The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) is a non-profit organization. Its history spans more than 25 years of independent and cooperative efforts by many national organizations, all dedicated to high quality ambulatory health care. The AAAHC is a leader in ambulatory health care accreditation and serves as an advocate for the provision and documentation of high quality health services in ambulatory health care organizations. This is accomplished through the development of standards and through its survey and accreditation programs.
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Ahern Consulting Group

Ahern Consulting's mission is to ensure that our clients achieve and sustain the highest level of financial and operational excellence.

Ahern Consulting provides guidance to all health care providers, including physician groups and hospitals. We are experts with respect to general Medicare and Health Care Billing & Payment issues with a sub-specialization in reimbursement for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) dialysis facility and Nephrology services.

Ahern Consulting assists investors, medical device and pharmaceutical manufactures and other interested parties with understanding the healthcare market and how it is influenced by the consumer and provider preference, the regulatory environment and healthcare reform.

Types of Services Offered

Health Care Facility & Physician Reimbursement Audits

Management Consulting for Renal Dialysis Facilities

Medicare Cost Report Preparation

ESRD PPS Expanded Bundle Payment Optimization

Dialysis Facility Feasibility Studies

Healthcare Market Analysis

Primary Market Studies

Dispute Resolution and Litigation Support

Informative Presentations on Health Care Reimbursement & Reform

JACK AHERN, MBA - As a seasoned Health Care Executive, Instructor, Author and Financial Manager, Jack Ahern brings to the table expertise gained by managing finances for an academic medical center, and providing guidance to physicians, hospitals, HMO’s and major academic medical centers on issues pertaining to physician and hospital billing, hospital administration, strategic planning, renal dialysis reimbursement, HIPAA, ethics, regulatory issues and compliance.





Areas of Expertise:

Physician / Hospital Billing

CMS Regulations

ESRD and Nephrology Reimbursement

Health Care Market Studies

Medicare

Health Care Reform

Medicaid / Medi-Cal

Valuation of Health Care Entities

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Baretich Engineering specializes in Clinical Engineering, Healthcare Facilities Engineering, Safety Management, and Forensic Engineering. It applies engineering and management principles to improve technology-related aspects of healthcare delivery and patient care.

Clinical Engineering Services include:

• Program Evaluation - identify compliance issues, recommend corrective actions, and assist with performance improvement initiatives.
  
  
• Equipment Planning and Project Management services for healthcare facility construction projects and capital equipment budgets.
  
  
• Design and implementation of Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Convergence solutions.

Facilities Engineering Services include:

• Program Assessments and Joint Commission mock surveys.
  
  
• Statement of Conditions - Life safety assessments, SOC documentation, Interim Life Safety Measure (ILSMs) implementation, and Plan For Improvement (PFIs) resolution.

Forensic Engineering Services include:

• Incident Investigation Services - focus on incidents where medical devices, building systems, information technology, or other healthcare-delivery technology may have contributed to death, injury, or other harm to patients, staff, and visitors, or financial losses due to damage to equipment, systems, and facilities.
  
  
• Publishing & Education - publishes the Medical Device Incident Investigation & Reporting manual and provides half-day seminars on medical device incident investigation.

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Healthcare Litigation Support is a team of experts - physicians, healthcare administrators, reimbursement specialists, health organization experts, health insurance experts, and other healthcare personnel - with broad, extensive experience and expertise in medical and administrative malpractice issues, physician practice operations, hospital management, health insurance and TPA issues, Medicare and Medicaid, medical billing and collections, fraud and abuse, managed care and other areas.

Healthcare Litigation Support is a team of experienced healthcare experts who consult on litigation issues and testify as needed. In addition to the four Principals, there is a larger group of Associates, individuals with specific expertise and areas of knowledge, we include in order to fully serve the needs of the legal community.

Areas of Expertise:

Audit Medical Standards of Care Dental Standards of Care Geriatrics and Nursing Home Care Standards Long Term Care Standards Health Insurance Health Insurer-Provider Relations Managed Healthcare (HMO, PPO)

TPA (Third Party Administrator National Accreditation Guidelines Medicare / Medicaid Federal Employees Health Benefits Program CDH (Consumer Driven Health Plans) ERISA, COBRA, EMTALA, HIPAA Physician / Hospital Joint Ventures Qui Tam and False Claims Act

Representing Both Plaintiff and Defense, Our Services Include:

Review Case for Merit

Analyze Medical and Administrative Events

Identify Causation

Address Standards of Care

Research Relevant Literature

Interpret Contracts in Light of Industry Standards

Evaluate Case Strengths and Weaknesses

Develop Deposition Strategy

Prepare a Defensible Report

Articulate Complex Issues to Triers of Fact

Expert Witness: Retained in Washington, D.C., and ten states as an expert in hospital administration who could render opinion after assessing medical records, hospital policies and procedures, medical staff bylaws and regulations, JCAHO standards, depositions, etc. Served as Expert Witness for Plaintiff and Defense.

