AskMariaTodd™ "See One...Do One...Teach Many" -- Maria K Todd, MHA PhD
Home 
Consulting
Training 
White Papers 
News 
MultiMedia
Posts 
Books My esteemed colleagues are all available to collaborate on your projects
Albert Speisman, MBA JD
Albert Speisman is nationally known for his expertise in revenue cycle management and a former Director of Patient Accounts. He has also worked as Hospital Administrator/Economist for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations and served as an attorney for Health Insurance Association of America, where he did the original legal analysis on PPO's and focused on differentials (Silent PPO discounts). He has testified before state legislative committees and regulatory agencies on health care finance issues.
Arney Benson MBA
Arney has special acumen with mergers, acquisitions, medical practice valuation, establishment and startup of concierge medical groups, specialty service lines including phlebology, vascular medicine, and pharmacy management. He was a trained pharmacist prior to earning his MBA. Since then he has worked with hospitals and healthcare organizations on turnaround, real estate, operations management, service line development, occupational medicine, EMR/EHR set up, and strategic expansion. He has a real flair for activity-based costing, finance, and healthcare / physician pricing defense, bundled pricing models and capitation.
Ashok Panda, PGDHHM, OT
Ashok has 7 years experience consulting in clinical practice, administrative and management areas. His expertise is strong in preparation of feasibility studies, due diligence reports, process consulting for hospitals, implementation quality assurance programs, preparing hospitals for quality accreditation processes such as JCI and other ISQua accredited programs. He also has special acumen in physical and rehabilitative medicine. Ashok resides in Bengaluru, India and works throughout Asia.
Blair Gifford PhD
A full-time professor at the University of Colorado, Blair also participates in consulting projects from time to time, including hospital building and health administration teaching in Asia, and re-development of a hospital management and infrastructure development in Haiti. He teaches global and international health at the U. of Colorado (MBA/Health, Executive MBA/Health, MPH programs, and has practical experience as a medical sociologist and has worked for the American Hospital Association. He is co-author of a book on sustainability in healthcare and several scholarly papers on medical tourism's effect on national health programs, threats of brain drain, and healthcare privatization.
Carrie Paykoç MBA-HA
Carrie's interest includes moving health care towards a more sustainable model and satisfying the triple bottom line: which considers the environmental, social, and economic aspect of business.
She also has clinic experience in laboratory operations and tissue recovery, and LEED certification.
Claudia Birkenshaw-Garabelli, MSA
Claudia has has over 18 years of managerial hospital revenue cycle experience and has worked over 25 years in healthcare finance. She is the author of four books: The UB-92 Handbook for Hospital Billing, and The UB-04 Handbook for Hospital Billing. She has been a is a key speaker for HFMA's Revenue Cycle Boot Camp, which has been offered nationally since 1986 and is also an active participant with the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC). Her international work includes teaching hospitals to conform to billing and US regulatory and compliance standards necessary for foreign hospitals to correctly bill for services to US regulated health plans and insurance companies.
D Scott Hettesheimer
Scott is an expert at finding and creating new technology and group benefit products to solve employer’s cost issues. He works to deliver simple solutions for health care benefits, and trains producers, agents, benefit managers, administrators and employers to better manage employer group health care benefit plans. His expertise in the ERISA domain and employer wellness arena helps employers lower or avoid employee health care costs through personal healthcare shopping tools and lifestyle management calculators. He is the former legislative chair to the Greater Cincinnati chapter of the NAHU. He has a keen sense of how employers can use health travel to better manage costs to reduce benefits spend.
Dan Smigelski, MHA
Mr. Smigleski's strength is in hospital operational analysis and reimbursement, strategy. He has been involved in hospital development and medical tourism projects in the Middle East, Nigeria, Ghana, North Africa, Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and in the Caribbean. He works closely with the hospital management to bring value added services to clients.
David Mair
David has testified before Congress, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and over a dozen state legislatures, and his comments have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Business Insurance, and on National Public Radio. He has spoken in over two dozen countries on risk management issues. He is a regular presenter at national and regional conferences on a wide range of subjects, and is a published author. His expertise includes insurance benefits management, international healthcare contract negotiation, medical evacuation and case management, and medical tourism.
Don Bader MD FACEP, MBA-HA
Don's interest vary from Healthcare System Integration, Globalization, International Collaboration, Operations, Quality, and Clinical Emergency Medicine. He completed a dual degree program jointly operated by the Georgetown McDonough School of Business and the ESADE School of Business (Barcelona) and the Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service.
He accepts occasional consulting engagements focused on global health and still works full time as a practicing emergency physician in Colorado.
