Consultants

Rob Bell
Certified speaking professional
FOCUS Consulting, LLC

Rob began teaching his customer service and communication techniques early in his tenure as the personnel development - education and training director for Dick’s Supermarkets, Inc. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience in leadership roles, customer service and training, Rob makes it simple, clear and fun to improve customer service, communication strategies and gain leadership skills. Rob is the author of the book, “Beyond Paper or Plastic – 8 Items or Less to Remarkable Service,” and has earned the prestigious designation of Certified Speaking Professional, given to less than 650 people in the world.

Topics:

• Customer service excellence
• Positive leadership
• Workplace communication
• Building high-performance teams
• Stress reduction
• Dealing with difficult people

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Ty Bello
President and founder
Team@Work

Ty is a registered corporate coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, and president and founder of Team@Work. With more than 20 years experience in HME and the medical industries, Ty is an inspirational leader who is passionate about serving and cultivating leaders in and outside of the business arena. He has been a featured writer in several trade journals, and is a highly sought-after speaker. Ty is passionate about working with HME providers and taking the business and their teams to the next level of success.

Topics:

• Family Feud: Putting an end to the internal bickering between customer service, sales, delivery, operations, billing, and leadership
• Limit lunches, increase in-services, and GROW sales
• How to lead your team with LEAN leadership principles
• Ten ways to transform your business with LEAN in 2010
• Introduction of LEAN to your HME, HHA and hospice, long-term care facility
• New obstacles from the window witch and referral source and the solutions to get referrals
• How to conduct an introductory sales call
• Coaching your team and getting them to do their job
• How to hold a productive meeting with your team
• The new and improved generation and how to hire, employ, and engage them
• Sales stress, how to handle it and how to coach your sales team
• Hospitalists: Who are they, how to work with them and how to get their business

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Neil Caesar
President
Health Law Center

For 29 years, Neil has served the consulting and legal needs of homecare companies; medical practices; inpatient, outpatient and freestanding facilities; networks and alliances; and other health providers nationally. Neil has an extensive healthcare and business law background, having served as corporate counsel to Foster Medical Corporation (now Apria Homecare), as vice president of the Health Care Group, Inc., and as a member of premier law firms in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. He also currently serves on the board of directors and as corporate counsel for the National Association of Independent Medical Equipment Suppliers. Neil has served as author and editor in for five books on regulatory compliance, and has been a widely published columnist on health law. He has contributed more than 600 articles to national publications, and has spoken at over 200 national conferences. Neil received his J.D. from the University of Virginia. He attended Washington University in St. Louis as a Mylonas Scholar, where he received his B.A. Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Topics:

• Twenty ways a compliance program will help HME suppliers earn revenue, improve operations and stay out of trouble
• The care and feeding of whistleblowers
• Fraud and abuse 2011 - What are the Feds looking at this year?
• Legal insight – What to do when the government comes calling
• How to deal with the NSC – and live to tell the tale
• New supplier standards! What they mean for your business
• Is my compliance plan compliant? – How to satisfy payers and the Feds
• Ten secrets to effective HIPAA training – Teach your staff to trust the system
• Suffering from too many rules? Systems Management can cure “rule overload” and increase revenue in the process!
• Any port in a storm – How to use the anti-kickback safe harbors to help market and expand your business

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Tom Cesar
President
Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc.

Tom has been president of the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC) since 1991. He holds a bachelor of science degree from California State University at Los Angeles and received his master of arts degree in public management from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Tom has 29 years of experience working in health care administration. Prior to ACHC, he was a unit manager at Mt. Auburn Hospital, in Cambridge, MA, and executive director of Rehabilitation Services of Wake County in Raleigh, NC. Tom is a leader for change with accreditation, and speaks frequently at state and national conferences. He has published a variety of articles in several trade journals.

Topics:

• The Balanced Score Card basics
• Accreditation basics
• Accreditation 101
• Achieving efficiency and quality through accreditation

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Mary Ellen Conway
President
Capital Healthcare Group, LLC

Mary Ellen is a nurse health care consultant with more than 25 years of experience in management throughout the health care continuum. She is known for her special expertise in operations and regulatory issues in home health, hospice, medical equipment and accreditation. She has been qualified as a legal expert in home health, and has served on the faculty of both Georgetown University and Catholic University's schools of nursing. Mary Ellen is a nationally recognized health care speaker and author.

