Revealing Hirsch’s Heroes for 2024

Well, this is the last RACmonitor news edition of the year, so it’s time for my annual Hirsch’s Heroes.

As a reminder, last year my honorees were Jugna Shah and Valerie Rinkle, two very smart revenue cycle experts, David Glaser, who you all know, and Dr. Eugene Freund from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), who is now enjoying retirement.

But first, a big thank-you to Dr. Erica Remer, a 2018 Hirsch’s Hero, who for many years has shared her documentation and coding wisdom with us on ICD10monitor’s Talk Ten Tuesdays (TTT). She has contributed so much to the industry, in so many ways. December 17 was her last TTT broadcast, and she will be missed. I know we will still hear from her in other venues, though, so all is not lost.

Now, to this year’s honorees.

Let me start with Tiffany Ferguson. Tiffany is Chief Executive Officer of Phoenix Medical Management, an advisory firm offering case management consulting services, with an amazing team working with her. She took over from Stefani Daniels, my co-author on The Hospital Guide to Contemporary Utilization Review – and those were big shoes to fill. But she’s more than a CEO; taking on a daunting task, she took the place of Ellen Fink-Samnick presenting on the social determinants of health (SDoH) for Talk Ten Tuesdays. Tiffany is also very active on the American College of Physician Advisors (ACPA) Observation Committee. Tiffany really knows her stuff, and freely shares her knowledge with the community at large. She received her master’s in social work from my alma mater, UCLA, so we also have that in common. She also finds time for her family and friends, and I am super-jealous of her, as she was lucky enough to attend one of Taylor Swift’s concerts – and a U2 concert at the Las Vegas Sphere.

Next up is a trio: Dr. Elizabeth Quinn of Common Spirit Health, Dr. Stephanie VanZandt of Baycare Health, and Dr. Scott Ceule of University of Kansas Medical Center. They were the driving force behind the 2024 National Physician Advisor Conference (NPAC), held in California earlier this year. It was an amazing conference, with three and a half days of talks by the best in the industry, attended by about 500 of my closest friends. Organizing such an event is no easy task, and I thank them for their hard work in 2023 and 2024. I have heard that ACPA was overwhelmed with submissions to speak at next year’s conference, so mark your calendars for April7-10 for NPAC 2025 in Chicago; you know it will be the physician advisor conference to attend in 2025. And if you are ever in Kansas, look up Dr. Ceule, and he will take you for some real barbeque.

Finally, my third honoree is Dr. Charles Locke. I have known Dr. Locke for many years. We met at a physician advisor conference about 15 years ago, when a speaker made a grossly incorrect statement about a Medicare rule and we both instantaneously raised our hands to correct it. It was truly a friendship right out of the Medicare Benefit Policy Manual. Charlie and I have collaborated, along with past Hero Dr. Eddie Hu and others, on several peer-reviewed journal publications, in an attempt to build on my 1996 appearance on the Jerry Springer Show as my only claim to fame.

Charlie understands Medicare rules and the importance of compliance, and he does that all while working in Maryland, the jurisdiction with the most confusing healthcare payment system in the world. He is now Chief Medical Officer in the Office of Workers’ Compensation Program at the U.S. Department of Labor, and an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Locke is also a past president of the American College of Physician Advisors and was a driving force in making ACPA the premier physician advisor organization.

So, to my heroes, and to all of you, thank you for what you do, every day, for our patients.