Group Purchasing

Stakeholder Panels

WIREC is using stakeholder panels to select two or three vendors to participate in EHR group purchasing agreements. Information about the panelists is included below.

Facilitator:
Mike Uretz
Executive Director, The EHR Group
Uretz is a nationally recognized expert on EHR and health IT selection and contract negotiation. He has been involved with all aspects of technology selection, negotiation, and acquisition for over 25 years. He focuses on helping providers, CEOs, administrators, and practice managers select EHR vendors, structure and negotiate contracts, and insure projects meet budget and timeline requirements.

Uretz frequently conducts seminars and workshops regarding vendor selection and contract negotiation and has authored a number of articles and papers, including the popular report “7 Costly Mistakes Made When Purchasing EHR and Health IT" and the program “How to Survive Your EHR Contract.”

Panelists:
Suzan Belzer
Reimbursement Program Director, Idaho Medical Association

Mariella Cummings
CEO, Physicians of Southwest Washington

Ron DeArth, CPA
CEO, Morton General Hospital
DeArth has served as Morton General Hospital’s administrator since 2005, after joined the hospital as Chief Financial Officer in 2001. Prior to coming to Morton, he was with a multi-hospital system in Eastern Washington for 25 years. The system encompassed four hospitals, one urban and three rural.

Colleen Evans, CHBME CPC PCS
CEO/President, Professional Office Management Service
Evans is President / CEO/ Owner of POMS Inc, an Idaho-based third party medical billing, receivable management and consulting company. She has held this position for 20 years since the company’s inception in June 1990. POMS Inc currently services 50+ mid-size to small medical practices throughout Idaho with a full-time staff of 16. The practices encompass a wide variety of specialties, including Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Urology, Mental Health, Radiology, Podiatry, Gastroenterology and General Surgery.

Evans holds coding certifications from both the AAPC and ACMCS. In addition, she is a Certified Healthcare Billing and Management Executive through HBMA. A 2009 consulting project involved a contract with Indian Health Services to conduct an assessment with subsequent recommendations of the Revenue Cycle process at one of its remote Alaskan facilities. She was a participant in the HBMA Electronic Health Record Summit recently held in Phoenix, an in-depth research program which explored the risks and opportunities related to the integration of EHR systems into smaller medical practices. POMS Inc has been an “In Kind” supporter of the Idaho Health Data Exchange since early 2009. Evans has worked closely with the Idaho Medical Association for many years and continues to actively participate with their educational programs.

Kristin Hagen, CPHIT CPEHR CPHIE AHDI-F
Director of Curriculum Development, TRS Institute (formerly A Line Above, LLC)
Hagen began her career in healthcare documentation in 2002 graduating from an approved industry school then working for a national transcription company. In 2005, she launched her own medical transcription service organization, A Line Above, providing high-quality health information management, including medical record documentation and workflow processes. Her previous work experience as a certified emergency medical technician and sales/marketing coordinator for Micron Technology, Inc. prepared her well for high-technology challenges in healthcare. In July 2010, Hagen became an employee of the TRSI team as Director of Curriculum Development and is actively working to advance the allied healthcare profession in education and workforce development.

Hagen previously served as Utah-Idaho’s delegate, Sustainable Structure Task Force Chair, and Lead Team delegate for the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). She is an active member in the Legislative Issues Group and served as a contributor to the industry’s Quality Assessment and Management Best Practices document and Privacy, Security, Compliance and Ethical Best Practices manual. She earned her fellowship designation from AHDI in 2008. Hagen maintains credentials as a Certified Professional in Health Information Technology, Electronic Health Records, and Health Information Exchange. She is affiliated with professional memberships through Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and Idaho Medical Group Management Association (IMGMA). Hagen was elected to the national AHDI Board of Directors in 2009 and is an active participant as a group purchasing Health IT stakeholder on the Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC).