Topics:

• Successful accreditation does not mean you are “done” with policies and procedures 
• How to maintain your accreditation and add new products and services
• The quality standards are not the only concerns HME suppliers face.
• Processes you need to monitor, including human resources, state regulatory requirements, marketing and Fair Trade practices
• How to maintain an effective HME compliance program to meet CMS requirements
• The latest regulatory updates from CMS for HME providers

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Gerry Dickerson, ATP, CRTS
Director of rehab technology,
Medstar Surgical

Gerry is a 30-year veteran of the HME/complex rehabilitation industry. He is a frequent presenter at national conferences on the provider side of seating and wheeled mobility, power mobility, funding and advocacy. He is a two-term past treasurer and NRRTS registrant since 1993. A long-time member of RESNA, he and was part of the original committee involved in the credentialing program. Gerry also served as the chair of RESNA's PSG-1, the specialty group for suppliers and manufacturers. Gerry serves as vice-chair of the Professional Standards Board (PSB), the part of RESNA responsible for the oversight of the entire credentialing program. In June of 2008, he was made a RESNA Fellow, one of the highest honors given to individual members for their contributions to the field of assistive technology.

Topics: 

• Funding
• Medicare, Medicaid and Private Insurance: The clinical challenge
• How to say no and survive in the market
• Advocating for yourself, your consumer and your industry
• Working with legislators on a local, state and federal level
• How to host a site visit

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Jack Evans
President
Global Media Marketing

Jack is a home health care (HHC) educator and marketing specialist who works with HME dealers, pharmacists, health systems, home health agencies, distributors and manufacturers to develop both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing and advertising programs.

Topics:

• Pro forma strategic planning
• HME benchmarking
• Showroom layout and design
• Demographic merchandising
• Product and retail sales training
• Referral marketing
• Disease management

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Louis Feuer, MA, MSW 
President
Dynamic Seminars & Consulting, Inc.

Louis has offered sales, marketing and customer service expertise to the health care industry since 1977. He writes a monthly column in HomeCare Magazine, serves on the Accreditation Review Committee for HQAA, has published more than 200 articles on professional development issues, and continues to lecture extensively throughout the U.S. Louis' DSC Teleconference Series has presented more than 150 teleconferences for the health care industry since 2001. Some of his most notable clients include: American Health Insurance Plans where he is the author and consultant for all of the insurance industry customer service programs; VGM where he is educational advisor; and Brightree where he helped develop a new referral source management tool. Louis has been a speaker at Medtrade for more than 25 years, and has spoken at the VGM Heartland Conference since its very first meeting.

Topics:

• Customer service that will separate you from the competition
• Strategies for handling complaints
• Sales strategies for a competitive marketplace
• Creative marketing
• Making the best sales presentation
• Leadership skills
• Professional survival strategies
• Sophisticated retail strategies
• Taking the stress out of performance evaluations
• Managing and monitoring your sales territory
• Sales management made easy
• Tracking and monitoring your sales operation
• Successful motivation
• Building an efficient and productive home care business
• Referral source insights

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Jim Greatorex
President
Black Bear Medical

Jim has 29 years experience in the HME industry. He is a member of AA Homecare, and a member of the board of directors of NEMED after serving as the organization’s president. In addition to providing complex rehab products, HME and supplies, Jim’s company also runs a robust retail operation that averages more than $1 million in annual sales.

Topics:

• How to grow a million dollar HME retail business
• Build a win-win relationship with your state Medicaid

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Sarah Hanna
Vice President
ECS Billing & Consulting, Inc. 

Sarah is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant on HME Reimbursement. She has worked in the billing industry for more than 19 years. Sarah has conducted numerous training seminars and personal client consultations on proper billing protocols, intake, operational workflow, Medicare coverage guidelines, and billing office procedures for effective accounts receivable collections. Sarah is a member of HomeCare magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board and has written articles for HME News and HomeCare Magazine on reimbursement. She has been a presenter for AAHomecare and various state and regional conferences including Medtrade Fall and Spring. Her company, ECS Billing & Consulting, Inc. provides billing, consulting and training services to HME, pharmacies, respiratory and supply companies throughout the United States.

