Sessions & Faculty
RBMA: Moving Your Practice Forward
Speaker: Shannon Wilson, FRBMA
Shannon Wilson is the Associate Director of Professional Billing Radiology and Radiation Oncology at Mass General Brigham. Prior to joining the MGB team she was the Practice Manager for a large radiology practice in the San Francisco Bay Area where she was tasked to evaluate and supervise the physician credentialing, scheduling, prior authorization, and marketing teams. While there, she helped develop the recruitment, training and onboarding strategy for the group’s newly developed internal overnight division, which spanned five states from Hawaii to the East Coast. Shannon has been an active member and volunteer of RBMA for the past 12 years. She has been a board member for 5 years, has led the Marketing sub-committee and the Programs committee, and has served on multiple other committees during her tenure with RBMA. Shannon was the recipient of the Young Professionals Award at the RBMA annual meeting, PaRADigm, in 2021. Shannon currently resides in California, and is preparing to make a move across the country to New England with her husband Josh, son James, and two dogs Burt Reynolds and Gary Buse.
Business Issues Facing Radiologists
Speaker: David Landry; CEO, Spectrum Healthcare Partners
Summary: To provide a contemporaneous update on the business issues facing radiologists and the continued changes in the healthcare industry in the United States geared towards physicians and administrators of private practice radiology groups.
Learning Objectives:
(1) Understanding of the overall, macroeconomic issues facing the healthcare industry
(2) Discussion regarding the unique issues facing radiology practices
(3) Presentation on the potential levers that independent radiology groups have in differentiating themselves in their respective markets as well as ensuring their sustainability and relevancy to their key customers (including hospitals, referring physicians, payors, and patients)
David is the Chief Executive Officer for Spectrum Healthcare Partners, Northern New England’s largest independent healthcare organization with over 220 physicians and nearly 700 employees operating in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Spectrum includes nearly 70 radiologists practicing in Maine and New Hampshire at hospitals, imaging centers, FQHC’s, and independent physician offices. David graduated summa cum laude from Bates College with degrees in economics and political science. He has advanced training at Thomas College as well as certificates from the Wharton School, University of Chicago, and Harvard Business School.
David has over 25 years of experience in physician practice management, healthcare economics, health policy, strategic planning, governance, managed care contracting, revenue cycle management, and healthcare informatics. Mr. Landry served as Spectrum’s Chief Operating Officer from 1998 through 2006 and has been the company’s CEO since then. Prior to Spectrum, David was the Director of Practice Management for the nation’s largest practice management and outsourced revenue cycle company for physicians. Mr. Landry has extensive experience across the entire country with particular emphasis in New England and New York.
In addition, David is also active in the community serving as the Chairman of the Board for the YMCA of Southern Maine, the state’s largest YMCA; as well as being a member of the Cabinet for the United Way of Greater Portland; a former Chair of the Southern Maine Heart Walk in support of the American Heart Association; and a former Cub Master for a local Cub Scout Troop leading 80 young boys in the area.
David and his wife, Kelly, are proud parents to six children and two grandchildren and they reside in Auburn, Maine.
Coding Update – Hot Topics of 2022 and Preview of 2023
Speaker: Melody Mulaik, MSHS, CRA, FAHRA, RCC, RCC-IR President, Revenue Cycle Coding Strategies LLC
Summary: This session will address the hot topics in radiology for 2022 and cover the new 2023 CPT procedure codes in as much detail as is available at the time of the conference. Available coding and compliance updates will be discussed as well as in depth information on the upcoming E/M changes from both an AMA and CMS perspective,
Learning Objectives:
(1) Review current coding and reimbursement updates for 2023
(2) Discuss E/M updates and CMS’s proposed acceptance of the changes.
(3) Discuss your specific coding concerns.
Melody W. Mulaik is the President of Coding Strategies, Inc. and Revenue Cycle, Inc. She is a frequent speaker and author for nationally recognized professional organizations and publications. Melody's areas of expertise include coding and compliance, management engineering, and operations improvement and she is nationally recognized for her extensive radiology expertise.
