Delegated DDS was established to help Dental Service Organizations implement policies, programs, and technologies necessary to gain delegated credentialing contracts and better control of their revenue cycle.

I founded TalentStream Solutions in 2019 to help Dental Service Organizations maximize operational efficiencies and cost savings by providing streamlined solutions for onboarding, eLearning / training, and credentialing. I understand that a company’s number one asset is its employees and believe that a company’s growth plan is only as strong as its workforce, technology, and vision, combined. When one of those links is weak, reaching goals can be challenging.

Responsible for the creation, development, and implementation of the company's e-learning and development programs and strategies for all employee roles of a Dental Service Organization with over 240 practices in 18 states. Also responsible for the integration of new practices and technologies to achieve standardization throughout the organization.

When I was invited to join Samson’s leadership team, the company was searching for solutions similar to those that I had developed before, albeit in an entirely different industry. Samson Dental Partners provides urgent dental care in 3 states at 33 clinics, each open 12 hours daily. I accepted the invitation because I knew that I could offer innovative solutions in many areas of need.►KEY ACHIEVEMENTSREVENUE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT & CREDENTIALINGI helped align our credentialing policies and procedures with NCQA standards and convert from paper to an electronic workflow. We established delegated credentialing contracts with 95% of in-network carriers and MCOs. These changes enabled us to reduce the doctor-credentialing cycle from 150 days to 3 days. I also assisted with the creation of the ImmediaSave Dental Discount Plan for uninsured, underinsured, and retired persons. Additionally, we created more than $1.5M in revenue through contract renegotiations with insurance carriers and Medicaid MCOs.EMPLOYEE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENTI developed the Resource for Understanding Dental Insurance (RUDI) interface to help employees correctly assign insurance plans to patient accounts to improve first-submission claims payment. I also built the ImmediaDent Presenter app to provide patients payment options, education, and consent forms.COMPLIANCEI created a logic-based billing/coding interface to improve efficiency and allow coding specialists to review 100% of the company’s daily Medicaid claims, mitigating upcoding, fraud, waste, and abuse.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYI implemented a cloud-based X-ray solution, saving $135,000 in servers and eliminating a point of failure.I am most proud of the personal and professional development of my teams and managers. They were capable, creative, smart, talented, and always gave their best. Because of them, we helped shape the company’s culture and provided industry-leading solutions to operational and administrative problems.

As the Senior Vice President of Training, IT, and Compliance, I continued to refine the company’s administrative support services with the addition of the IT and Compliance departments.►KEY ACHIEVEMENTSINFORMATION TECHNOLOGYAs Senior Vice President, I formed an enterprise-level IT department and fostered a customer-service mentality among the team. Because of this, we improved employee-satisfaction survey results from a “D” to “A” rating. The IT team eliminated practice closures that resulted from internet outages by deploying an internet redundancy strategy that addressed single points of failure in all practices and provided an overall annual cost savings of $80,000 while increasing internet speeds.COMPLIANCEAs the head of compliance, I was responsible for all matters related to Samson’s compliance position and adherence to both state and federal regulations. I introduced comprehensive HIPAA and Medicaid compliance programs, including Security, Privacy, and Breach Notification Rule policies, annual risk assessments, and online employee training and tracking. I also developed the Safety, Health, & Facility Inspection app for audit reporting for equipment operability, facility maintenance, and regulatory compliance for all of the company’s practices. I formed a Patient Services department to address patient concerns, mitigate malpractice claims, and identify instances or trends of treatment rendered below the Standard of Care. Additionally, I created an automated eReview interface to replace manual review processes for 38 compliance and procedural KPIs and revealed critical compliance concerns.EMPLOYEE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENTI was responsible for the onboarding, continuing development, and communication strategies for the entire company and each of its more than 800 employees. I also developed InfoSource, the company’s employee intranet. In order to align doctor and company expectations, I also initiated orientation meetings and monthly learning venues.

