Speakers

Charles Canaan has over 30 years of diverse nursing experience in a variety of healthcare settings, to include inpatient, outpatient, home and organizational settings.  His education includes a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and a Master of Public Health Degree in Health Promotion and Education from the University of South Carolina and a Coding for Health Care Professionals Certificate from Trident technical College.  He currently provides education and consultation to Medicare providers with learning needs.

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Rosalind Nelson-Gamblin is a senior policy specialist for home and community support services agencies and assisted living facilities in Texas for Long-Term Care Regulation, in the Policy and Rules unit. She has 33 years of experience in state government developing public policy, promulgating rules, and interpreting state and federal legislation.

Cole’s idea for CubHub was to fix a problem he saw with the current pediatric homecare systems being used in pediatric nursing and therapy: None of them prepared his Pediatric Homecare company for where the market was going. His primary job is to take what he learns about building and leading teams, operations, and the future of healthcare to guide the development of a system that sets innovative companies apart from a crowded field.

Having co-founded a pediatric PDN company and run the day-to-day operations for many years, Brett understands that Cole’s ideas are sometimes great, but are often focused on tomorrow’s problems and not enough on what people are doing right now. Brett leads the business development and onboarding teams because he understands what it takes to make things work for different organizations operating in unique ways.

Chris Attaya joined SHP in 2014 after spending 28 years in executive and consulting positions within the Home Health and Hospice industry. In his role, he is responsible for product development and client relationships to help organizations achieve increased operational and financial performance through the use of SHP’s industry leading analytics platform and benchmark data. Prior to SHP, Chris was the CFO at the VNA of Boston and had worked at Partners Health Care at Home as CFO and CEO. He received a B.A. in Public Health from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Management at Boston University concentrating in Health Care Finance.

Tammy Ross is the Senior Vice President of Professional Services at Axxess, the leading home healthcare technology company. She oversees the professional services division at Axxess with a focus on practical operational solutions for the home health, home care, and hospice sectors of the post-acute care industry using technology. Prior to joining Axxess, Tammy served as an executive consultant at Fazzi and Associates, where she used her years of home health leadership experience to assist clients with clinical and operational strategic planning and development.

Lisa Malone is a Clinical Product Manager at Axxess, the fastest-growing home healthcare technology company. She drives the partnership with internal stakeholders to guide solutions from concept to launch.  Prior to joining Axxess, she served as the Director of Clinical Services for a home care organization, where she led a team of professionals in providing exceptional care.

Brian Nelson is the Home Care Product Manager at Axxess, the fastest-growing home healthcare technology company. He provides leadership for the Home Care team by working with both clients and engineers to ensure operational success of the Home Care solution. Prior to working with Axxess, he served as the regional field operations manager at Maxim Healthcare Services where he successfully led several software implementations throughout his region.

Colleen Bryan has worked in the home care industry since 1996, holding various positions in both home health & hospice agencies including field nurse, case manager, educator, QA manager, DON and Administrator.  Colleen is currently a senior consultant and lead educator with JCC Consulting, and services home health and hospice agencies in Texas.

Colleen enjoys helping agency leaders navigate the constant changes and challenges in the current home health and hospice industries.  She enjoys assisting in the incorporation of meaningful and impactful changes into their agency’s operations – both administrative and clinical, in order to provide high quality care that is both sustainable while maintaining regulatory requirements and promoting excellent patient care.

Arnie Cisneros, P.T., President of Home Health Strategic Management, is the most progressive speaker in Home Health today. His legacy as a rehab provider across the care continuum allows for insight into contemporary healthcare delivery, and he is renowned for his adaptation of traditional care philosophies to address current and future healthcare initiatives. His refinement of clinical delivery mechanisms, integration of new protocols at the staff level, and adaptation of traditional care philosophies has helped providers of all sized require care to achieve Medicare compliance. Arnie has also become the leading clinical authority on the audit scrutiny that has come to the homecare industry, and he is serving as a Post-Acute consultant for CMS Pioneer ACO grant recipients. He authors the HHSM newsletter and is a contributor to CARING magazine, and Decision Health publications. He presents nationally on homecare topics and care models proposed by CMS and Med Pac for the future of the Home Health industry.

Kimberly McCormick, RN/BSN, a highly accomplished nurse consultant in the Home Health industry, is Executive Clinical Director for Home Health Strategic Management. Her 24 years’ experience in Home Health has given her the experience and the knowledge to provide unrivaled insight into the homecare arena. Kimberly has established herself as an expert in the area of Utilization Management of Home Health services.

