ONLINE AUDIO TRAINING - Key Persons
Brian L Tuttle is a Certified Professional in Health IT (CPHIT), Certified HIPAA Professional (CHP), Certified HIPAA Administrator (CHA), Certified Business Resilience Auditor (CBRA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with over 17 years' experience in Health IT and Compliance Consulting with vast experience in health IT systems (i.e. practice management, EHR systems, imaging, transcription, medical messaging, etc.) as well as over 17 years' experience in standard Health IT with multiple certifications and hands-on knowledge, Brian serves as compliance consultant and has conducted onsite and remote risk assessments for over 1000 medical practices, hospitals, health departments, insurance plans, and business associates throughout the United States.
In addition, Mr Tuttle has served in multiple litigated court cases serving as an expert witness offering input related to best practices and requirements for securing and providing patient access to protected health information. Mr. Tuttle has also worked directly with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) both in defending covered entities and business associates.
Dr. John Ryan is a certified Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PQCI) specializing in food safety process control and food safety plan validation. He holds a Ph.D. in research and statistical methods and has extensive international manufacturing quality and operations experience in large and small manufacturing operations and he is a retired Hawaii State Department of Agriculture Quality Assurance Division administrator.He currently operates two business divisions focused on food safety system validation (http://www.RyanSystems.com) and transportation controls (http://www.SanitaryColdChain.com).He has previously published books other covering food fraud, teams and teamwork and has recently completed a new book on validating preventive controls in food operations.
Dr. Michael A. Ferragamo, Jr., MD, FACS is the former chief of urology of Hempstead Medical Center and of Franklin Medical Center of Long Island, New York, and presently is assistant clinical professor of urology, State University of New York, Stony Brook School of Medicine. Dr. Ferragamo is a consulting editor for Urology Coding Alert and is a coding consultant for many private practices across the United States as well as a coding consultant for several academic institutions such as the Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass., Intermountain Urology in Utah, NYU Urology in New York City, and Duke Urology, Durham, North Carolina to name a few.
Dreama Sloan-Kelly, MD, CCS has over 14 years of experience in the medical field. A graduate of Wellesley College and Tufts University School of Medicine she has a varied background including clinical, billing, and coding. Dreama is President/CEO of Kelly, Sloan, and Associates, LLC and speaks at various seminars and webinars, imparting her knowledge in an upbeat, matter of fact, manner. Her goal is to get the pertinent information to the attendee, minimize the nonsense, and make sure everyone has fun at the same time. Dreama works with practices one on one, through coding consulting. She offers in-services seminars that can be held on or off-site. Dreama has learned in most seminars you spend a whole day only getting 20% of what you need, and 80% you leave - she has made it her goal to carve out the 20% that you need and giving you the take-home message that will help you and your practice.
Job Titles:
- Management Consultant and President of Abbey & Abbey, Consultants
Duane C. Abbey, Ph.D., is a management consultant and president of Abbey & Abbey, Consultants, Inc. that specializes in health care consulting and related areas. His firm is based in Ames, Iowa. Dr. Abbey earned his graduate degrees at the University of Notre Dame and IowaStateUniversity specializing in mathematics and computer science. Dr. Abbey has published many articles in a variety of professional publications. Also, he has published more than a dozen books on healthcare topics for publishers such as McGraw-Hill, HCPro and Francis & Taylor. Dr. Abbey works extensively in all areas relating to coding, billing and reimbursement. This includes various payment systems, provider-based clinics, HIPAA privacy and security, and revenue enhancement for hospitals and clinics. He has worked extensively with physicians and hospitals. And, yes, his favorite reading material is the Federal Register!
She represents and advises clients regarding evaluations, IEPs, 504s, disciplinary hearings, IDEA Due Process hearings, OCR, appeals, and bullying. Ms. Kirsch was a special education teacher and special education coordinator in the New York City public schools for 18 years where she worked with the most challenging populations and supervised and trained teachers in teaching strategies, curriculum development, IEPs, and behavior management.
She has a Bachelor's degree in special education from Boston University (cum laude), a Master's degree in special education from NYU, 30+ post-graduate credits in educational supervision and administration, and her law degree from Brooklyn Law School. Ms. Kirsch is admitted to the state and federal district courts in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
She is a frequent speaker nationally and locally on education law, regularly trains mental health professionals, advocates, attorneys, and parents in educational advocacy, and consults with attorneys in other states. Ms. Kirsch also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Superior Court of Arizona.
Jan Rasmussen, PCS, ACS-OB, ACS-GI, - As a health care consultant, Jan has more than 45 years of experience in physician billing, reimbursement, and compliance. Jan is currently the owner of Professional Coding Solutions, a healthcare consulting firm. She has been a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) since 1992. As a member of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), Jan previously served on their Advisory Board as the liaison to the AMA, has been a speaker for the AAPC annual conference, and contributed to the development of the original AAPC's independent study, university education programs, and proficiency tests. In 1994, she was honored by AAPC as Networker of the Year. Jan was also a Regional Governor for the American College of Medical Coding Specialists (ACMCS) serving as Chair of the Ethics committee and a member of the Examination committee.
