Peter A. Ripper, President and Founder

pripper@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 210
Peter has worked in health care since 1975. Peter began his health care career as a Financial Analyst and Hospital Controller for American Medicorp, Inc. (NYSE). During 1976 and 1977 he served as a Principal Accountant at UCLA Medical Center, working in the Reimbursement Department. In 1978 he co-founded his first health care consulting firm (Med-Charge Analysis, Inc.). Med-Charge specialized in auditing acute care hospital bills to improve the accuracy of the charge capture process. In 1982 Peter sold Med-Charge to a New York Stock Exchange listed company, (Omnicare, Inc.) and from 1982 through 1985 he managed the charge capture health care consulting division of Omnicare. In 1985 Peter formed his second company PARA-HCFS. PARA specializes in the review of charge masters to improve coding, pricing and charge capture. PARA also maintains an extensive database of pricing history for every hospital that participates in Medicare. Peter has solely owned and operated PARA for over 30 years.

Violet Archuleta-Chiu, Senior Account Executive

varchuleta@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 219
Violet began her career in sales in 1995. Prior to joining PARA, Violet was employed at Key3Media as an Account Manager, where she sold exhibit space and marketing sponsorships. Coupled with generating revenue for the company, she was instrumental in launching a brand new event with a focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Violet has a Bachelor of Arts, Ethnic Studies degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the healthcare industry and PARA in 2002 as an Account Executive, accountable for establishing, developing and maintaining business relationships with current and prospective customers in her territory to generate new business for the organization’s revenue cycle management solutions.

Mary McDonnell, Director, PDE Training and Development

mmcdonnell@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 216
Mary has been in the healthcare industry since 1985, working in a wide variety of settings. She began her career in Patient Financial Services in a Primary Care practice, and subsequently worked in Specialty practices, Hospitals, and Consulting Firms. In 1999 Mary began working as a Data Analyst in the Charge Master Review division of the Quadramed Corporation, applying her knowledge of clinical procedures, coding, and billing requirements to assist the clients in streamlining their current CDM, while maintaining optimal reimbursement. She then moved into the A/R Recovery Division, traveling to client sites to assist the Recovery Team in resolving past due accounts. Prior to joining PARA in 2005 as a Financial Analyst, Mary worked as a Client Liaison and Onsite Supervisor for the Intellirisk Management Corporation, working with the Management Team within a client hospital’s Patient Financial Services department to supervise onsite staff and assist the client in successful resolution of a large percentage of their most problematic accounts.

Sandra LaPlace, Account Executive

slaplace@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 225
Sandra joined PARA as an Account Executive in 2008 to promote PARA’s Revenue Cycle Management Solutions. She develops, establishes and maintains business relationships with both current and prospective clients within her defined territory. Prior to joining PARA, Sandra was an Account Manager at Preferred Registry in San Diego where she managed PT, OT and SLP therapists and maintained their billable hours with hospitals, clinics and skilled nursing facilities. Education and training include: Metro Career Center, San Diego CA, Virginia Wesleyan College, VA and Sts. Peter & Paul High School, St. Thomas USVI.

Rick Lewis, Accounts Receivable Analyst

rlewis@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 240
Rick began working in healthcare as a member of a hospital post-system conversion clean up team in 1985. Over the years in healthcare, Rick has developed and expanded his vast healthcare knowledge to accounts receivable follow up, system conversion clean-up (pre and post), appeals for both insurance and patients, if requested.Rick has vast experience with specialty areas, physician offices, radiology, laboratory and Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC’s) in addition to hospitals.Rick began with PARA as an Accounts Receivable staff member in 2012. Rick has been assigned to multiple follow up projects for PARA, each resulting in a positive impact to the accounts receivables in addition to a significant increase in cash flow.

Patti Lewis, Director, Business Office Operations

plewis@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 228
Patti began work in healthcare in 1972 as a member of the Accounts Receivable liquidation team at Sacramento Medical Center when UC Davis was in the process of purchasing the facility. Throughout her years in the healthcare environment, Patti has acquired vast experience and expertise in medical billing and accounts receivable follow up. Patti joined the PARA team in January 2011 as the Director of Business Office Services. Her work for PARA includes the oversight of the Revenue Integrity Program clients. This task involves the scheduling and monitoring of a monthly meeting cycle with follow through on any PARA or client tasks developed within the meetings. Patti performs a variety of compliance research associated with Medicare, Medicaid, Fiscal Intermediaries, Medicare Administrative Contractors, and other regulatory billing issues. Her work in these areas helps to ensure appropriate, complete, and compliant billing practices for PARA’s many clients.

