported Compliance Officers, Privacy Officers, and Security Officers. She specializes in compliance program effectiveness reviews, HIPAA privacy gap analysis and HIPAA security risk analysis and implementation. Boerner served on the HCCA’s board of directors from 2010-2013. She is a past-president of HIPAA Collaborative of Wisconsin and has served on the board since 2003. In 2010, Boerner and her consulting team supported the MEDIC contract with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the Health Plan Compliance Program Effectiveness Audits. Boerner is a frequent national speaker and contributes bi-monthly articles to the Journal of Health Care Compliance since 1999 and authors the monthly “Exhale” column in Compliance Today since June 2015.  

Elizabeth Lamkin, MHA, CEO & Partner, PACE Healthcare Consulting, LLC
2016–2019
elizabeth.lamkin@pacehcc.com
Lamkin is CEO of PACE Healthcare Consulting in Bluffton, South Carolina. She has 20 years of hospital CEO experience and is a nationally known speaker and author on utilization and billing compliance, including CMS recovery auditors. 

Lisa Longo, CPC, CPC-I, CSMC, CHRI, Director, Revenue Integrity, UConn Health
2016–2020
lisa.longo@midhosp.org
Longo is currently the Director of Revenue Integrity at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut. She has over 30 years of experience in hospital revenue cycle including Chargemaster, billing and internal auditing, and has held leadership roles in both patient accounting and revenue integrity. Longo is an active member of the AAPC and HFMA.

Debbie Mackaman, RHIA, CPCO, CCDS, Regulatory Specialist, HCPro
2016–2019
dmackaman@hcpro.com
Mackaman is the developer and lead instructor in Middleton, Massachusetts, for HCPro’s Medicare Boot Camp^®—Critical Access Hospital Version and Rural Health Clinic Version and instructor for the Hospital Version and Utilization Review Version. She has 24+ years of experience in the healthcare industry, including inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems; and coding, billing, and reimbursement issues for hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural health clinics. Mackaman has served as compliance officer and director of health information services for healthcare systems. 

Kathryn J. Noorbakhsh, RN, BSN, CPC, CPC-H, Director, Corporate Compliance and Revenue Analysis, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
2019–2021
noorkj@upmc.edu

Terri Rinker, MT (ASCP), MHA, Revenue Cycle Director, Community Hospital Anderson
2016–2019
trinker@ecommunity.com
Rinker is the revenue cycle director at Community Hospital Anderson in Anderson, Indiana, an affiliate of the Community Health Network. She was awarded her organization’s award for innovation in 2012. In the past 20+ years she has worked to find creative ways to bridge the gap between the clinical side and the financial side of healthcare. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology from Indiana University and is board certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists with a specialty certification in Laboratory Management. She worked as a laboratory manager before completing her Master’s Degree in Health Administration at Indiana University. She is chair of the Provider Round Table, an HFMA member, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteer. She currently volunteers with the United Way and was the recipient of the 2015 Madison County United Way Volunteer of the Year award.  

Donna Schneider, RN, MBA, CPHQ, CPC-P, CHC, CPCO, CHPC, VP of Corporate Compliance and Internal Audit, Lifespan 
2016–2020
DSchneider@lifespan.org
Schneider is vice president of corporate compliance and internal audit for Lifespan in Providence, Rhode Island. A registered nurse, Schneider has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and a Masters of Business Administration both from the University of Connecticut. She has over 30 years of healthcare experience in clinical intensive care, managed care contracting, network management, quality, compliance, privacy and quality analytics. Prior to her position at Lifespan, she worked as the system revenue compliance operations officer and system compliance operations officer at Yale New Haven Health. Schneider has worked for managed care organizations, hospitals in both the community and academic settings and home health care. She is a frequent speaker at her health care organization and local health care seminars. She volunteers on several community and professional boards. 

Diane G. Weiss, CPC, CPB, CCP, Vice President, Reimbursement, RestorixHealth
2016–2020
diane.weiss@restorixhealth.com
Weiss joined RestorixHealth in Metairie, Louisiana, in June 2011 which facilitated the formation of the New Orleans office revenue cycle team. Prior to joining RestorixHealth (formerly Wound Care Specialists), Weiss managed a general surgery practice for 10 years in the Greater New Orleans area where she served as practice manager and was also the surgeons in-office medical assistant. In 1995, her career moved to the payer side. She became the provider education representative for Pinnacle Medicare Services, providing CMS Medicare Part B provider education and denial management for providers throughout Louisiana and other states within the MAC jurisdiction. For those 12 years with Medicare, Weiss conducted provider education workshops, seminars, and spoke to a variety of specialty societies, coding groups and medical manager associations. She provided information and assistance with claims submission issues, denial management and effectively communicated CMS’ annual changes regarding reimbursement and coverage for Part B Providers. She also served as Ochsner Health System’s Internal Medicare Consultant for five years before joining RestorixHealth in a full-time capacity.