As a physician consultant, she has participated in physician coding and documentation reviews, including OIG government PATH and Campus audits, and designed and conducted physician coding seminars nationwide. She has been a guest speaker for several conferences sponsored by United Communications, Inc. Decision Health, AAPC, and Coding Institute Specialty Conferences.
In previous consulting positions, she was responsible for developing and conducting seminars for primary, and intermediate. She advanced ICD-9-CM and CPT, teaching physician guidelines and special workshops for OB/GYN, Orthopedics, Urology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, ENT, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, and Evaluation and Management. As an educator, she has taught E/M documentation and auditing to physicians and coding audiences since 1992, when RBRVS was first implemented.
Jan has also worked for several major health insurance payers in Wisconsin, was a coding advisor to the WPS Medicare Carrier Advisory Committee, and served as the coding and reimbursement coordinator for a 37-provider, staff model HMO clinic. As the coding and reimbursement coordinator, Jan was responsible for physician office, hospital, surgical, and nursing facility coding charge ticket development, fee development, reimbursement analysis, claims analysis, and physician education.
Joseph Wolfe is a partner with Hall Render, the largest health care focused law firm in the country, now with offices nationwide. Hall Render attorneys provide advice and counsel to many of the nation's largest health systems, hospitals and medical groups on a broad range of regulatory, operational and strategic matters. Mr. Wolfe regularly counsels clients on a national basis regarding compliance-focused physician governance, alignment and compensation strategies.He is a frequent speaker and author on issues related to the physician self-referral statute (Stark Law), hospital-physician transactions, medical group structures, value-based payment strategies (MACRA, MIPS, APM, bundled payments, etc.), physician compensation and health care valuation issues. Before attending law school at the University of Wisconsin, he served as a combat engineer in the United States Army.
Laura A. Dixon served as the Director, Facility Patient Safety and Risk Management, and Operations for COPIC from 2014 to 2020. In her role, Ms. Dixon provided patient safety and risk management consulting and training to facilities, practitioners, and staff in multiple states. Such services included the creation of and presentations on risk management topics, assessment of healthcare facilities; and development of programs and compilation of reference materials that complement physician-oriented products. Ms. Dixon has more than twenty years of clinical experience in acute care facilities, including critical care, coronary care, peri-operative services, and pain management. Prior to joining COPIC, she served as the Director, Western Region, Patient Safety and Risk Management for The Doctors Company, Napa, California. In this capacity, she provided patient safety and risk management consultation to the physicians and staff for the western United States. Ms. Dixon's legal experience includes representation of clients for Social Security Disability Insurance providing legal counsel and representation at disability hearings and appeals, medical malpractice defense, and representation of nurses before the Colorado Board of Nursing. As a registered nurse and attorney, Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, RECEP of Denver, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Drake University College of Law, Des Moines, Iowa, and a Registered Nurse Diploma from Saint Luke's School Professional Nursing, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California.
Michael Brodsky has been an Environmental Microbiologist for more than 44 years. He is a Past President of the Ontario Food Protection Association, the International Association for Food Protection and AOAC International. He serves as co-Chair for the AOAC Expert Review Committee for Microbiology, as a scientific reviewer in Microbiology for the AOAC Official Methods of Analysis and the AOAC Research Institute. He is a reviewer for Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater and a chapter co-editor on QA for the Compendium of Methods in Microbiology. He is also a technical assessor in microbiology for the Standard Council of Canada and Certified by Exemplar Global as a lead auditor/assessor for the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA).
Job Titles:
- President of the Alabama Hospice
Michelle Crowell is the president of the Alabama Hospice & Palliative Care Organization and has been in the nursing field for 25 years with a focus in hospice for the last 15 years. She is currently the Regional QAPI coordinator for LHC Group Inc., serving over the states of Alabama and Idaho, and has served in many capacities in hospice over the years, including most recently as State Administrator.
Her passion is serving in the hospice and end-of-life care arena. She has authored two books, What Do You See?, which focuses on documentation for hospice eligibility, and It's Not About Dying, It's About Living: Making Difficult Decisions in the Name of Love, which deals with end-of-life choices in healthcare.
Michelle is a speaker, author, advocator, and motivator and is the proud mother of three children and grandmother of two grandsons.
Job Titles:
- Regulatory Consultant to FDA
Norma Skolnik works as a regulatory consultant to FDA regulated companies and to firms who wish to launch products in the U.S.A. Norma has over 35 years of U.S. regulatory experience, starting in the pharmaceutical industry. She was the Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.Y. and then became Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at Lederle Consumer Health where she helped launch Centrum and Caltrate dietary supplements. When Lederle was acquired by Wyeth, she became Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs there, acquiring more experience in the Dietary Supplement and OTC drug fields. She joined Warner-Lambert Consumer Health division in 1998 and became Assistant Director of Adams Regulatory Affairs. In 2002, when Pfizer acquired Warner Lambert she was promoted to Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Adams division. Adams was acquired by Cadbury-Schweppes in 2003 and she served as Cadbury Adams' Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Americas from 2003 until her retirement in 2008.
Norma earned a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Cincinnati and holds a Master's degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She's also done graduate work at Columbia University and Montclair State University.