Biographical Sketches Connie Perez, Chief Executive Officer
A former client while Vice President of Patient Care Services at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Connie joined Advanced Reimbursement Management as the Chief Operating Officer in May of 2004 and became the Chief Executive Officer in July of 2005. Utilizing a participatory management philosophy, Connie has built the culture, the infrastructure and a solid, focused team. She has also worked to establish a new corporate identity and build awareness of Advanced Reimbursement Management within the hospital community. Connie is a nurse who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Loyola University in 1978. Pursuing her passion for taking care of children, she has spent most of her career in children’s hospitals where she worked in various management and consulting roles in nursing and quality improvement. While earning a Masters in Management (MBA) from the Executive Management Program at the Kellogg Business School of Northwestern University in 1997, the entrepreneurial fire was lit. Advanced Reimbursement Management has proven to be a great opportunity to pursue her once hidden passion to grow a business. Connie currently serves as the Chairperson of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors . She serves as a Vice President and Chair of the Program Committee for the Arizona chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and is also an active member of the board for Ryan House, a group that has come together to build a home where respite and hospice care is provided to children and their families. Connie also became a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional through HFMA in 2006.
602-744-0156 Robert W. Zack, Chief Financial Officer
Rob has served as our chief financial officer since January 2009. From June 2007 until Mr. Zack joined ARM, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Renegy Holdings, Inc. Renegy was a publicly traded company focused on renewable energy created in 2007 through a merger transaction between Renegy, LLC and Catalytica Energy Systems, Inc. ("Catalytica"). Prior to the merger, Mr. Zack served as the president and CEO of Catalytica since July 2005 and as a member of its Board of Directors. During this time, Mr. Zack also continued to serve as chief financial officer for Catalytica, a position he had held since April 2003. Prior to that, Mr. Zack had served as vice president, finance and controller of Catalytica since February 2002. Before joining Catalytica, Mr. Zack served as group vice president of finance for MicroAge, Inc. From 1984 to 1999, Mr. Zack has held various executive and financial management roles including ones at Active Noise and Vibration Technologies, Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and Arthur Andersen L.L.P. He earned his B.S. in accounting and his MBA from Arizona State University. He is also a certified public accountant. 602-744-0121 Alex Marchicelli, Chief Information Officer
Alex joined Advanced Reimbursement Management in October 2009. Alex has 20 years of experience in the high-tech industry. Prior to joining ARM, he served as Vice President of Technology as Succeed Corp, an ecommerce company. Alex was also the CEO of Speak With Me, Inc. a silicon valley start up focused on the natural language search market. Prior to that, Alex spent 6 years at Microsoft where he was the regional manager for Asia in the Automotive Business Unit. Additionally, Alex spent 13 years in management consulting. Alex earned his B.A. in finance from the University of Iowa and his MBA from Suffolk University in Boston. Alex is also a 1991 Marine Corps Veteran of the Gulf War. 602-744-0141 Linda Krater, Chief Clinical Officer
Linda Krater joined the ARM team in April of 2000 after serving thirteen years helping to build Arizona’s AHCCCS program. Her experience from 1993 to 2000 as the Administrator for the AHCCCS Fee for Service and Utilization Management programs has been invaluable to ARM. During her tenure there, Linda literally helped “write the book” that serves as today’s guide to program administration. Linda also worked to create the structured edit tables utilized to manage quality at AHCCCS. In addition to her knowledge base, Linda’s relationships throughout the state regularly help ARM to ensure that the most up-to-date information is available to our clients. Prior to Linda’s work at AHCCCS, she served as the Director of Perinatal Transport for Samaritan Air Evac and pursued her love of neonates in a variety of staff nurse and leadership roles in the Phoenix area. Linda has also been active with the March of Dimes. Linda has a Masters of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix and is CPUR (Certified Professional in Utilization Review) certified. 602-744-0124 Susan A. Williams, Vice President of Human Resources
Susan supported Advanced Reimbursement Management,as a Human Resource Consultant since 2004 and joined our staff in December 2008 as the Vice President of Human Resources. Prior to joining our team Susan spent the last twenty-five years as a Business Owner and Human Resource consultant. In addition to consulting, she has developed many human resource products that are available through her web-based companies. She has over twenty-five years experience in all areas of human resources and specializes in assisting business owners and key management in addressing the human side of their business. Prior to starting her own business, she spent several years with U S West and AT&T. She held several key management positions in Human Resources and Customer Service. Mrs. Williams has a BA degree from the University of Southern Colorado. She has been actively involved in several community activities, organizations. She currently chairs the Small Business Leadership Counsel and serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. 602-495-8902 Mark Lawrence, Vice President of Operations
Mark has spent 19 years in healthcare revenue cycle services and management. He joined ARM in 2007 in a newly created Director position after ARM’s rapid growth in 2005-2006 created the need for additional leadership over operations. In this role he has exploited his background to create operational systems to address inventory control and resource allocation. Mark has worked closely with managers, account specialists, and information systems personnel to continuously increase operational efficiencies. Mark received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Washington University in 1987. He began work in health care in 1990 with GC Services when he successfully managed a contracted insurance/self-pay follow-up department for St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Ca. for 6 years. Mark managed the business office of University Health System in San Antonio for 4 years prior to joining MedCath in 2002. In 2003, Mark planned and established MedCath’s Western Central Business office which he then Directed. This involved the successful closure and relocation of 4 separate business offices to one central location, all of which showed improved metrics within the first year of the CBO opening. In this role Mark worked very closely with the hospital CFO’s on proper booking of monthly contractual expenses, developing operational systems for a remote location, developing a brand new set of Sarbanes-Oxley procedures, and continuing to maintain AR days of less than 30 for each hospital. 602-682-9751 Tim Robertson, Vice President of Business Development