Randi Brantner, Director, Financial Analytics

rbrantner@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 215
Randi began her career in healthcare in 2002. She spent eight years working in a variety of pharmacy settings including retail, military, hospital, narcotic control, and pharmacy purchasing. In 2010, Randi became the Charge Master Analyst for Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs, CO. There, she supported the hospital revenue cycle through maintenance of the charge description master for the health system. Over the next three years, she assisted in the implementation of operational improvement of billing processes and assisted in monitoring, auditing, and measuring the effectiveness of the revenue cycle process. Randi has a Master’s in Business Administration with a focus in HealthCare Administration, is a Certified Pharmacy Technician, and a Six Sigma Black Belt. She joined PARA in 2012 as the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, responsible for a variety of financial analytics among all areas of the hospital including pharmacy, materials management, perioperative services, and other areas of concern.

Monica Lelevich, Director, Audit Services

mlelevich@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 221
Monica joined PARA in March, 2012. Monica’s work for PARA includes regulatory analysis, oversight of claim reviews and coding projects, and conducting onsite reviews to optimize reimbursement through complete and accurate charge capture at the clinical department level. Her healthcare career began in 1995 as a managed care contract analyst for PeaceHealth. She advanced to Director, Contracts, overseeing both managed care contracts and physician clinical department directorship agreements. She demonstrated skill in process improvement as Director of PFS for PeaceHealth, Director of the Business Office for Kaiser Permanente Northwest, as Client Manager for McKesson Revenue Cycle Solutions, and as Revenue Cycle Director for St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, WY.

Leslie Natarelli, Director of IT

lnatarelli@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 224
Leslie has over 30 years experience in IT, both in the financial and healthcare space. At PARA, Leslie's principal goals are to plan, coordinate, direct, and design operational activities of the IT department. Additionally, she provides direction and support for IT solutions that enhance business operations, and ensure the security and integrity of the company's systems. Leslie also works closely with decision makers in other departments to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions for the benefit of PARA's customers.

Melissa Lehrer, Director, Health Information Management

mlehrer@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 227
Melissa has over 15 years of experience in coding and auditing, starting in Billing and Coding Inpatient and outpatient accounts at St. Joseph Medical Center in Baltimore. She obtained her CPC certification for outpatient coding from the AAPC – American Academy of Professional Coders in 2004. She later enhanced her experience at Medstar hospitals in Baltimore, MD. Both facilities are known for their high volume bed count and surgical procedures providing her with tremendous education on high dollar and invasive procedural coding on both the hospital and physician side. In 2008 she obtained her CCS certification from AHIMA – American Health Information Management Association. Both AAPC and AHIMA are nationally known organizations that are recognized for professionalism and ethics in the coding profession. She also provided contract work for other major high volume bed facilities in Baltimore, including Johns Hopkins, St. Agnes and Bayview hospital. She gained further experience at Peninsula Regional Medical Center and served as Health Information Director at McCready Hospital in Maryland and Coding Conventions, also located in Maryland. She obtained her ICD-10 education from AHIMA and is now an AHIMA approved ICD-10 trainer. She has also served as an Instructor for coding and HIM classes for Mildred Elley University in New York. She developed the curriculum and instructed the classes on ICD-10 as well. She has also spoken at several coding seminars for local Chapter meetings.

Sonya Sestili, Chargemaster Client Manager

ssestili@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 214
Sonya joined PARA in May, 2013 as Chargemaster Client Manager. Sonya helps clients implement recommended changes to chargemaster line items, ensuring that key information is communicated clearly and correctly implemented by presenting reports in an organized, convenient manner and reviewing the proposed changes in web meetings. Sonya began working in healthcare in 2002 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL, as the Chargemaster Coordinator for facility charges, and progressed to Revenue Cycle Analyst where she supported charge capture projects, CDM audits, denial management, and pricing reviews. In 2006, she joined NorthShore University Health System in Skokie, IL as Senior Chargemaster Analyst for both the hospital ancillary and professional CDMs and was a key participant in the annual hospital and medical group physician pricing reviews.

