Becker's Hospital Review

60 CFO / FINANCE 16 female RCM leaders to know in 2018 By Kelly Gooch H ere are 16 female leaders dedicated to the revenue cycle space at their respective organizations. Note: is is not an exhaustive list. Leaders are presented in alphabetical order. Abigail (Abby) Abongwa. Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Universi- ty of Wisconsin Health (Madison). Ms. Abongwa has served in her cur- rent 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/provi- sion of charity, among others. Ms. Abongwa previously worked in vari- ous leadership positions at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, a Glendale, Wis.-based nonprofit Catholic system. ere, 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 hos- pital 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 Dal- las-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 hospi- tal operations. She also previously was director of coding, decision sup- port and compliance for Tinley Park, Ill.-based Springfield Service Corp., now SPi Healthcare. She earned a master's degree in business administra- tion in sustainability from Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wis.; a mas- ter'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 strat- egy 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, rev- enue 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 Clin- ics, where she has also served as vice president of revenue cycle and vice president of revenue operations. Prior to that, she was associate vice pres- ident 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 e Ohio State University in Columbus. Cathy Bukowski. Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Tus Medi- cal 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 reve- nue 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 system- wide revenue integrity department. Katherine Cardwell. Assistant Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Ochsner Health System (New Orleans). Ms. Cardwell took over her cur- rent position in June 2011. As assistant vice president of revenue cycle, her areas of responsibility include pre-service, financial counseling, Med- icaid 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 administra- tion 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 current- ly responsible for the leadership team of the Strategic Revenue Services Access Intake Center, which handles pre-services such as benefit verifi- cation 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 man- agement, Ms. Davidson helps coordinate the work of more than 100 em- ployees across Ascension. Prior to taking on that role in 2015, she was CFO and system executive finance and corporate controller at Indianapo- lis-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 Op- erations 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 precertifica- tion, as well as utilization management. Other accomplishments during her tenure at St. Luke's include helping to develop the organization's pric- ing transparency tool on its website. She will be honored later this year as a Missouri Athletic Club Woman of Distinction. e honor is for "wom- en 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 de- cades 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 manage- ment and managed care contracting, among many others. Ms. Hurwitz previously served as director of decision support and physician practice fi- nance at Petoskey-based McLaren Northern Michigan Health System, and as CFO of East Jordan (Mich.) Family Health Center. She was also con-

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