Cindy Basham, MHA, MSCCS, BSN, CPC, CCS
Senior Regulatory Specialist
HCPro, Inc.
Marblehead, MA
CBasham@hcpro.com
Cindy serves as a Senior Regulatory Specialist for HCPro and is an instructor for the Certified Coder Boot Camp® - Original Version (covers physician and outpatient hospital coding) and Certified Coder Boot Camp® - Inpatient Version (covers inpatient hospital facility coding). Most recently she serves as the lead developer and instructor for the Interventional Radiology Boot Camp. Cindy works with hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare providers on a wide range of coding and documentation-related issues with a particular focus on coding, billing, revenue cycle, chargemaster, and compliance reviews/audits.
Cindy has extensive experience relating to coding and billing of both physician and hospital services. Prior to joining HCPro, Inc., she worked for a large hospital system as a Compliance Auditor. Her duties included monitoring and performing audits for coding, billing, chargemaster compliance, and documentation. She also worked extensively with reorganization of clinical departments. She has also previously worked as an independent consultant focusing on coding, documentation, billing, revenue cycle, chargemaster, and compliance relating to hospital inpatient services with particular emphasis on intensive, cardiovascular, and emergency room care. Her clinical experience included directorship over intensive inpatient cardiovascular surgery, interventional cardiology, coronary care, and emergency room departments.
She was appointed and served a two-year term on the Texas Healthcare Information Council.
Cindy holds a Master's Degree in Healthcare Administration and a Bachelor of Nursing Degree from the University of South Florida. She is accredited as a Certified Professional Coder by the American Academy of Professional Coders and also accredited through the American Health Information Management Association as a Certified Coding Specialist.
Gloryanne Bryant, BS, RHIA, RHIT, CCS
Catholic Healthcare West
Corporate Director Coding HIM Compliance
San Francisco, CA
gbryant@chw.edu
With more than 28 years experience in the health information management (HIM) profession, Gloryanne currently is the Corporate Director of Coding HIM Compliance for Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), located in San Francisco. In this role Gloryanne has responsibility for the coding and documentation compliance of 40 acute care facilities and a variety of other non-hospital based healthcare entities (outpatient settings, SNF, and rehab) in three states. She has the charge of developing, implementing/setting, and maintaining system-wide coding policies, and creating an internal coding compliance auditing and monitoring team and process.
She is also responsible for maintaining ongoing continuing education to the CHW coding and charging staff, and providing specific documentation related education to physicians, case management, and other ancillary clinicians. In addition, she works closely with Senior Management and those involved with the CDM (Charge Description Master), severity/acuity, and risk of mortality statistics via APR-DRGs, quality and is a driving force for regulatory updates and communication.
Gloryanne has conducted numerous ICD-9-CM and CPT coding, DRG and APC (OPPS) workshops for hospital-based coders. In addition she has made an array of presentations on data quality, medical necessity, compliance, and documentation improvement to management executives and healthcare administrators. Over the past three and a half years she has been a guest speaker on compliance issues for several regional, state, and national educational programs and associations. Gloryanne has given presentations on planning and implementing ICD-10 over the past four years and provided testimony in support of ICD-10 implementation for the House Ways and Means Committee in April 2006. In addition, during 2005 and 2006, Gloryanne spoke to HIM professionals in the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii on the subjects of clinical documentation improvement, APCs, charging and meeting compliance in coding, billing, revenue cycle, reimbursement and other related subjects.
Gloryanne serves as a volunteer leader on many levels including for the California Health Information Association (CHIA) as a Director to the state board and has served several national positions for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Gloryanne has served as a Director and Past-Chair for the Society for Clinical Coding (SCC), and served two years on the AHIMA Compliance Task Force. As a Health Information Management Practitioner in the HIM/Coding arena, she was on the AHA Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) on ICD-9-CM for Coding Clinic for two years and also served a three-year term on the Council on Accreditation for AHIMA. She continues to publish articles and agrees to be interviewed for national publications like For the Record, Medical Records Briefing, CHIA Journal, Journal of AHIMA, and Advance magazines for HIM.
