VA Puget Sound Health Care System is a Joint Commission accredited health care system consisting of two divisions. One is located at Seattle and one based at American Lake near Tacoma. The Puget Sound Healthcare System is part of VA Northwest Network VISN 20.Privacy

Assisting with access barriers around reimbursement and procurement issues for the rare disease arena focused on ALS.

The Associate Director, Regional Market Access manager (ADRAM) is the key contact responsible for local market access and reimbursement related matters in the assigned region. The RAM helps to analyze access and reimbursement issues, obtain policy coverage for AAA products from commercial, government, regional and national payers, as well as act as the reimbursement expert/problem solver for field force & regional and national leadership.

Operational and budget oversight of 4 cancer centers that cross 4 counties (Radiation and Medical Oncology). Chair of Clinical Council, member of Senior Operations Team for Adult Oupatient Oncology.

Currently on the leadership team overseeing Adult Outpatient Medical and Radiation Oncology Services for MultiCare. *Project managed construction, operations, and budgets associated with three new clinics, new CyberKnife technology and a large cancer center expansion in Tacoma for medical and radiation oncology. We now see over 2300 new patients across the system annually.*Capital budget management dollars were in excess of 10 million dollars and all projects completed on time and under budget.*Oversight of billing, budget management and design, and information management of the entire careline to include pharmacy associated with oncology and philanthropic funds that total over 144k in operating dollars and over 12 million in capital funding. Development of budgets and proforma data based on quantitative analysis is an integral part of my work.*Oversight and lead for American College of Surgeons (ACoS) commission on cancer accreditation (CoC). Achieved a 3-year accreditation with commendation in every standard possible in 2009 for Tacoma General. Lead a successful accreditation for a second cancer program at Good Samaritan. This included advising cancer committee on agenda development and strategic plans to meet guidelines.*Management of revenue cycle to include development of key model for charge capture and charge entry using established quality indicators to insure maximum reimbursement for each patient visit with full reconciliation processes.*Designed, project managed build and electronic medical record implementation for oncology. This included protocol application, scheduling package, documentation, and insurance authorization and billing models. *Developed workflows to maximize the use of information technology to improve revenue, clinical operations, staff efficiency and customer service and patient safety.

Manages, summarizes and reports all costs associated with the multi-year 61 million dollar budget Epic project implementation including third-party vendor invoices and internal capitalized labor, comparing these costs to budget and forecasting project expenditures for analysis and reporting on an ongoing basis to Project Management, the Executive Team and the Board of DirectorsInvestigates budget variances to facilitate resolutionAnalyzes complex, multi-year budget and offer tools and counsel to stay within financial parametersDevelops a process to accumulate and report the numerous quality metrics associated with the project before, during and after the go-live of each part of the project across departments and facilitiesWorks with Project Administrator to design and implement processes for tracking financial status and progress of Epic Project; coordinates information requests, information needs etc., setting and communicating priorities to users, management and team membersProject management of consultants and pharmacy project to complete analysis of old computer system to new computer system and ensure new methodologies would not result in revenue loss and or create compliance issues. Negotiates contracts when necessary for consultants utilized by the project.

Responsible for overseeing 30 million dollar revenue cycle of busy Oncology Practice for eight practitioners, two sites.Improved and stabilized cash flow problems by implementing a new accounting structure with new policies.Increased profitability during FY 2005 by 35% with procedural efficiencies and introducing new revenue streams. Improved revenue capture by reorganizing front line and billing staff, permitting full integration of billing and front line functions to maximize revenue potential and streamline work flow efficiencies.Successfully completed two, consecutive yearly, in depth financial and managerial audits. Within one year corrected managerial audit findings from over 50 core issues down to 3 for an overall improvement of 94%.Manage and negotiated all payer contractual agreements for practice. Completed several negotiations with GPO’s and Pharmaceutical suppliers to lower volume costs on over 1.4 million dollars of pharmacy drugs purchased by practice per month. Analyze oncology regimes for profitability and educated physicians on affordability options based on patient insurance needs.Designed, purchased and installed full 6 servers, networked LAN for practice with over 50 users, analyzed and purchased chemotherapy ordering software to integrate with future EMR and billing package software.Integrated in house lab with network to feed lab results into chemotherapy ordering package utilizing HL 7 technology, improving patient care and physician access to trending lab results over timeManage operational flow for all outpatient services with all departments utilizing six sigma and lean methodology to ensure greater customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies. Identified program improvements and outcome measures to monitor and assess in real time.

Quality Management department worked on Joint Commission mock surveys and accreditation, OIG regulations, Patient Safety, statistical reports, Baldridge applications, Executive management reports, CARF accreditation for Spinal Cord Injury Unit