Female RCM leaders to know in 2018

Kelly Gooch -

Here are 16 female leaders dedicated to the revenue cycle space at their respective organizations.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Leaders are presented in alphabetical order.

Abigail (Abby) Abongwa. Vice President of Revenue Cycle at University of Wisconsin Health (Madison). Ms. Abongwa has served in her current role since January 2017. As vice president of revenue cycle, her areas of responsibility include scheduling, registration and technical services, insurance verification, charge capture, and financial counseling/provision of charity, among others. Ms. Abongwa previously worked in various leadership positions at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, a Glendale, Wis.-based nonprofit Catholic system. There, she was most recently vice president of revenue cycle operations.

Tracy Berry. Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management at BJC HealthCare (St. Louis). In her role, Ms. Berry leads BJC HealthCare's hospital and medical group revenue cycle operations, presiding over a team of 800 employees across the $4.8 billion system. She also is responsible for revenue management, coding, transcription, and charge description master/strategic pricing. Additionally, she recently played a key role in the 15-hospital system's conversion of three legacy patient account systems to the Cerner Soarian RCM platform. Ms. Berry's previous positions include senior vice president of revenue management at Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health and vice president of patient financial services with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. She also previously served as a healthcare management consultant.

Brenda Brault, BSN. Vice Chair of Revenue Cycle at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.). Ms. Brault has worked for Mayo Clinic since 2009. In her current role, she leads the revenue cycle implementation of Epic. She previously worked at Mayo Clinic Health System in southwest Wisconsin in various roles, such as vice chair of revenue integrity, vice chair of system support/innovation, and director of revenue cycle for provider and hospital operations. She also previously was director of coding, decision support and compliance for Tinley Park, Ill.-based Springfield Service Corp., now SPi Healthcare.  She earned a master's degree in business administration in sustainability from Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis.; a master's degree in social work from University of Wisconsin-Madison; and a bachelor's degree in nursing from Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Jill Buathier. Health System Chief Revenue Cycle Officer at Stanford Health Care (Palo Alto, Calif.). Ms. Buathier took over her current role in 2016. At Stanford Health Care, she is responsible for revenue cycle strategy and operations for hospital and professional revenue across the $4.2 billion system. She presides over more than 900 employees in a wide range of areas, including patient access services, patient financial clearance, revenue integrity, clinical documentation improvement, health information management and hospital and professional billing to name a few. She is a veteran at Stanford Health Care, formerly Stanford Hospital and Clinics, where she has also served as vice president of revenue cycle and vice president of revenue operations. Prior to that, she was associate vice president of revenue cycle at University of Toledo (Ohio) Medical Center. Ms. Buathier earned a master's degree in organizational management from Spring Arbor (Mich.) University and a bachelor's degree in science from The Ohio State University in Columbus.

Cathy Bukowski. Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Tufts Medical Center (Boston). Ms. Bukowski has served in her current position since March 2017. Previously, she was vice president of revenue cycle at Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System, where she oversaw a systemwide Epic EHR transition. Her previous experience also includes working for national firm KPMG and serving as vice president of revenue cycle for Milwaukee-based Ministry Health Care. At Ministry Health Care, her accomplishments included bringing the system's hospitals and clinics together under one revenue cycle division, and creating a systemwide revenue integrity department.

Katherine Cardwell. Assistant Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Ochsner Health System (New Orleans). Ms. Cardwell took over her current position in June 2011. As assistant vice president of revenue cycle, her areas of responsibility include pre-service, financial counseling, Medicaid eligibility, self-pay collections and customer service. Previously, Ms. Cardwell was manager in Accenture's healthcare consulting division. She earned a bachelor's degree in healthcare management from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and a master's degree in healthcare administration from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Patti Consolver. Senior Director of Patient Access in System Services at Texas Health Resources (Arlington). Ms. Consolver will mark her 25th anniversary at Texas Health Resources this year. During her career, she led the development of the THR patient access infrastructure, and is currently responsible for the leadership team of the Strategic Revenue Services Access Intake Center, which handles pre-services such as benefit verification and financial clearance for THR-owned hospitals. Previously, Ms. Consolver served as director of patient access at the 300-plus-bed Texas Health Plano. Outside of THR, she is active in the National Association of Healthcare Access Management, where she was president and now serves as an executive delegate on the board.

Dawn Davidson. Vice President of National Net Revenue Management at Ascension (St. Louis). As vice president of national net revenue management, Ms. Davidson helps coordinate the work of more than 100 employees across Ascension. Prior to taking on that role in 2015, she was CFO and system executive finance and corporate controller at Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health, a member of St. Louis-based Ascension. She also was audit senior manager at Ernst & Young.

