Fall Conference 2017

Dick Hillyer has practiced and managed in settings from acute care to complex rehabilitation to long term care, and from private practice to corporate contracting.  His OPT management experience runs from single site to multi-site locations, including operating an additional agency as a management contractor.  Further, he was a System director for a large multi-hospital healthcare system, managing five hospitals, five large outpatient clinics, a SNF, and the rehab staff of its home health agency with a budget of $35 million.  As a consultant, he has coached owners in establishing rehab agencies, private practices, and home health agencies.

His first experience in rehabilitation management was as a Non Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of a rehabilitation activity at an Army hospital in San Antonio.  He later graduated from the UCONN program in Physical Therapy before going into private practice.  Selling his clinic, he became a vice president for Human Resources and national recruiter of a large national contract provider of physical therapy services, and subsequently an administrator of one of its early Medicare certified rehabilitation agencies.

While operating rehab agencies, Dick earned the M.B.A and M.S. in Management degrees at Wilmington University, in Delaware.  He was subsequently adjunct faculty at four different institutions, teaching Therapeutic Exercise, PT Administration, Entrepreneurship, and Legal and Ethical Issues in graduate Physical Therapy programs, as well as Managerial Economics, Decision Science, Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers, Economic Instruments, and Strategic Management in business programs.  He earned his D.P.T. degree from Simmons College in 2007.

Dick is a Life Member of the APTA.  He is a former membership Chair of the Private Practice Section, Vice President of the Delaware Physical Therapy Association, President of the Florida Society for Rehabilitation, a component of the Florida Hospital Association, and is a past Chair of the Florida PT Association's Ethics Committee, of which he was a member for six years.

He was a member of the Section on Administration’s original L.A.M.P task force, and is a co-author of Defining Your Business, a publication of the APTA’s Business Skills in Physical Therapy series.  In 2008, he became a Medicare surveyor with the American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities’ initial Medicare Accreditation Organization (AO) process. As such, he has performed over 110 surveys of specific OPT main or extension sites.  In 2016 he was elected to the Board of Directors of AAAASF, where his committee assignments are:  Accreditation Committee (Vice Chair), Quality Assurance Committee, Investigations Committee, and the Education Committee.

Nancy Alarcon, M.S., CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS is Principal Lecturer and Director of Clinical Education in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington, and Director of the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic.  Her areas of clinical expertise include clinical education, adult neurologic communication disorders, and supported communication for individuals and families with chronic and progressive acquired cognitive/communication disorders.  She has mentored graduate students in the clinical learning environment for over 30 years.  Nancy received her B.S. from Purdue University and her M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is an ASHA Fellow, faculty recipient of the University of Washington David Thoroud Leadership Award, the Special Service Award from the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Speech Language Hearing Association, President of the Washington Speech Language Hearing Association, and in numerous additional professional leadership positions at the state and national level.  

As an Independent Media Producer & Startup Entrepreneur, Ben is a healthcare clinician turned social media connector. With experience in every major healthcare setting, his mission is now optimizing growth for companies and investors in various industries including healthcare, geo-technology, human resources, and marketing. Ben currently serves as COO of UpDoc Media, a marketing agency for health/tech businesses; and, as a CFO of Recharge, an investor backed CrossFit-Physio-Mindfulness hybrid with a mission to redefine the healthcare experience by breaking down the silos of medicine, health, fitness and wellness.

Hilary G. Forman PT, RAC-CT is the Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy for HealthPRO® Rehabilitation. She provides support to advance clients in evidenced based clinical and financial strategy to better align services for success in healthcare reform. She fosters interdisciplinary involvement in all clinical and fiscal planning at both individual site and corporate levels. She ensures adherence to strategic clinical roll out and follow up plans showing specific outcomes, audit results and trend numbers. Prior to her current role she was a regional vice president of operations in which she was responsible for operational and management oversight of multiple subacute, LTC, and outpatient therapy practices in metro NYC and NJ. This role encompassed all aspects of clinical and regulatory program development, staffing design, customer service, and performance against operating targets including full P&L responsibility for the region.  She has served as an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers/UNDMJ DPT program in Wound Care since 2001 and speaks nationally about rehab reimbursement and compliance.

