Margret
Amatayakul, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, CPHIT, CPEHR, CPHIE, FHIMSS,
is President, Margret\A Consulting, LLC, an independent
consulting firm focusing on electronic health record
(EHR) readiness, selection, implementation, adoption,
and optimization strategies, as well as HIPAA/HITECH
privacy and security assessment and compliance.
Margret A’s
previous experience includes directing health
information management services at the Illinois Eye and
Ear Infirmary; associate professor, University of
Illinois at the Medical Center; associate executive
director, American Health Information Management
Association; and executive director of the
Computer-based Patient Record Institute. In 1999, she
formed her own consulting firm, providing health
information technology (HIT) consulting services to
hospitals, clinics, other providers, health plans,
vendors, and federal policy advisory committees. She
currently is also adjunct professor in health
informatics at the College of St. Scholastica and a
principal in Health IT Certification, LLC. She has
written several books on EHR and HIPAA. She may be
contacted at
margret@margret-a.com.
Margi Brown, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P,
CPC, CCDS has recently joined KIWI-Tek as the
Product Manager for the CAC – PlatoCode product. She
has worked as a consultant with several companies
implementing or enhancing Clinical Documentation
Improvement (CDI) programs, performing audits, and
specializing in physician education. Ms. Brown was a
corporate Director of Quality and Education in a large
multi-hospital system with direct oversight of 100+
hospital's CDI programs and previously held different
roles in several hospitals, clinics, the VA, and
consulting companies. She specializes in CDI; audits
involving all levels for inpatient, outpatient, and
physicians; education and training; denial management;
RAC appeals; and other HIM activities for hospitals,
clinics, third-party payers, and law firms.
Ms. Brown was also one of the co-authors for the
Physician Queries Handbook: Guide to Compliant and
Effective Communication, published in August 2009 by
HCPro and is a member of the ACDIS CCDS exam committee,
serving as a content developer, since 2008. She is also
a member of the AHIMA CCS Test Construction Committee
for 2009 through 2011. Ms. Brown has co-authored the
AHIMA Documentation for Ambulatory Care book and several
articles for the Journal of AHIMA.
A
knowledgeable and versatile speaker, Margi has done
numerous presentations for a wide-ranging audience,
including serving as a guest speaker for specialty
associations, national organizations including AHIMA and
ACDIS, and several state and regional AHIMA and AAPC
chapters. In previous years, Ms. Brown was a consultant
in the physician world with SMA-Southern Medical
Association and MGMA-Medical Group Management
Association. She has presented the annual CPT coding
updates in December the last few years for AHIMA, in
addition to performing audio seminars on clinical and
coding topics for both AHIMA and HCPro.
Her hands-on experience of more than 30 years covers a
wide range of HIM issues in a variety of settings and is
known to bring a full circle approach to the table. Ms.
Brown brings a unique value of bridging the gap with
physicians from her years of direct involvement in the
clinic setting.
Steve Herold
is Regional Sales Director for Alpha Systems. Steve has
been with Alpha since 1990. Alpha Systems (www.alphaedm.com)
is an industry leader in both scanning services and
Electronic Document Management software designed
specifically for healthcare, with their highly rated
Alpha ImageWorksÔ 9000 enterprise solution. In business
since 1975, Alpha serves over 100 healthcare customers
in the United States. Alpha Systems has been a
corporate member of HIMANYC for many years.
Jim Lepesko
is Sales Director, Healthcare for Alpha Systems and
recently joined the company to serve the scanning and
EDMS needs of customers in New England and New York.
Jim has served the clinical community since 1987, with a
focus on computer based diagnostic systems, clinical
procedure reporting software and interfacing these
solutions with hospital/clinical information systems.
Andrew
Rothschild, MD, MS, MPH, FAAP, CCDS is a clinician
and an Associate Director at Navigant Consulting. He
has worked with Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI)
programs in 25 States and has been involved in all
aspects of the physician querying process. He has
queried countless physicians and regularly provides CDI
physician education sessions. He coordinates and
conducts severity audits, query audits and provides
related training. Dr. Rothschild has a particular
interest in improving communication between physicians,
clinical documentation specialists and coders. His
lectures about composing compliant, effective queries
have been the focus of journal articles and have become
popular speaking requests.
Dr. Rothschild is a licensed,
board-certified physician and Fellow of the American
Academy of Pediatrics. He has worked in emergency
departments, clinics and medical offices. His clinical
education is complemented by a Masters of Public Health
in Medical Management and Administrative Medicine, as
well as a Master of Science in Cellular Physiology and
Biophysics.
Vera
Rulon, MS, RHIT, CCS, FAHIMA, Past President of
AHIMA is director of business operations and
communications for Pfizer, Inc. She is the recipient of
the Visionary FORE Truimph Award and Best Practices
Award. Ms. Rulon has served on AHIMA’s Board of
Directors and is a member of the FORE Research
Committee.
Cindy M. Smith, RHIT is the National Compliance
Manager for Kforce Healthcare and has over 20 years of
private industry and consulting experience in health
care. She specializes in the areas of Coding Compliance
and Health Information Management Operations. Her
experience includes:
-
Director, Health Information Management
-
Compliance Director
-
Regional Director for Nationally recognized HIM Consulting Company
She specializes in:
-
Conducting HIM Departmental assessments to include workflow and staffing
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Conducting and overseeing hospital MS-DRG, APR-DRG and RAC audits
Cindy prides herself on her passion for HIM and looks
forward to the ever changing and challenging world of
HIM.