Melody often speaks at national conferences on many topics including Interventional and Diagnostic Radiology coding, Internal Audit Program Development, Coding Compliance and other healthcare compliance issues. Recent speaking engagements include the AHRA: The Association for Imaging Management, Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA), Healthcare Billing Management Association (HBMA) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Melody is the AHRA liaison to the American College of Radiology (ACR) Economics Commission.
Melody holds a Master of Science in Health Systems (MSHS) degree and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering (BIE) degree, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), in Atlanta, Georgia. She also holds the professional certification of Certified Radiology Administrator (CRA), Certified Professional Coder (CPC), Certified Professional Coder - Hospital (CPC-H) and Radiology Certified Coder (RCC). Melody has achieved Fellow status with the AHRA (FAHRA) is a recent recipient of the prestigious AHRA Gold Award for her organizational and industry contributions.
Amplifying Radiologist and Patient Voices in Advocacy
Speaker: Christopher "Kit" Crancer; SVP of Radiologist and Public Policy Partnerships and Executive Director of the Rayus Quality Institute, Rayus Radiology
More than ever, creating alignment on radiology oriented public policy within your company and across the industry is critical to protecting the interests of patients and advancing priorities of your clinicians. In this session, you will gain proven, innovative ways that radiologists, companies, and patients are having their voices amplified and are influencing policies that directly impact them at both the state and federal level. Hear how public policy can be a valuable means to increase radiologist and clinician engagement.
Learning Objectives:
(1) Identify Emerging Policy Trends Impacting Radiology
(2) Share proven, innovative ways that radiologists, companies, and patients are having their voices amplified and are influencing policies at the state and federal levels.
(3) Know how to apply public policy as a valuable means to increase radiologist and clinician engagement.
As the Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Radiologist Partnerships, Christopher “Kit” Crancer is responsible for leading policy strategies at the national and state levels that enhance RAYUS’s commitment to providing quality care and services to patients and clinicians. He joined RAYUS in 2015 following a decade of state legislative policy work and has since developed extensive policy knowledge in the imaging industry. He’s been instrumental in lobbying for countless pieces of health care legislation that allow providers to continue delivering high-quality imaging services across the country. Kit also serves on the board of the RBMA and as Executive Director of the RAYUS Quality Institute.
Surprise! The New Federal Surprise Medical Billing Legislation is Here: What You Need to Know
Speaker: Richard E. Heller, III, MD, MBA; Associate Chief Medical Officer for Communications & Health Policy, Radiology Partners
In this presentation, Dr. Heller discusses the issue of out-of-network balance billing, or so-called “surprise medical billing”. The presentation reviews the issue of surprise medical billing and the federal legislation that was passed to address the problem. The federal law, the No Surprises Act, attempts to protect good-faith negotiations between physicians and insurance companies and encourage network contracting. Rulemaking to operationalize the law prompted numerous lawsuits, including one involving the American College of Radiology. Understanding this complex issue, even for radiology practices that are fully in network or never practiced surprise billing, is important given the impact the law has on commercial reimbursement.
Learning Objectives:
(1) Understand the issue of out-of-network billing (so-called “surprise medical billing”)
(2) Identify the goal of the No Surprise Act and how rulemaking has modified the law
(3) List the current issues facing patients and medical practices related to the No Surprises Act and its implementation
(4) Construct an approach to deal with these challenges
Rich Heller is a Chicago-based pediatric radiologist with Radiology Partners, serving as the Associate Chief Medical Officer: Communications and Health Policy, as well as the National Director of Pediatric Radiology. In addition, he is a Clinical Associate at the University of Chicago Medical Center, Comer Children’s Hospital. Rich is an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and has an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. He completed his residency at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and his fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital. Rich is an active leader with the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) and the American College of Radiology (ACR). Among other duties, he is the co-chair of the ACR’s Commission on Economics- Committee on Pediatric Radiology, vice-chair of the ACR’s MACRA committee, represents Illinois on the ACR’s Contractor Advisory Committee (CAC) Network, and serves on the editorial board of the journal Pediatric Radiology. Rich is also proud to serve on the board of the RSNA. Rich’s academic work focuses on the economics of healthcare and value-based reform, as well as the issue of out-of-network billing legislation.