In June 2000, Gloryanne received the "CHIA Literary Award" from the California Health Information Association (CHIA) for her many articles and writings related to clinical documentation improvement, compliance, data quality and coding, and in 2003 she received the CHIA award for "Distinguished Member." In August 2005, Gloryanne was appointed to the HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) APC Advisory Panel to work on OPPS policy, coding, and reimbursement issues. In November 2006 she was appointed to the RAND Expert Panel on Severity DRGs.
Jean S. Clark, RHIA
Service Line Director for HIM
Roper Saint Francis Hospital
Charleston, SC
Jean.Clark@RoperSaintFrancis.com
Jean is the Service Line Director for health information services at Roper Saint Francis Healthcare in Charleston, SC. She also serves as the system's Accreditation Coordinator. At Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Jean is responsible for all HIM services, the clinical documentation program (which she started in 2005), and Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) and other regulatory compliance.
She has served on The Joint Commission's Standards Review Task Force and the expert panel for the Information Management chapter, which resulted in sweeping changes for the accreditation process beginning in January 2004. Jean is a past president of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and a past president of the International Federation of Health Record Organizations (IFHRO).
She is a well-known author and speaker on topics related to accreditation, including the HCPro bestseller Ongoing Records Review: A Guide to The Joint Commission Compliance and Best Practice, as well as The HIM Director's Handbook, also published by HCPro. She also served as technical editor for Documentation for Acute Care, published by AHIMA in 2004.
Jean has received several awards throughout her healthcare career, including the President's Award, CareAlliance Health Services, 2002; Distinguished Member Award, AHIMA, 2000; National Volunteer Award, AHIMA, 1998; and Tribute to Women in Industry Award, YMCA of Greater Charleston, Inc., 1995.
Jean received a Bachelor of Health Sciences with Honors at the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Health Related Professions, in Charleston, SC, and is a graduate of the North Carolina Baptist Hospital, School for Medical Record Administration, in Winston-Salem, NC.
Wendy De Vreugd, RN, BSN, PHN, FNP
Senior Director of Case Management, West Group
Kindred Healthcare, Hospital Division
Orange County, CA
wdevreugd@ca.rr.com
Wendy is Senior Director of Case Management, West Group (West and Mid-West Regions, 12 states, 44 facilities) for Kindred Healthcare LTAC hospital system. Currently she is helping implement a clinical documentation improvement team across all its facilities.
Wendy has 36 years of clinical nursing experience including the areas of advanced clinical nursing practice, acute hospital management and strategic planning programs, quality management, risk management, infection control, acute and ambulatory care level case management, managed care development and shared risk contract management, disease state management programs, and legal nurse consulting.
Proficient at Medicare, Medicaid, HMO, and managed care coordination and NIPAC regulatory auditing of medical groups, Wendy is thoroughly familiar with The Joint Commission, Title 22, NCQA, and other regulatory agency requirements. Wendy also serves on the editorial advisory board of Case Management Monthly, published by HCPro, Inc.
In past roles, Wendy was part of a team that successfully implemented a clinical documentation improvement program (Bearing Point/3M), and has championed concurrent coders for the past five years, with great outcomes.
Colleen Garry, RN, BS
Assistant Director of Clinical Documentation
New York University Medical Center
New York, NY
Colleen.Garry@nyumc.org
Colleen implemented and managed a successful CDI program at the Medical University of South Carolina for more than three years. She recently accepted an Assistant Director of Clinical Documentation position with New York University Medical Center.
Garry graduated from Marist College in New York and has a baccalaureate in Business Marketing as well as a Registered Nursing License. She has a varied background in nursing with more than 17 years of work experience as a critical care nurse, transplant coordinator, ESRD educator and, outpatient program director.
Prior to her career in health-care, her business resume was accomplished with employment at IBM Corporation and NBC television in NY.
She is a member of the American Health Information Management Association, American Nurses Association, and serves on the board of the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists.