Donna Goestenkors, CPMSM
Donna's expertise with medical staff services includes educating healthcare professionals in matters relating to Medical Staff Services, credentialing and privileging. She teaches technique and is the author of two books in the domain. She is a former president of the National Association of Medical Staff Services and consults to hospitals, IPAs, ACOs, and other medical group of development of their credentialing and privileging standards, policies and procedures.
Jacqueline Hodges, MBA RHIA
Jackie has over 30 years in healthcare includes experience as a hospital (COO) and an executive for a large revenue cycle consulting company.
Ms. Hodges' experience with revenue cycle management, as well as Joint Commission and ISO 9000 accreditation is essential in helping international hospitals gain US market share. This experience includes billing, collections, denials management, remittance, fraud and abuse compliance, licensing, third party payer integration and reimbursement.
As COO, she routinely prepared the governing board, the medical staff and the hospital departments for the Joint Commission accreditation survey. As a consultant, she guided the first American hospital through the internationally recognized ISO 9000 certification.
Javier Esteras-Caldera, MD, MHA
Javier has more over 15 years in healthcare having worked in insurance as a medical director, as a hospital marketing director with a large Spanish hospital chain, and also in the biotechnology sector. He is a licensed primary care physician in Spain, and has practical experience in the development of health plan quality assurance metrics, managed care, international private medical insurance, and public private partnerships for international hospitals. He has also worked as a health plan epidemiologist. He resides near Barcelona, Spain.
Jim Grigsby, CPAM CDIA CHCS
Jim is an expert at healthcare revenue cycle matters. He has experience establishing MSOs and integrated health delivery systems, managing Access and Cash Improvement Projects, Process Re-engineering Projects, and conducting numerous Analysis projects. He worked as an Interim Director, trained employees, and implemented a Point of Service collection program in a six hospital system. He is also the author of two self-published books.
Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS
Kathy is a speaker, consultant, and writer with over 20 years of experience in credentialing, privileging, and medical staff services. She is the author of a number of books related to medical staff services including both the fifth and sixth editions of the Compliance Guide to Joint Commission Medical Staff Standards, and The Medical Staff Meeting Companion Tools and Techniques for Effective Presentations. For the past eight years, she has been the contributing editor for the credentialing industry’s premier credentialing publication, The Credentials Verification Desk Reference and, its companion website The Credentialing and Privileging Desktop Reference.
Lajos Kovacs, MD, JD, MPH
Dr Kovacs is a Medical doctor with extensive international postgraduate education in public health and health management. He has worked on development projects in international health reform, health policy planning and financing, and has experience in senior/executive management at international health companies. He's been a Senior lecturer of Health Management at international universities in the USA, EU and Asia and worked in the WHO European regional office. He currently splits his residence between Hungary and Kazakhstan. He has degrees in medicine, public health, law, and Economics.
Lawrence Preston MBA FHFMA,
Mr. Preston has been actively involved in healthcare for over 30 years. Mr. Preston has experience in small specialty hospitals to large university hospitals, as well as corporate owned hospitals and community based hospitals, and extensive management experience in physician offices, physician recruitment as well as start up healthcare companies.
Mr. Preston has been active as a leader in state and local organizations such as Healthcare Financial Management Association and Medical Group Management Association. Mr. Preston has testified on healthcare issues before the Nevada State legislature and the Clark County Commissioners. He has a special interest in medical tourism and has worked with hospitals to develop their programs in Asia, Central America and Mexico.
Lisa Beichl MBA
Lisa Beichel has worked as an International Health Specialist for Milliman Care Guidelines, and is a specialist in international health insurance (public and private) and related medical delivery issues. An expert in health quality, finance, and medical cost containment, she has worked with Cigna and Keystone (Independence Blue Cross).
Her concentration in non-US markets began in Germany with United Healthcare where she consulted on metrics development with a large German public health fund developing a Disease Management Program, and later worked on improving metrics with a Third Party Administrator (TPA) operating in the Middle East.She has held Leadership positions with Swiss Re Life and Health and with Allianz and Munich Re, focusing on health insurance/reinsurance strategy and operational development in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.She has worked on international strategic development projects, as well as working as a consultant on behalf of USAID (PSP-1) in Nigeria.
Maj. Jim Arriola, MBA-HA (USA, Ret'd)
Jim led development and operations of pioneering healthcare insurance products aimed at Latino and Mexican immigrant consumers, including Blue Shield of California's program to offer the first California-based, cross-border HMO plan. He serves on the advisory group for the California Office of Binational Border Health. He is registered with California Department of Insurance as a Producer and is a certified provider of continuing education classes for insurance agents and brokers. He also holds a post graduate degree in HR Management.