Alissa M. Vertes,V.P. of Corporate Compliance and Clinical Services,  Compliance Officer, HealthPRO/Heritage.   Ms. Vertes has Managed Rehabilitation Service Departments across LTC/Hospital/Outpatient settings for over 15 years and has a MS in Speech Language Pathology, from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  She is a National Speaker on Documentation for Rehabilitation and Defensible Documentation for Rehabilitation Specialists and Board Certified in Healthcare Compliance. Ms. Vertes Serves as Compliance Committee Chair and internal compliance investigation team lead for multiple organizations and legal teams.   She is the Coordinator of publication of Compliance based newsletter for rehabilitation healthcare.  Ms Vertes is a Specialist in companywide Internal/External Risk Assessments for rehabilitation services and Spearheads Companywide audits & related training processes and oversees reviews in light of RAC/MAC/ZPIC audits.

Ms. Strunk specializes in helping clients understand the Medicare prospective payment systems for skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies, as well as the Medicare conditions of participation and fee schedule for rehab agencies.  Her experience includes utilizing medical record reviews and data systems to help both inpatient and outpatient therapy providers meet regulatory guidelines and deliver medically necessary therapy services in these settings.  Ellen received her Masters in Physical Therapy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and earned her American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Board Certification in Geriatric Physical Therapy in 1999. She has been a practicing physical therapist for over 20 years, working in the hospital, skilled nursing, home health, outpatient and cardiac rehab settings.  She has held various roles including clinician, manager and Director over multiple programs. Presently, Ellen is owner of Rehab Resources and Consulting, Inc., a company providing continuing education and consulting services for post-acute care settings.  Ellen is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), where she has served on Payment Policy Strategy Committees advising the APTA Board of Directors on payment policy in all settings. She serves on a state level as the Chair of the Practice and Reimbursement Committee for the Alabama Physical Therapy Association.  In 2009, Ellen became a Certified Expert in Exercise for the Aging Adult, a certification course sponsored by the APTA's Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy.  In 2015, Ellen became Certified in Healthcare Compliance through the HealthCare Compliance Association.

Nancy Beckley is President of Nancy Beckley & Associates LLC, a firm specializing in outpatient therapy compliance.  The firm offers compliance outsourcing, risk assessment, compliance plan development, annual compliance training, and external auditing, due diligence and investigation support.  Clients including providers under Medicare probe review, progressive corrective action plans, corporate integrity agreements, ZPIC investigations and RAC audits.  The firm’s signature product is the compliance learning management system (LMS) for rehab specific courses in fraud, waste and abuse and therapy risk.  Training courses are delivered to over 5,000 therapy providers on an annual basis.

She is a nationally known speaker and author in the area of rehab compliance, and has presented at the Provider Practice Compliance Conference, Florida Compliance Conference, and the Annual Compliance Institute.  She is a columnist for Compliance Today and the APTA Private Practice Section’s IMPACT magazine. 

As a twenty-year NARA member, Nancy is considered a top knowledge expert in rehab agency and CORF regulations and has worked with over 125 provider groups in their quest for survey, certification, accreditation, policies and procedures, plan of correction and certification appeals.  Nancy was a member of the NARA workgroup assisting AAAASF (“Quad A”) in their Medicare application as a rehab agency deeming authority and was on the training team for the first group of Quad A inspectors/surveyors, and has served on the Quad A advisory group.  Nancy served on the CMS Technical Expert Panel for CORFs advising CMS on the opportunities and potential for CORFs from a policy and regulatory perspective.

Nancy has been a NARA Board member, Program Chair, Nominating Committee Chair and now serves as the coordinator of the NARA’s Compliance Special Interest Group.  Nancy is certified in health care compliance by the HCCA Compliance Certification Board, and was among the first in the therapy industry to be certified, continuing to encourage others rehab providers further seek certification.  She has a MS in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of Illinois, and an MBA from the University of South Florida.  She is a frequent speaker for APTA at the state and national level with upcoming presentations at FPTA, PTAW, APTA Private Practice Section and Combined Sections meetings.

