Spring Educational Session
6/6/2024


Agenda:

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
"No Surprises Act Update - The latest news and views"
Speaker: Jonathan G. Wiik, MSHA, MBA, FHFMA - Vice President, Health Insights, Fin Thrive

Jonathan Wiik has over 25 years of healthcare experience in acute care, health IT, and insurance settings. He started his career as a hospital transporter and served in clinical operations, patient access, billing, case management, and many other roles at a large not-for-profit acute care hospital and prominent commercial payer before serving as Chief Revenue Officer.

In his current role as Vice President of Health Insights at FinThrive, he is responsible for leading healthcare data insights and research. Wiik works closely with the market and hospitals on industry best practices for revenue management. He is considered an expert in the industry for healthcare finance, legislation, revenue management, and strategic transformation.

Wiik is an active advocate of legislative changes that evolve the healthcare industry. He’s the author of Healthcare Revolution: The Patient Is the New Payer, and Revenue Evolution: Helping Providers Get Paid in An Era of Uncertainty, which was released in early 2020. He frequently speaks as a thought leader at state and national events.

Wiik is the past President of Colorado HFMA, and previously served as a board member for the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and Colorado Association of Healthcare Executives (CAHE). He holds a bachelor’s degree in sports medicine and holds two master’s degrees in healthcare administration and business.

He enjoys spending time outdoors with his family in Colorado with his wife and two very energetic red-headed boys. He’s also a certified whitewater rafting guide instructor and an avid traveler and has had a six-month stay in Antarctica and a visit to the South Pole.

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
"Legislative Panel - what's new, what's next"
Panelists:
JaNelle Weatherford, Associate Administrator, Strategic Financial Planning, Government Reimbursement & Reporting at Keck Medicine of USC
Richard Lovich, Managing Partner, Stephenson Acquisto & Colman

Mr. Lovich is Managing Partner at Stephenson, Acquisto & Colman, the premier healthcare reimbursement litigation firm in the country. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; and all federal and state courts in California. Mr. Lovich has 39 years of litigation and trial experience, including serving as chief trial counsel and managing attorney for the Los Angeles law offices of American International Group (AIG) and The Hartford.

Since 1995, he has held a “Preeminent A-V Rating”, by Martindale-Hubbell, reflecting the highest possible peer ratings in legal ability and ethical conduct. He has been named a "Southern California Super Lawyer" since 2011.

Mr. Lovich serves as National Legal Counsel to the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM). In that capacity, in 2016, he testified before the United States Senate Commerce Committee on needed changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the difficulties presented by that law to the healthcare industry. In 2020 he was selected by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai to serve on the FCC Advisory Board to create best practices for voice service providers to protect hospitals from illegal robocalls.

In 2023, Mr. Lovich collaborated on the American Bar Association book “Health Law Essentials”. The book provides an excellent foundation in various areas of health Law. Mr. Lovich wrote the chapter on litigating and arbitrating provider claims.

Mr. Lovich has lectured nationally on many revenue cycle topics at large health systems and top university academic medical centers including Stanford University Health, UCLA Health, University of California Irvine Health, University of California San Francisco Health; the Regents of the University of California, Providence-St. Joseph Health, Trinity Health, and Dignity Health.

Mr. Lovich is married with 5 daughters and three grandchildren. He considers among his career highlights representing Madonna and living to tell about it. He also continues to hold out a never-ending expectation to play center field for the Dodgers.

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
"Experiences and Lessons Learned from Surviving a Cyber-Attack"
Panelists: 
Rudy Braccili, MBA, Director, Accounts Receivable, Keck Medicine of USC

Rudy is presently in his fourth year at Keck Medicine of USC where he serves as Director of A/R Operations for the organization’s three-hospital central business office.

Rudy has served in leadership roles at both “For- Profit” and “Not-For-Profit” hospitals and health systems throughout the U.S. His accomplishments to date include:

• A successful 14-year tenure, at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Health as Assistant Vice President Revenue Cycle Services where he led the implementation of a centralized business office for four acute-care, academic teaching hospitals and thirty-two primary care clinics

• As Executive Director of Revenue Cycle Management, for seven years, Rudy led the Patient Access, Business Office, Revenue Integrity, HIM, & Clinical Documentation Improvement departments at Boca Raton Regional Hospital during its seven-year “red-to-black” financial turn-around period

• Rudy led the implementation and ongoing operations of Tenet Healthcare’s pioneering National Medicare & Medicaid Center for five years

• Rudy served as two-term elected President of the South Florida Chapter of AAHAM

Rick Lash, Director, PFS, USC Arcadia Hospital
 

Rick Lash is the Principal of Lash Consulting Group. His primary focus over the last 14 years has been Compliance, Government Audits, Financial Assistance, 340B, Policy and Procedure Development, and other assignments that required a one-man army. He has worked in the Revenue Cycle field all his adult life, a career that spans 47 years. Rick has held almost every possible position in the Business Office and Patient Access, from entry-level staff through the Regional Director level. He has been employed by stand-alone facilities, and small chain and large hospital corporations. He also served as Vice-President of a company that provided support services to hospitals and hospital corporations.

Rick has always made time to be active in healthcare-related service organizations. He was very active in the Southern California Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), where held every Board position. He was President of this in 2009 – 2010. He was also active in the Regional Symposium Committee. He also presented at the local, regional, and national levels.

Rick has been a member of the AAHAM Western Region for some time. He is very active in the organization and currently serves as the Vice-President. As he will tell you, he volunteers his time with others who are some of the most talented individuals he has ever met. He is glad to call them his friends!

Rick retired from Cedars-Sinai in July 2018. He was asked to consider staying on for another year in a consulting role which he did. He just completed the end of his second year. He is planning on providing revenue cycle audit services to another facility in Southern California.

 

Please note that there is a nominal fee of $25 to attend this session.

We look forward to your participation and the opportunity to enhance our knowledge and skills together.

---