When I was invited to join the leadership team at Samson Dental Partners, the company was searching for solutions similar to those that I had developed before, albeit in an entirely different industry. While I served in this role, I also held the interim role of Director of Operations for the State of Ohio.►KEY ACHIEVEMENTSEMPLOYEE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENTI was responsible for the formation of DentalU, an e-learning division, to facilitate onboarding for all employee roles. This best-in-class program provided a cost-effective solution and rich learning experience. In 2012, the Academy of General Dentistry recognized DentalU as a national provider of CE. Through DentalU, we offered more than 2,500 hours of CE to the company’s clinical staff. During this time, I also led the company’s conversion from paper charting to an enterprise-level EHR solution with no negative impact to revenue. I also initiated orientation meetings and monthly learning venues to align doctor and company expectations.MARKETINGI assisted with an analysis of patient referral sources and developed a plan for transitioning the company’s marketing strategy from the Yellow Pages to digital platforms. I also pioneered a demographic and psychographic analysis of Samson’s patients. Using this new approach, we created profiles for people most likely to become our patients, which allowed us to create a more informed, better-targeted marketing strategy and to locate new markets for practice expansion.NEW PRACTICE DEVELOPMENTIn this role, I led the expansion of new practices and our development program. I successfully opened two new practices on time and within budget.

While working as National Manager, I took on an overlapping position—Director of Operations for Insight Solutions, a division of Overland Solutions. In this role, I worked closely with Colorado Technical University to develop the country’s first Associates and Bachelors accredited degree plan for risk management and insurance premium auditing, which was marketed to the insurance industry and to students around the country.My time with Overland Solutions revealed my gifts for building and leading effective teams, creating or refining processes and workflows, and using technology to meet revenue goals and to find cost-effective solutions to business problems for companies across industries.

Following a reorganization, I shifted to the role of National Manager of Training and Technical Customer Service. There, I was responsible for providing advanced technical assistance to both employees and customers and for every training and development program for all of the company’s employees.In an effort to align employee production and compensation objectives with company expectations, I created a transparent, production-based employee-compensation plan based on clear KPIs. I also launched a “Customer Intimacy Campaign,” which gave customers greater voice in our review process.To address poor training experiences leading to employee turnover, I enrolled in a Masters degree for curriculum design and instructional technology at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and began to develop an e-learning training platform and multimedia educational tools for our employees. The result: a custom-built, virtual training program that saved the company over $287,000 annually, reduced attrition by 4%, and was so effective that our competitors asked to use it.My work in this position demonstrated my ability to find innovative solutions and my ability to reach out to customers in ways that can improve employee training and performance.

I advanced to the position of General Manager and oversaw regions that included Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Idaho and was expanded to include Florida and Puerto Rico. My primary responsibility was to support the work of employees in the field so that they could successfully achieve our financial performance targets and production metrics. The leadership strategy that I employed was to motivate staff to elevate individual and team results. This resulted in sustained revenue growth across this geographically-dispersed region while improving employee productivity and service levels. Additionally, I was responsible for coordinating national relief teams as they assisted others during peak seasons.

After three very successful years as an Auditor and Risk Management Inspector, I was promoted to the position of Assistant Manager. With this promotion came the responsibility of hiring, onboarding, training, and managing more than 100 employees in a five-state region that included Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and Idaho. Additionally, I worked closely with the General Manager to manage the team so that together we could meet our ambitious financial and customer-service goals.This role was an early opportunity for my strengths as a leader—especially in terms of training and preparing employees for success in the field—to shine. It provided me with an excellent platform both for my career-long work of developing industry-leading employee training experiences and for my own professional development as a leader.

As an Auditor and Loss Control/Risk Management Inspector in Colorado for Equifax, I served as the insurer’s eyes and ears in assessing and recommending solutions for clients’ safety and liability issues.In this role, I also audited clients’ payroll or sales for accurate workers-compensation or general-liability premium determination. My friendliness, organizational skills, and drive made me successful in this role. For two years in a row of the three years that I held this position, I was recognized as being among the Top 50 Highest Producers in the Nation for both risk management and premium-auditing services.