Topics:

• Be your own HME expert
• Bottleneck of the reimbursement cycle
• Breathe easy with proper O² patient qualification
• Can we fix it? Yes we CAN!
• Common billing mistakes: How to prevent them
• What’s the strength of your gatekeeper?
• Essential acronyms for office efficiency: CSR, AR and DSO!!
• Managing your reimbursement department for success
• Medicare’s top 10
• Reimbursement basics 1
• Reimbursement basics 2
• Staffing your reimbursements department for success
• Successful ingredients: The recipe for A/R management
• Train the techs
• What’s new with Medicare

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Miriam Lieber
President
Miriam Lieber Consulting

Miriam is an independent consultant and trainer specializing in operations management and compliance for homecare providers. Her extensive experience with Medicare and other third party payers has brought her national recognition in the homecare industry. With more than 25 years experience in the homecare field, Miriam is a featured author of many articles in the areas of operations and accounts receivable management, pending regulations and compliance. Additionally, she is a nationally known speaker for many homecare trade associations. In her consulting practice, Miriam’s clientele includes home health care companies, Medicare and other third party payers, investment firms, hospitals, pharmacies, and manufacturers. She has worked with more than 350 homecare providers and is known to have practical approaches to complex reimbursement/compliance matters and assists her clients with the nuts and bolts of running a profitable business.

Topics:

• Customer service skill building workshops
• Order intake
• Documentation gathering and tracking (CMNS and more)
• Billing workshops of all types (Medicare, other third party payers)
• Operations management
• Accounts receivable collections
• Combining cash and reimbursable sales
• How do you know when it's time to hire?
• Managing through software
• Impending regulations – impact on operations

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Curt McLees
Compliance director
Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation

Curt has more than 27 years in DME operations, billing and regulatory experience, and has spent the last nine years focusing on DME compliance. During his tenure in the industry, he has both designed and implemented numerous compliance, HIPAA, and quality programs specific to DME. As an advocate of quality improvement and compliance programs designed to improve and not burden DME businesses, Curt’s post-survey responsibilities help suppliers apply the finishing touches on their accreditation journey. Curt manages HQAA’s post-survey accreditation process and oversees compliance and regulatory issues for HQAA.

Topics:

• Compliance: It’s all about Risk
• Compliance and Accreditation

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Mary K. Nicholas
Executive director
Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation

Mary is executive director of HQAA, a nonprofit accreditation corporation that offers a paradigm shift in the accreditation process by providing a paperless, web-based product for HME providers and pharmacies providing HME across the nation. Mary graduated from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, Des Moines with a master of healthcare administration degree. Mary is a senior member of the American Society for Quality and also a member of AA Homecare and The Iowa Quality Center.

Topics:

• Accreditation: Apply – Maintain – Renew
• Quality improvement
• Systems and process thinking

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Susean Nichols
Consultant
Millennium Management Services, LLC

Susean has been in health care for more than 30 years with expertise in acute care, home care, and the sales/delivery of respiratory products and services. She is a trainer, speaker, author, and consultant specializing in healthcare operations, project management, accreditation preparation and regulatory compliance. Susean has developed policies, procedures, and training programs for clients seeking both mandatory and elective licenses, certifications, and accreditations. Her guidance and collaboration has resulted in improved operations, successful achievement of accreditation and accomplishments for many of her clients. Currently Susean is President of DME Consult, LLC, a partner with Sleep Consult, LLC and principle consultant of Millennium Management Services LLC, consulting organizations. Susean also surveys with an accreditation organization and is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges, technical schools, and other programs throughout the HME industry.

Topics

• Quality Improvement
• Accreditation
• FDA Compliance
• Home Ventilator Services
• Clinical Respiratory Services

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Anne Obarski
Executive director
Merchandise Concepts

Anne is a professional international speaker and author. A graduate of Kent State University, she has served as a sportswear buyer, college instructor and retail consultant. Anne brings real-life experiences and advice to the thousands of audience members who have heard her speak over the past two decades. Anne is also an author of several books, including her most recent, "Make Your Business Contagious,” released in November, 2008. She is also the author of a new blog, contagiousbusinesses.blogspot.com and is a member of the National Speakers Association.