Tim joined Advanced Reimbursement Management in December of 2008 after working for 12 years in healthcare for the accounts receivables management company, RSI Enterprises, Inc. Over the course of his healthcare career, Tim has held positions related to operations, analysis, management, training and business development. Prior to 1996, Tim worked as a commercial real estate agent for Ohio Equities and CB Richard Ellis in Columbus, Ohio from 1987 to 1996. Tim currently serves on the Arizona HFMA Board of Directors and is presently the Membership Committee Chairman for 2009-2010. Tim is an active member of AAHAM as well. Mr. Robertson received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University in 1987. Over the course of the past five years, Tim has volunteered has a “Big Brother” and currently sits on the Professional Leadership Council for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona. Tim has been active fund raising for several other national charities including the American Heart Association and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. 602-744-0140 Merrill "Merf" Fratkin, Director of Program Management
Merrill joined ARM in 2003 in a newly created position as Director of Information Services. In this role, he provided overall leadership, management, and coordination of ARM’s information resources and unified applications architecture. Merrill has been instrumental in developing the systems and reporting capabilities to assist ARM and its clients understand their business, resulting in better decision-making. In 2007, Merrill’s role as CFO was officially recognized and expanded to include all financial, human resource, and facility aspects of the company. In 2008, Merrill was a key participant in the successful sale to a private equity firm in Chicago. In his new role as Director of Program Management, he will be responsible for the software development of the company’s internal systems. He was introduced to health care in his work as an operations consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton where he participated in the development of a new organizational infrastructure for hospitals. In 1993, Merrill and a number of colleagues started a Phoenix-based company called Prognosys that set out to commercialize and distribute software products based on the hospital work conducted at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. After that company was sold in 1998, Merrill worked to help open Phoenix Children’s Hospital. His expertise was concentrated primarily in the imaging department where it became one of the first in the country to open completely filmless. He earned a graduate in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Phoenix in 2005. His undergraduate degree is in Information Systems from the University of Maryland in Baltimore. 602-744-0144 Sally Carrell, Director, Eligibility Services
With over 30 years of hospital revenue cycle management experience, Sally Carrell joined ARM in 1998. While serving the University of California Irvine Medical Center as the Associate Director of Finance for fourteen years until 1990, Sally was responsible for gross annual patient revenue of $234 million, maintenance of 1.5 million medical records and management of 250 full-time staff members. She subsequently moved to a corporate position in which she was responsible for outsourced accounts receivable operations for numerous hospitals throughout the state of New Mexico. Sally has been instrumental in establishing ARM’s Eligibility business line and successfully supporting operations for a number of ARM clients. Her ability to develop strong working relationships with people in all facets of the business is a hallmark of her style. She has also drawn upon her experience in Quality Improvement to create monitoring and reporting systems designed to maximize revenue for clients. Sally received a Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University in 1978 and continued her education by taking post-graduate Business Administration courses at the University of California, Irvine. She currently resides in Payson, Arizona and supports ARM clients primarily in the area of Eligibility Services in various locations throughout the state. 602-744-0135 Burt Eastburn, Director, Patient Account Services
Burt Eastburn has spent over thirty years in healthcare management with a primary focus on patient accounting and admitting/registration functions. He joined ARM in 1998 where he has utilized his broad range of experience to ensure that “start-ups” for new clients are implemented successfully and that daily monitoring and management of results are in place. In addition to his knowledge of AHCCCS, over the past few years Burt has developed expertise in California eligibility and Medi-Cal accounts receivable management. Burt completed an Associate Degree in Accounting in 1977 at Phoenix College. He began his work in patient accounting at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix where he served for ten years, with his last position being that of Government Billing Manager. From there he went to Paradise Valley Hospital where he served as the Business Office Director until 1997. 602-285-0334 Glen Reiner, Director, Clinical Services
Glen came to ARM from the long-term care environment and serves as a Nurse Auditor for multiple clients. Prior to joining ARM in 2001, he served as the Director of Nursing for a 102- bed rehabilitation hospital where he participated in the rollout of a Medicare Prospective Payment System and served as the Minimum Data Set Coordinator. He also provided clinical support in the wound care and infection control functions. In addition to a broad-based clinical background, Glen has a strong knowledge base in CPT, HCPCS, Revenue and ICD-9 coding with particular expertise in trauma coding. He is extremely successful in preparing claims for hearing and in offering expert testimony at hearings. Glen serves as a resource for ARM technical staff members on both clinical issues as well as appeal, grievance and hearing process concerns. Glen was awarded a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing from Northern Arizona University in 1994 and graduated from the Valley Leadership Institute in 2005. He is a certified medical records coder and has been specially trained in both Interqual and Milliman/Robertson approaches to care management. Glen also serves on the executive board of the Cactus Wren AAHAM chapter and is a current committee member of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. 602-744-0147 |