Alexander Johnson, Financial Analyst

ajohnson@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 233
Alex joined PARA in July 2014 as a Financial Analyst. He worked with clients on pricing projects and provided a variety of financial analytics. He was also responsible for processing and maintaining client data in the PARA Data Editor. He then moved to the IT division of PARA, where he updates and maintains the databases that support the PARA Data Editor. He is responsible for making sure the PDE has the most up to date pricing and reimbursement information. Alex has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Oregon with a double major in Mathematics and Economics.

Kimberly Francisco CPC, CPMA, Chargemaster Manager

kfrancisco@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 234
Kim joined PARA in 2015 as a CDM Analyst. Kim’s role at PARA includes Chargemaster Reviews, Staff Training and Development, Project Management, Evaluation and Management Audits including Physician Coding and Education. Prior to joining PARA in January 2015, Kim worked for Duke University Health System where she served 15 years in various roles such as Medicare Billing Supervisor, Chargemaster Manager, and Reimbursement Analyst for Duke’s Transplant Team. Kim served her last four years at Duke as a Compliance Specialist performing performing Professional Chart Audits, defending RAC Audits, and providing Education and Documentation Training to Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, and Physician Assistants. Kim became a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) in January 2000 and a Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA) in 2014.

Angela Parsons, Financial Analyst

aparsons@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 242
Angela's healthcare career began in 1994 at William Beaumont Hospital where she worked as a housekeeper, scheduler, and later a Nursing Assistant. She then moved and began working for Eaton Rapids Medical Center, a Critical Access Hospital. With over 12 years at ERMC, Angela held roles such as medical records file clerk, transcriptionist, Registration Supervisor, Billing Supervisor, and Finance Manager. After this position, she became an Application Analyst for Catholic Health Initiatives providing software support for hospitals using Meditech as their HIS. Angela then moved to Henry Ford Allegiance Health working as a Financial Decision Support Analyst, a position where she prepared the costing information for the organization. In total Angela has over 22 years in the healthcare industry, with a primary focuse in the Revenue Cycle.

Mandee McMillan, Senior Revenue Cycle Consultant

mmcmillan@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 244
Mandee joined PARA in November, 2017. She has over 16 years of HealthCare experience, primarily focused within Revenue Cycle areas such as Registration, Billing and 12 years of focused Compliance and Chargemaster Management. Most recently, she served as the Business Manager for the Rehab Division of a large HealthCare system in Central California. Mandee holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management with a minor in Finance. She also has both the Certified Specialist of Business Intelligence and the Certified Revenue Cycle Representative designations through the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).

Kate Jackson, Chargemaster Specialist

kjackson@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 243
Kate started working in the HealthCare field in 1992 and joined PARA in 2017. She has 15 years of supervisory experience and 10 years in the HealthCare industry. Her experience includes Professional Receivables Management, Implementation/Conversion of Information Systems, HIPAA Compliance, Practice Management, Patient Care, and Customer Service. She has extensive expertise in Physical Therapy Practice Management, with Claims and Business Office Operations. Kate has analytical skills in identifying areas of improvement for Private Practice Business Office Systems, Charge Entry, Billing, and Collections. She majored in Kinesiology with a minor in Biological Sciences. She has Associates Degrees in both Natural & Biological Sciences and Physical Education.

Nikki Graves, Senior Revenue Cycle Consultant

ngraves@para-hcfs.com (800) 999-3332, ext. 249
Nikki has over 25 years in the healthcare revenue cycle where she has worked in multiple hospital departments, including Radiology, Health Information Management, Accounting and Finance, Patient Access, Decision Support, and Patient Financial Services. She was a past president of the Southern Illinois Chapter of HFMA. Nikki is serving as the current Founders Chair and as a Regional Elect for Region 7 HFMA which covers five chapters throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. She earned the Follmer Bronze medal in 2017 and both the Reeves Silver Merit and the Muncie Gold Merit in 2019. She has an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Information Systems and a programming certificate, a Bachelor of Science in Management of Information Systems - Business, and a Master of Business Administration.

Ryan Ripper, Software Developer

rripper@para-hcfs.com
Ryan joined PARA in August of 2016 after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Applied and Computational Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. As a Software Developer, he maintains and develops the corporate website with the integration of professional sales tools, provides assistance to the Sales and Marketing Teams with respect to developing Customer Relationship Management tools and reports, and develops and updates .NET Framework on web-applications for various web platform compatibilities. Ryan is the Developer for the PARA Transparency Tool that meets regulatory mandates in a user friendly, seamless, web-based experience.