Topics:

• Three ways to thrive in the new "normal" economy: strategies successful retailers use, and refuse to share!
• Re-energizing customer retention: re-charge, re-connect, re-fuel your business pipeline and employees
• Boomerang customers: tips to keep your customers coming back
• Retail business is show business: strategies that will keep customers applauding
• Make your business contagious: drive them to your business and make that experience infectious!
• Bullfrogs have it easy...They EAT what bugs them! How to get along with almost anyone around your pad
• Gen Y: How to motivate, manage and sell to them

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Celina Peerman, Ph.D.
Organizational Psychologist, Instructor, Trainer

Celina specializes in organizational behavior and human resource management-related topics. Her experience includes senior leadership roles in human resource, organizational development and operations positions in both profit and non-profit organizations, where she was accountable for quality service, effective processes, diverse staff and achieving results. Celina has also taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels for more than twelve years.

Celina has led workshops and training for a variety of industries including health care, construction (including industrial, commercial and highway construction), insurance, medical supply, higher education, telecommunications, manufacturing and other environments. She has also presented at numerous conferences for local, state and national audiences.  Celina’s focus is to provide quality training and services that directly contributes to better service for all stakeholders and in particular the retention of front-line staff and strength of first-line supervisors. Celina holds a Ph.D. in psychology with the distinction Organizational Psychologist from Capella University and a master of arts degree from Upper Iowa University in business leadership with a specialization in human resource management. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Dubuque was in Psychology and International studies.

Topics:

• Leadership style/skills, motivation, delegation and performance management
• Dealing with change, prioritizing work, conflict resolution and communicating
• Critical information, teams, employee commitment and trust
• Addressing difficult employees
• Effective hiring and interviewing
• Communication – Improving individual, team and organizational practices
• Customer service excellence: The FISH philosophy
• DISC – Improving team performance with assessment and tools
• Employee engagement and commitment
• Good to Great – Applying results today
• Overcoming the dysfunctions of team
• Retaining employees: Forming and strengthening connections that work
• Understanding organizational behavior for company performance
• Change and transitions plus, "Who Moved My Cheese?"
• Writing and achieving goals
• Balancing acts: Juggling multiple priorities at work and home
• Polishing your presentation skills
• Telling your story – Polishing your business writing
• It’s about respect (inclusion, diversity and preventing harassment)
• Recognizing the signs of workplace violence

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Donna L. Ploof
Senior solutions consultant
Trusted Employees

With greater importance screening job applicants, Donna brings a fresh perspective to an often dry and misunderstood field. Through the use of an innovative motivational style, she brings the task of screening into a “reality show” training program, “Hire Smart and WIN!”

Donna can help explain due diligence, permissible purpose and how the wrong hiring criteria can paint employers into a hiring corner. Donna is a member of SHRM and a board member of Human Resource Professionals of Minnesota (HRP-MN).

Topics

• Hire Smart and Win!

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Tim Safley
DMEPOS sleep and pharmacy manager
Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc.

Tim has more than three decades of experience in the respiratory care profession, including 25 years in the HME industry and 10 years in sleep medicine. Tim previously served as the regional vice president for a national home care provider and director of respiratory development for a large regional home care operation. He presently serves on several boards, and is the respiratory therapy consultant for the North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance. Tim is a graduate of the Durham Technical Community College's Respiratory Care program, and received his MBA from Elon University. He has published several papers on product development and management protocols to enhance the profitability of the HME industry. Tim was also instrumental in developing standards for ACHC’s Sleep Lab Accreditation Program, focusing on outcomes and patient care.

Topics:

• ACHC accreditation process
• So you’re accredited, now what?
• Making your accreditation work for you

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Wayne van Halem
President
The van Halem Group, LLC 

Since 2006, Wayne and his company have helped providers navigate complex issues related to Medicare and Medicaid audits, appeals, and compliance. The van Halem Group is unique in that all consultants and clinicians are former HHS or Medicare contractor employees. Therefore, clients benefit from a unique perspective and first-hand knowledge of the audit process and how to navigate through it more successfully. Wayne’s proven experience and sound counsel, captured in books, lectures and publications, has uniquely positioned him as a resource to all types of health care providers.