Garry has written articles for HCPro’s Medical Records Briefing and the Healthcare Finance Management Association newsletter The Business of Caring. She has spoken at various professional organizations about CDI programs.
Robert S. Gold, MD
CEO
DCBA, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia
DCBAInc@cs.com
Robert has more than 40 years of experience as a physician, medical director and consultant. A graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, he trained in General Surgery in the U.S. Navy where he spent his professional career as a practicing surgeon. Since leaving the service, he has worked as a consultant in the fields of Managed Care Medicine, Locum Tenens, Home Health, Hospital accreditation and licensure and, most notably over the past 15 years, in education of physicians, nurses, and HIM professionals regarding documentation, coding and billing accuracy (DCBA) for healthcare services.
Robert is known nationally for his education regarding the clinical orientation of coding in AHIMA teleconferences and at the National Conferences on aspects of clinical coding. He has spoken at National and State level HFMA and HCCA meetings on the participation of medical staff in programs of documentation improvement. His monthly articles in HCPro publications have enjoyed success with all who read them. His contributions of Clinically Speaking articles in Briefings on Coding Compliance Strategies have been valuable to coding professionals and his A Minute for the Medical Staff articles in Medical Records Briefing have demonstrated value to the documentation practices of medical staff members.
Robert is a co-founder of DCBA, Inc, a consulting company that provides physician to physician programs in clinical documentation improvement for the purposes of properly reflecting disease processes in inpatient and outpatient medical records so that proper and accurate code sets can be applied. Several of their clients have already been nationally celebrated for measures of quality that are calculated from MedPar data.
William E. Haik, MD
Director
DRG Review, Inc.
Fort Walton Beach, FL
Behaik@aol.com
DRGreview@aol.com
William is Director of DRG Review, Inc., in Fort Walton Beach, FL, where he has practiced medicine since 1980. He has received board certification in internal, pulmonary, and critical care medicine. William's past professional accomplishments include: Chief of Internal Medicine, Director of Respiratory Care Services, Board of Trustees at his local hospital, President of the Okaloosa County Medical Society, and representative of the Government Liaison Committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.
William's coding background has included AHA's Editorial Advisory Board and Expert Advisory Panel of Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM as well as participation in the preparation of the original CCS examinations. He also served as the expert consultant to the United States Department of Justice regarding pneumonia coding fraud and abuse. William has conducted educational seminars and national teleconferences regarding physician involvement in DRG management, coding, and other related topics in association with HCFA (CMS), AHA, AHIMA, and various state Quality Improvement Organizations. He currently serves on the Florida Quality Improvement Organization's Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP).
Since 1988, William has served as the Director of DRG Review, Inc., a physician-directed hospital coding consultative service. The goal of DRG Review, Inc. is to educate medical and coding staffs in medical record documentation and coding compliance.
Tamara Hicks, RN, BSN, CCS
Clinical Documentation Coordinator
North Carolina Baptist Hospital
Winston-Salem, NC
thicks@wfubmc.edu
Tamara currently serves as Manager of Care Coordination at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. In this role, Tamara manages and facilitates quality practice within the department of care coordination, identifies and implements changes that enhance effectiveness of patient care delivery, and ensures compliance with regulatory agency standards.
Tamara is also responsible for staff management and development, and the environment of the department including the oversight of case managers, social workers, medical management specialists, clinical documentation consultants, and support staff.
Prior to assuming her current role, Tamara served as Baptist's Coordinator of Clinical Documentation Management. In this position she participated in building CDMP by adding reviews of all payors and reviews related to capture of severity of illness. Tamara also educated staff and faculty regarding clinical documentation management, provided leadership to staff to promote the departmental goals, and coordinated the daily operations of the department.