William T. (Tommy) Simmons serves as legal counsel for the Commissioner representing employers at the Texas Workforce Commission, where he advises the Commissioner on final-level unemployment and wage claim appeals, assists business groups with employment-related legislation, and counsels employers on Texas and federal employment laws. He is the author of the book Especially for Texas Employers and is also the editor of the Employment Law Handbook of the Texas Association of Business.

Melinda A. Gaboury, with more than 28 years in home care, has over 18 years of executive speaking and educating experience, including extensive day to day interaction
with home care and hospice professionals. She routinely conducts Home Care and Hospice Reimbursement Workshops and speaks at state association meetings throughout the country. Melinda has profound experience in Medicare PDGM training, billing, collections, case-mix calculations, chart reviews and due diligence. UPIC, RA, ADR & TPE appeals with all Medicare MACs have become the forefront of Melinda’s current impact on the industry. She is currently serving on the NAHC/HHFMA Advisory Board
and Work Group and is Associate Director on the Home Care Association of Florida Board of Directors. Melinda is also the author of the Home Health OASIS Guide to OASIS-D1.

Lisa is a veteran of home care with over 35 years spent in home health and hospice, both as an RN and as an attorney practicing exclusively in home care. She is the Vice President of Quality and Education for McBee as of July 1. McBee is a full-service healthcare consulting firm providing coding and OASIS outsourcing, comprehensive medical review, and education. Lisa directs McBee's Post Acute Academy.

Bill Dombi is the President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) where he serves also as the Director, Center for Health Care Law and the Executive Director, Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association.

Bill specializes in legal, legislative, and regulatory advocacy on behalf of patients and providers of home health and hospice care.  With over 40 years of experience in health care law and policy, Bill Dombi has been involved in virtually all legislative and regulatory efforts affecting home care and hospice since 1975, including the expansion of the Medicare home health benefit in 1980, the formation of the hospice benefit in 1983, the development of Medicare PPS for home health in 2000, and the national health care reform legislation in 2010.

He also has an extensive background in impact oriented litigation. Dombi was lead counsel in the landmark lawsuit that reformed the Medicare home health services benefit, challenges to HMO home care cutbacks for high-tech home care patients, lawsuits against Medicaid programs for inadequate payment rates, a nationwide class action against then-HCFA for its failure to enforce the federal HMO Act, litigation directed against the "Interim Payment System" for the Medicare home health benefit, a lawsuit addressing the so-called Medicare “case mix creep adjustments” in 2008-2010, a challenge to the Medicare face-to-face physician encounter rule, and litigation challenging changes to federal overtime rules.

Bill is a longstanding and active member of the ABA and American Health Lawyers Association.

Kurt Baumgartel is Executive Vice President of Home-Based Care for Compassus’ care continuum across Home Health, Home Infusion Palliative and Hospice. He joined Compassus in 2020 at a pivotal period of growth for the company as Compassus and Ascension became partners in Ascension at Home. Baumgartel has extensive experience leading home health and hospice organizations gained over more than 20 years in leadership in the health care industry. Previously Baumgartel was chief operating officer of Evolution Health and Ascension at Home. Before that he held executive positions that include president of Allegheny Health Network’s Home Health and Hospice division, president and chief operating officer of Celtic Healthcare, and president of subsidiary Celtic Living Assistance Services. Baumgartel is active in several professional associations, has been published in trade periodicals and invited as faculty at professional conferences on various home health care topics. He completed a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of business. He holds a master’s degree in Physical Therapy and a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences, both from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

J’non Griffin is a 34 year veteran of home care as an RN. She received her Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration in 2005. She has experience as a field nurse, director and executive with home health and hospice agencies, both large and small. J’non is certified as a Homecare Coding Specialist-Diagnosis (HCS-D), Certified in OASIS competency, COS-C, Certified in Homecare Coding Specialist-Hospice (HCS-H), Home Care Specialist-Compliance (HCS-C) and is an AHIMA approved ICD-10-CM trainer/ambassador. J’non is an accredited ACHC and CHAP consultant. She has presented several webinars, and has been a nationally recognized speaker on a variety of subjects.