Ernie Hood
CIO, Group Health
Hood is currently Chief Information Officer at Group Health Cooperative. He has been in Information Services for 25 years and the health care industry for fourteen years. He has played many different roles in his career from programmer to DBA to Analyst, Project Manager and Director. At Group Health he has lead the Data Resources Group, Data Center Operations and various Application Development groups. Hood has been a key leader on Group Health's efforts to standardize infrastructure, develop a leading edge Data Warehouse and to develop portals. Hood is dedicated to the concept of supplying information technology to all of Group Health's customers and partners whether they be members, patients, providers, brokers, employers or staff.

Hood holds an MBA in Management of Information Systems from the University of Houston and a Bachelor's Degree in History from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Bill Jonakin, MD
President, Idaho Physicians Network
Jonakin acquired a BS in Biology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He then obtained his MD from the University of Alabama (Birmingham) in 1979. In 1982, he completed a Pediatric residency at Keesler Air Force Base Medical Center in Biloxi, Mississippi, and additional training in Emergency Medicine. He is Board Certified in both Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics. He and a partner formed Capital City Family Medicine in 1998.

Jonakin has particular interest in the prevention of heart disease and stroke. He is a member of the National Lipid Association, the International Atherosclerosis Society, the Society for the Eradication of Heart Attack, the American Society of Hypertension and the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers. He is also designated by the Federal Aviation Administration as an Aviation Medical Examiner.

Nicki Karst
Regional Networks Administrator, Idaho Physicians Network
Karst earned a bachelor’s degree in Health Care Administration from Idaho State University. She was employed as a medical office manager in Idaho Falls for 7 years and for the past 10 years has been a contract negotiator for national and statewide managed health care organizations. Currently, Karst is the Regional Networks Administrator for Idaho Physicians Network in their Idaho Falls office.

Riad Kesiry, MD
Internal medicine, Morton General Hospital
Kesiry joined the Morton General Hospital staff in 2007 after completing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Toledo. He earned his medical degree at the Damascus University in Damascus, Syria in 1998.

As an Internal Medicine Specialist, Kesiry puts special focus on HTN and heart disease as well as COPD, Asthma and diabetes. He also has a special interest in as preventive medicine.

Thuy-Tien Le, DO
Le and Le Family Practice

Tabitha Lieberman
Director of Clinical and Revenue Cycle Systems, The Everett Clinic

Sherry Reynolds
Executive Director, Alliance4Health
Reynolds is currently the Executive Director of the Alliance 4 Health where she is directing the development of a beta project for an alternative health PHR. She has over 15 years of experience as a project director, consultant and engineer in both software development, implementations and the health care industry. She recently won a 2 million dollar demonstration grant to link the EMS system to PHR's and her recent EMR projects have have included implementations at Stanford Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center and Group Health.

She has extensive experience at the Executive level of Government and the Health Care industry and currently sits on the AHIC Successor (A2) Planning Group for the Office of the National Coordinator, HHS in Washington, DC where she is responsible for the creation of a new board and entity to implement Medical Informatics policy on a National Basis. She was also one of the founding members of the Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) for the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a Nationally recognized regional partnership involving Boeing, Washington Mutual, Starbucks, King County, physicians, hospitals, patients, labor, health plans, and others working together to improve quality and efficiency for over 2 million people in the Puget Sound region. In her spare time she is on the advisory board of the Healthy Washington Alliance where she represents the over 300,000 people in Washington State who purchase individual insurance and recently co-founded Sustainable Wallingford as well.

Reynolds double majored in bio-medical engineering and engineering management at USC and has a degree in Finance from OSU as well. She has been a member since 2005, is the first legislative chapter advocate for the Washington chapter and has been a board member since 2007.

Beverly Roder, RN CCM
Manager QI/UM, Physicians of Southwest Washington

Peter Schock, MD
Senior Partner, Bellevue Family Medicine
Schock received his undergraduate degree from Washington State University, and then earned his M.D. at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His residency was in Family Practice at The Doctors Hospital in Seattle. After residency graduation in 1977, he opened the doors of Bellevue Family Medicine with a fellow residency graduate.

He has practiced the full range of family practice for 30 years, 20 years doing obstetrics. His practice now emphasizes office surgery, geriatrics, complicated patient care, and the research and application of information technology to family practice.