Topics:

• Navigating the appeals process
• When it happens to you: Understanding the audit and investigation process
• Program integrity changes and updates
• Changing the conversation mindset: Ideas to curb fraud and abuse and improve the image of the DME recovery audit contractors (What DMEPOS suppliers need to know)
• Elements of an effective compliance plan
• Medical review
• F.E.A.T. – Coming together to fight fraud in the DME Industry
• Health care fraud, waste, and abuse
• How to audit-proof your business
• You’re being audited! Now what?

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Doug Whittle, Ph.D.
President
Whittle Consulting Group, LLC

Doug is recognized for his expertise in the field of change management and organizational leadership. He is a certified instructor for Insights Discovery™ and has nine years of experience as a consultant, corporate strategist and change architect who helps organizations and teams create and achieve their organizational strategies. Combined with 20 years of experience as a senior leader in a global corporation and 10 years as a secondary and university educator, Doug brings to his clients a diverse, real-life perspective that is both visionary as well as practical. Doug has developed a Leadership Education and Practice (LEAP) curriculum that focuses on the themes of leadership at all levels within an organization and leadership by design. While completing his Ph.D. in organizational leadership, Doug co-authored the book “The Manager as Change Agent: A Practical Guide for High Performance People and Organization.”

Topics:

• Leadership
• Change
• High performance teams
• Personal working styles

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Dr. Bill Withers
Leadership fellow and associate professor
Wartburg College

Bill serves as the assistant director of the Institute for Leadership Education. He has served many governing boards over the years and currently sits on the board of directors for Iowa Public Television. He has more than two decades of management and leadership experience in both business and education, and his research has been presented multiple times at the International Conference on Business in Honolulu. Bill has both studied and served organizations such as Proctor & Gamble, Ritz-Carlton, Disney, Hy-Vee, and Starbucks. His most recent research involved the Four Seasons Hotel chain, leaders in service excellence. He also was a contributing writer to a new book on customer service as it applies to the cable TV industry. Closer to the Cedar Valley, Bill has won both teacher and adviser of the year awards.

Topics:

• Public relations
• Quality customer service
• Organizational change
• Leadership

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James Herren, Consultant
James Herren Consulting Services

James Herren started with Medicare contractor CIGNA Government Services in 2003 in customer service, where he specialized in benefit integrity referrals and documentation requirement issues for suppliers.  James moved to the Overpayment Recovery department as a senior recovery analyst for both DME and Part B, working on projects ranging from recovery of large overpayments, referrals to the Treasury Department to the training of new hires.  In 2007, when CIGNA Government Services was awarded the Jurisdiction C contract, James began working in the Provider Outreach and Education department. He also worked with state and national associations to educate members on Medicare policies and procedures.  He was also coordinator for the Jurisdiction C Council and their meetings with the medical director with CIGNA Government Services.  James specializes in the areas of documentation support, reimbursement and billing, medical management and compliance.  

Topics:

• General staff training
• Medicare updates and changes
• Correcting billing errors and avoiding denials
• Winning the intake battle/customer service
• Respiratory
• Audits and appeals
• Understanding Your Medicare contractor
• Medical management and documentation

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Joe Rosner
Director and Self-Defense Teacher
Best Defense USA

Joe Rosner is a nationally recognized expert on workplace violence and personal safety. He is the author of three books on personal safety and workplace violence. Since 2001, Joe has taught thousands of people to be safe from violence using simple concepts and techniques based on experience in the military, law enforcement, body-guarding and in martial arts. He has presented at numerous state, local and federal conferences. Joe is also experienced in sales and has sold recruiting and training services to Fortune 500 companies and family-owned businesses. His Black Belt Sales Training Program has helped boost sales force effectiveness by as much as 30 percent in companies selling everything from temporary staffing to laundry equipment to insurance.

Topics:

• Workplace Violence Plans, Policies & Procedures
• Workplace Violence & Personal Safety for DME/HME
• Black Belt Selling Skills
• Time & Attitude Management

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