Pam Lovell, MBA, RN
Senior Director of Case Management and HIM
Kindred Healthcare, Hospital Division
Louisville, KY
Pam.Lovell@kindredhealthcare.com
Pam is the corporate senior director of case management for the hospital division of Kindred Healthcare. She supports the case management and health information management programs of Kindred's 84 long-term acute care facilities in 26 states. In this role, Pam assures that the case management program provides for and ensures that appropriate and cost-effective medical and medically-related social services and behavioral health services are identified, planned, obtained, and monitored for individuals eligible for long term acute care hospital services.
Pam oversees division-wide medical centralized coding, medical records, and transcription services. She also monitors compliance with applicable regulatory requirements related to medical coding and HIM activities.
In the past three years at Kindred, Pam has been part of significant evolution in the case management program, particularly with the development of the clinical documentation improvement specialist role. The collaboration between the facility case manager and the coders in the corporate centralized coding department assures the physician's documentation clearly identifies specific diagnostic terms essential to accurate coding, profiling, and compliance, and reflects the quality of care provided. The positive effects of this process are measured through increased quality DRG assignments and case-mix index.
Shannon McCall, RHIA, CCS, CPC
Director of HIM/Coding
HCPro, Inc.
Marblehead, MA
smccall@hcpro.com
Shannon serves as the lead instructor for the Certified Coder Boot Camp® – Original Version (covers physician and outpatient hospital coding) and Certified Coder Boot Camp® – Inpatient Version (covers inpatient hospital facility coding). She also is an instructor for the Interventional Radiology Boot Camp. As a member of HCPro, Inc.’s consulting staff, Shannon works with hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare providers on a wide range of coding-related issues with a particular focus on coding reviews and audits.
Shannon has extensive experience with coding for both physician and hospital services. Prior to joining HCPro, she worked for a national medical practice management company, where her duties included serving as a client manager and as an instructor for the in-house coding training. Shannon also previously worked for a national consulting firm focusing on hospital inpatient, outpatient, and ER services.
Shannon is accredited as a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) and a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS) by the American Health Information Management Association. She is also accredited as a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and is an approved instructor of the Professional Medical Coding Curriculum by the American Academy of Professional Coders. In addition to her professional credentials, Shannon also actively serves as a advisory board member of the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS). Shannon holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Administration degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Lynne Spryszak, RN
Coordinator, Clinical Documentation Management Program
Alexian Brothers Medical Center
Elk Grove Village, IL
spryszakl@alexian.net
Lynne has spent the last five years as a Documentation Specialist, and the last two years as program coordinator for the Clinical Documentation Management Program at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, IL.
Lynne finally achieved her dream of becoming a nurse when she received her Associate Degree of Nursing from the College of DuPage in 1993. Her nursing career has included working on a medical/oncology unit as a staff nurse, as a home hospice nurse, a Certified Case Manager, and most recently, as a Clinical Documentation Specialist.
As the Coordinator of the Clinical Documentation Program at Alexian Brothers, Lynne's goal is to inspire her team to cement strong relationships with the physician staff, the nursing staff, and her coding staff, without whose experience and expertise the program would be lost.
Lynne notes that a documentation specialist has a difficult task of constantly balancing what he or she knows to be true as a clinician against what is codeable information within specified coding rules and regulations, and in an environment of constant CMS changes. But the reward is accurate, specific documentation that provides many benefits to the institution, including increased severity-of-illness/risk of mortality profiles; decreased claim denials; the ability to effect change over time; and increased revenue, without which hospitals would not be able to provide improved care to their patients.
Heather Taillon, RHIA
Manager, Coding Compliance
St. Francis Hospital
Beech Grove, IN
Heather.Taillon@ssfhs.org
From 2005 to the present, Heather has been Manager of Coding Compliance at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, IN.
In that role, Heather has assisted with the implementation of document imaging system, developed a home coding program, and has provided oversight of the hospital's clinical documentation program.
Prior to taking her position at St. Francis, Heather served as Health Information Manager at Westview Hospital from 2002-2005. At Westview she oversaw implementation of a new transcription system with electronic signature, and hospital-wide computer system.
Heather currently serves as secretary of the IHIMA Executive Board, a role she has held since 2006.