Prabhjot (PJ) Grewal. Associate Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations at Montefiore Health System (Bronx, N.Y.). Ms. Grewal took over her current role two years ago. She presides over the team in charge of strategic pricing, chargemaster, revenue integrity and other revenue cycle areas. Previously, Ms. Grewal served as director of revenue management at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. She also was a revenue cycle consultant with Huron Consulting Group and Navigant Consulting, and served as an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.  

Laura Holt. Director of Revenue Cycle Management for St. Luke's Hospital (Chesterfield, Mo.). Ms. Holt has worked in revenue cycle at St. Luke's for more than three decades. Currently, she plays a key role in preparing the hospital's revenue cycle for a summer conversion to Cerner. She also has new responsibilities for central scheduling and precertification, as well as utilization management. Other accomplishments during her tenure at St. Luke's include helping to develop the organization's pricing transparency tool on its website. She will be honored later this year as a Missouri Athletic Club Woman of Distinction. The honor is for "women who enrich the community and contribute to the advancement of all women through her leadership, character and professional achievements."

Laurie Hurwitz. Executive Director of Revenue Cycle at Gundersen Health System (La Crosse, Wis.). Ms. Hurwitz has more than two decades of healthcare financial management experience. Since 2012, she has worked at Gundersen, where she most recently took responsibility for revenue cycle operations. Her areas of responsibility include clinical documentation improvement, customer financial service, denial management and managed care contracting, among many others. Ms. Hurwitz previously served as director of decision support and physician practice finance at Petoskey-based McLaren Northern Michigan Health System, and as CFO of East Jordan (Mich.) Family Health Center. She was also controller at Northern Michigan Community Mental Health, which merged with Antrim Kalkaska Community Mental Health to form North Country Community Mental Health.

Sarah Knodel. System Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Baylor Scott & White Health (Dallas). Ms. Knodel leads revenue cycle operations at Baylor Scott & White Health, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health systems. In this role, she is responsible for more than 1,700 employees across the nearly 50-hospital system. Her specific areas of responsibility include access services, clinical resource management, revenue integrity and centralized business services. Prior to joining Baylor Scott & White Health, Ms. Knodel worked for Stockamp & Associates, now Huron Consulting Group in Chicago, where she focused on revenue cycle improvement at large, multifacility acute care hospital systems. Ms. Knodel graduated from The University of Texas at Austin Red McCombs School of Business with a bachelor's of business administration in finance.

Virginia Martinez. Vice President of Revenue Cycle for Franciscan Alliance (Mishawaka, Ind.).  Ms. Martinez is responsible for revenue cycle operations at Franciscan Alliance, a 14-hospital system with $3 billion in annual operating revenue. She specifically focuses on the system's centralized hospital and home health business office, its centralized ambulatory business office, health information management, patient accounting, its clinical documentation integrity department and denial management function. During her time at Franciscan Alliance, Ms. Martinez played a key role in the system's transition to Epic in 2012-14, as well as the establishment of its ambulatory business office and clinical documentation integrity program. She has also advocated for prior authorization denial legislation at the state level. She previously was vice president of business services for Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola University Medical Center.

Michele Napier. Chief Revenue Officer at Orlando (Fla.) Health. Ms. Napier has worked in the healthcare industry for three decades. Most recently, she took responsibility for revenue management, managed care and care management at Orlando Health. Her duties cover eight hospitals, 600 physicians and ancillary services. Previously, Ms. Napier was senior vice president and chief revenue officer at Cincinnati-based Mercy Health, formerly Catholic Health Partners, and led managed care strategy and revenue cycle operations for the former Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. She also was president of US Family Health Plan, a government health maintenance organization plan, and senior vice president of delivery systems for St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers in New York City. She is a board member for the Healthcare Financial Management Association in Florida.

Gerilynn Sevenikar. Vice President of Hospital Revenue Cycle at Sharp HealthCare (San Diego). Ms. Sevenikar has about 40 years of experience in healthcare revenue cycle and financial management. At Sharp HealthCare, she is responsible for various areas, including hospital access service and business office functions, as well as chargemaster and health information management. Ms. Sevenikar earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from San Diego State University.

April York. Senior Director of Patient Finance at Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.). Ms. York took over her current role in 2000. She is responsible for various revenue cycle operations, including claims processing, payment posting/credit balance management, patient accounts receivable management, and adjustment and denial processing. She is active in the Healthcare Financial Management Association's North Carolina chapter and serves as a 2017-18 officer.

 

More articles on healthcare finance:
New York hospital sheds $2.34M of expenses in 2-day cost purge
University of Iowa hospitals seek 6% service cost hike
Moody's affirms 'A1' rating on Sanford Health

%MCEPASTEBIN%

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.