Marcy Rogers M Ed
For more than 30 years, Marcy has worked with leading healthcare professionals, facilities, and medical device manufacturers to advance her goals of improving patient outcomes and satisfaction, as well as developing premier Centers of Excellence in multiple specialties. She has special expertise in Craniofacial, Spine, Pain Management, and new service line development and works extensively with physicians, hospitals, surgery centers, third-party payors, and medical manufacturers in the fields of spine, pain, orthopaedic surgery, and neurosurgery in the USA and abroad. Marcy's international projects have taken her to Turkey, Spain, Amsterdam, Korea, the Middle East, and points in between.
Michael J Silvers DO MPH
A board certified family-practice physician with worldwide health development experience, Michael serves as the medical director for Mercury Healthcare International. The former Director of Corpus Christi/Nueces County Health Department and former Director of International Health at the University of Louisville, and a consultant for Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He has been a professor of medicine. His unique professional background includes distinctions such as work as a member of President Clinton's emergency medical team,former chief medical adviser to the Peace Corp and a member of the Center for Disease Control's international health program office. He inspected healthcare systems in countries as far reaching as Guatemala, Belize, Jamaica, Brazil, Togo, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Thailand and New Zealand.
He appreciates the continuum of care on an international scale. He also created the Peace Corp's and the State Department's medical evacuation system for Africa.
Michael Tarabay
Michael is a highly accomplished executive with over 30 years in the healthcare/insurance fields.
He's been the CEO of hospitals in the USA and Mexico and has expertise in physician relations, human resources management, business development and team building, P&L experience, knowledge of regulatory issues, domestic and international hospital operations, and budgetary process. He led the hospital in Mexico to the highest score achieved in its first attempt at Joint Commission International Accreditation.
Rebecca Fowler MBA
Former Chief Corporate Officer of Prince Court Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Rebecca is a specialist in health planning, design and management. She has worked extensively with new hospital and clinic launches guiding strategy, build out, information systems, expansion projects, and marketing and collateral design. She currently resides in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and works extensively throughout Asia. She has special management acumen in radiology operations and long term care.
Sarah Combs, RN, MPH, PhD
Sarah has worked in Saudi Arabia, Chad, Jordan, Guatemala and with immigrant populations in the United States. She is an elected member of the nursing and scientific honorary societies, Sigma Theta Tau and Sigma Xi. She speaks fluent French and Spanish. She is a veteran, having served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She consults on global health, specializing in needs assessment and evaluation of institutions and health projects. She has led several organizations through the process of JCI and other accreditation with 100% success.
Susanne Sapa, RN-BC,CCM
Susanne Sapa, RN-BC, CCM, is a nurse, certified case manager and entrepreneur. Over the last 30 years she has worked in a supervisory/consultant capacity for companies such as VNA, Maryland Blue Cross/Blue Shield, MAMSI, and has gained extensive experience in case management, insurance processes, auditing and the appeals process. She is experienced in medical tourism case management with special expertise in altitude physiology and international hospital inspections and accreditation.
Suzanne Hoffman- LeBlanc JD
Suzanne has a combination of expertise rarely found in healthcare. She has deep experience in ERISA and bad faith by insurance companies, is a professional mediator, and has health and wellness program development expertise. She has special acumen in risk management and compliance for health and wellness facilities. Suzanne has worked as an attorney with SwissRe, in Zurich, where she worked on issues surrounding Employment Practices Liability and Fiduciary/Pension Trust Underwriting and Claims Counsel.
Tereza Guedes PhD, MBA-HA, MSc
Expertise: PPP/Government relations, Technological Innovation, Biotech, Linear Programming;
Past Projects: Guest researcher in Evaluation Projects concerned with Biodiversity in Brasil: PROBIO and FUNBIO, both a joint initiative by the Brazilian Government and the Global Environment Facility/ GEF-World Bank
Because of our extensive experience with hospitals, medical practices, ancillary services, managed care, and regulatory compliance issues, Maria and her team of experienced consultants are deployed worldwide to provide consulting services to clients on a project or hourly basis for those who are not under a management or other retained services agreement. Consultants are located in 24 offices in 11 countries.
Depending on our availability and the duration of your project, you'll benefit from our assistance in the following domain areas:
Globally Situated for Rapid Response
Our consultants are located in the following offices, worldwide:
USA, Brazil, Germany, Hungary, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Thailand, and the UK.
USA Offices: Denver (HQ), New York City, Richmond, Las Vegas, St Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boston, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and San Francisco.
AskMariaTodd™
600 17th Street • Suite 2800 •South Tower • Denver, Colorado 80202 •USA