Sheila Davis is an accomplished Healthcare administration executive with comprehensive experience directing successful operational strategies and driving academic and research facility. Her background includes extensive years of excellent experience overseeing healthcare operations while spearheading financial reporting and management, budgeting, staff recruitment, revenue generation, and service line expansion. Ms. Davis was one of HomeCare University’s inaugural class, earning her certification as a Certified Home/Hospice Care Executive (CHCE). Additionally, she excels at propelling healthcare initiatives and policies while driving optimal facility efficiency and productivity within multimillion-dollar businesses. Ms. Davis serves on the NAHC Strategic Planning Committee, Advisory Council, Quality Data Implementation Committee, Rural Advisory Council, Finance Committee & Home Care Workforce Action Alliance; PDHCA Advisory Board; HCAOA Medical Advisory Board, Quality Data Review Committee & VA Committee; TAHC&H Board of Directors, Government Affairs Committee, Private Pay Committee, Membership Committee, and Community Care Services Committee. She is also a founding member of the Home Care Action Alliance; member of the Texas State Preventive Health Advisory Committee (SPHAC); serves on the WellSky Home Client Advisory Board; and is an ACHC Certified Consultant. Ms. Davis is engaged as the Senior Executive Vice President, Area Operations at Always Best Care Senior Services.

Petria’s expertise lies in hands on experience of billing for numerous home health and hospice agencies throughout the years.  She has been in the home health and hospice industry’s for over 21 years and has owned and operated Precision Medical Billing for the past 17 years. She has supervised, hired, and trained 100s of medical billing staff and speaks regularly at home health association conferences

Amy L. Knight is a CPA, originally from Oklahoma and now based in Austin, Texas with over 20 years experience almost exclusively in home health and hospice.  Her CPA firm, Knight CPA Group, has extensive experience with all financial issues pertaining to home health, hospice and other healthcare providers including cost reporting, accounting & payroll issues that are specific to healthcare providers.

Lisa has over 25 years of experience in the health care industry; from acute care hospitalization, home healthcare, to hospice and palliative care. She is currently the Clinical Compliance Educator for Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) - a nationally-recognized non-profit accreditation organization that has CMS Deeming Authority for Home Health, Hospice and DMEPOS and am responsible for educating organizations on the ACHC Accreditation process as well as assisting providers with interpreting the ACHC Standards and Medicare Conditions of Participation.

Lisa also successfully prepared and lead the home health and hospice agency where she was previously employed by through the ACHC Accreditation and Medicare recertification process. Lisa have also worked as an ACHC Hospice Surveyor, allowing me the opportunity to assist organizations with developing best practices and compliance strategies and has spoken at national and state conferences, and conduct workshops on the accreditation process as well as other relevant health care topics.

Jennifer Prescott is the founder of Blue Water Homecare and Hospice and a Registered Nurse. She is responsible for the strategic direction, vision and growth of the fastest growing independent Home care agency in Central Texas.

As a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in nursing and clinical operations,  Jennifer is known for compassionate care for the elderly and maximizing operational excellence. She most recently served as Regional Executive Director at Altus Hospice where she increased sales 300% and tripled the average daily census in 2 1/2 years. Before that, Jennifer was Nurse Manager Operations at Duke University Hospital where she managed the daily operations of three ambulatory clinics serving 36,000 patients per year. During her tenure, initiatives Jennifer led resulted in a 75% reduction in fall rates during a six month period. Jennifer began her nursing career learning industry best practices at world class Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Jennifer holds a Masters of Science in Nursing from Duke University specializing in Healthcare Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Delaware. Jennifer proudly serves as an Executive Board Member for Capital Area Parkinson’s Society, and VP of Outreach and Education.  She is also on the Executive Board of The Alzheimer's Association Central Texas Chapter. Jennifer is a Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP).  She is based in Austin, TX.

Jeff Salter began his career in senior care in 1991 working for a home health care agency in Odessa, TX. He started his own company 4 months later serving seniors that needed additional non-medical care to remain at home. Jeff expanded the business to include other locations in Texas - Midland, McAllen, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Austin. After operating for 12 years he began offering franchises in 2003, and today Caring Senior Services is in 14 states with nearly 40 locations. Jeff’s company continues to add locations through addition of franchises and corporate locations, and his existing offices benefit from focused efforts in marketing and sales. Caring Senior Service was named one of the top 500 franchises in the United States, by the Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 as well as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States as named by Inc. Magazine.

Erin Vallier earned an Individually Structured Liberal Arts degree in Physical Science, Psychology, and Music Performance from the University of Colorado, Denver. She earned a Masters in Healthcare Administration and Management, with a Project Management Specialty, from Colorado State University. After earning her bachelors, Erin transitioned to the home care space with a passion bred from personal and family experience. She has held management roles in the QA, intake, OASIS, and HR departments, and has helped facilitate numerous successful state and CHAP surveys for the organization she worked for. Erin was responsible for maintaining clinical documentation compliance, writing and revising policies and procedures, and for writing and facilitating new hire training for all clinical employees, including EMR and OASIS education. Her last role in home health was marketing - a natural segway to her role at AlayaCare – US Midmarket Director of Sales – where she leads a growing team of account executives.