Mark is Owner/President of Mountain Land Rehabilitation, Inc., a Rehabilitation Agency providing therapy services throughout the western United States.  Mountain Land Rehabilitation has a staff of approximately 1000 employees and provides services in outpatient settings, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies.  Mark is a graduate of the University of Utah in 1980 with his degree in Physical Therapy.  He currently serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Utah and has taught Administration and Management to Physical Therapy students for the past 20 years. Mark is actively involved in the National Association of Rehabilitation Agencies (NARA) and has for the past 20 years.  He has served in multiple capacities with NARA including Board Member at Large, Past Vice President, and current appointed Vice President.  Mark has been very involved with the legislative efforts of NARA.  He has served as the Legislative Liaison and is a recipient of the George G. Olsen service Award.  In addition to his involvement in NARA, Mark is an active member of the   American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and has served as Chapter President for 2 terms as well as on numerous national committees and work groups within APTA.  He is currently on the PT- PAC Board of Trustees and is very involved in the political process.  Mark is the past chair of the Utah Physical Therapy Licensure Board and is also was delegate for The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy.  

Heather Smith currently serves as the Director of Quality for APTA.  In her current roll, Heather leads and coordinates quality initiatives for the Association and develops key member resources related to quality for programs under Medicare that impact PTs including the respective post-acute care Quality Reporting Programs (QRPs), the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), and the Functional Limitation Reporting (FLR) requirements for therapy services under Medicare.  She serves in a consulting role for the Physical Therapy Outcomes Registry with a focus on measure development and compliance with quality reporting regulations. She has presented at national meetings and webinars on quality related topics that impact physical therapists.

Heather is involved in several technical expert panels which work to maintain measures for quality reporting programs including: MIPS measure #130 Documentation of Current Medications in the Medical Record, #131 Pain Assessment on Evaluation and #182 Functional Outcome Assessment.  Additionally, she participated in two TEPs in 2013 convened by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and RTI International which focused on the results of the Developing Outpatient Therapy Payment Alternatives (DOTPA) project including data analysis for the Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) item set.  

Heather previously worked for New York Presbyterian Hospital and University of Pennsylvania Health System where she served in a quality improvement position. She received a Black Belt in Six Sigma from Pennsylvania State University.   Her transition into quality was facilitated in part by the acquisition of her Masters in Public Health from Drexel University.  Previous to her role in quality improvement, she was a practicing clinician for over ten years.

Karen Chesbrough: Karen Chesbrough, MPH, serves as the director of the Physical Therapy Outcomes Registry for the American Physical Therapy Association. She previously led the scientific program initiatives at the Foundation for Physical Therapy for six and a half years and was instrumental in developing the Foundation’s Center of Excellence in Health Services Research and Training program, leading to the award responsible for CoHSTAR. She began her career in public health as a Research Assistant and a Research Associate focusing on population health studies and large data sets at the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD. Karen was an inaugural member of a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) advisory panel, served as a member of the Scientific Discovery Advisory Panel for the Arthritis Foundation, and is a current member of the Setting Scoliosis Straight Foundation patient/caregiver research team. She is received an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech and a Master of Public Health degree specializing in Health Services Administration and Policy from the Burns School of Public Health at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.

Tracy Fritts, PT, MSPT joined Consonus just a few years after graduating with a Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy from Pacific University.  Her roles at Consonus have evolved over the last twenty plus years from Physical Therapist to Rehab Director, then Area Director to Regional Vice President of Operations, to her current role as Vice President of Quality and Outcomes.  Tracy was a member of the ACHA/NASL Outcomes Workgroup that created National Quality Forum endorsed Quality Measures related to improvements in Self Care and Mobility using the CARE Item set.  Consonus was one of the first organizations to begin widespread collection and use of CARE data from rehab patients under her guidance.  Tracy currently serves on the NASL Board of Directors and the George Fox University School of Physical Therapy Advisory Board.  Tracy is a member of APTA as well as the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy and Health Policy and Administration Section. 

Linda Riccio, OTR has worked in various roles and settings in older adult care, in both operational and clinical roles on national corporate levels including long-term care, hospice and home-health settings.

Linda consults in healthcare strategy nationwide as President of Creative Rehab Strategies, a company that provides education and consulting services for post-acute care.   Linda also is the Vice President of Clinical Services for Creative Health Solutions, a contract rehabilitation company based in the Midwest.