Consultant: Has assisted hospitals and health systems with accelerating their performance improvement efforts. Speaks, writes and consults on ethical issues in health care.

Background Highlights:

Consultant, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of health system.

Executive Director of two academic medical centers: Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, Stanford University Hospital and Clinics at Stanford.

Past chairman of the national advisory board for the University of Chicago’s Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

A variety of appointments with the American Hospital Association, including chairman of both the Council on Research and Development and the Special Committee on Biomedical Ethics.

An author of over 125 publications, he has written articles for USA Today, Health Management Quarterly, Trustee, Health Progress, the Journal of Health Administration Education, Frontiers of Health Services Management, Bioethics Forum, Modern Healthcare, the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Stanford Medicine, and Healthcare Executive among others.

Co-editor of Management Mistakes in Healthcare: Identification, Correction and Prevention, published by Cambridge University Press in 2005.

Co-editor of Managing Ethically: An Executive's Guide, published by Health Administration Press in 2001.

A fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a past member of its Leadership Advisory Committee, and has served as the College's consultant on health care management ethics since 1994.

Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics.

Faculty appointments held at Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, Emory, the University of California, and Seton Hall University.

Bachelor of Science, Master of Public Health, and Doctor of Public Health degrees are from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Dr. John Shershow is a nationally known expert in all aspects of Hospital and Clinic Administration. In his nearly 20 years of experience as a Senior Hospital Executive and Healthcare Consultant, Dr. Shershow has surveyed or consulted to hundreds of hospitals, both as an accreditation surveyor for JCAHO and as a private consultant for hospitals nationwide.

Dr. Shershow has been Medical Director of two prestigious hospitals and an Associate Dean of a nationally known medical school. He is Board Certified and was educated at Harvard, Yale and the University of Southern California.

Areas Of Expertise Include:

Hospital Administration Staffing Quality of Care JCAHO Accreditation Medical Quality Assessment and Review Medical Staff Affairs Hospital And Ambulatory Standards of Care

Patient Rights Health Care Risk Management Medical Quality Assurance Administrative Medicine Peer Review JCAHO Standards Physician Credentialing & Privileging

Dr. Luiz Hargreaves, AAS, MD, Msc is a qualified Expert in Crisis Management, Disaster Planning and Response, Health Care Management and Travel Medicine. He is a Medical Doctor, Political Scientist (Msc), and Crisis Manager, with 25 years of experience in Disaster and Emergency Planning for Corporations, Public Events, Public Safety and Couterterrorism.

Dr. Hargreaves currently serves as Director of the Medical Department at the Brazilian House of Representatives and is Professor and Coordinator of the Crisis Management Graduate Certificate Program at the Gama Filho University - Posead. He is also the Coordinator of the Executive MBA Program in Health Care Management at the Faculdade da Grande Fortaleza - Posead.

Graduate Certificates in Strategic Management and Quality, Strategic Intelligence, Emergency Medicine and Civil Defense Planning and Management.

Languages Spoken: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, and Italian.

Areas of Expertise:

Crisis Management

Public Safety

Emergency Preparedness

Disaster Response and Recovery

Health Care and Hospital Management

Hospital Disaster Plan

Travel Medicine

Emergency Planning for Mass Gathering Events

Counterterrorism

Political Analysis

Corporate Intelligence

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RPC assists attorneys in Personal Injury, Commercial and Healthcare litigation, with economic damages and regulatory analysis, from loss of profits or earnings to contract disputes, business valuation, state and federal anti-trust disputes, and fraud and abuse investigations. Indepth experience in healthcare liability and damage issues.

RPC has prepared damage studies covering the construction, technology, manufacturing, waste management, trucking, public utility, real estate, healthcare, managed care and other industries and professions. Clients nationwide.

Led by Ronald T. Luke, PhD, JD, RPC’s experienced team of professional staff has backgrounds in law, medicine, economics, accounting, business valuation, health administration, nursing, life care planning, finance, and vocational assessment, and provide an integrated damages analysis. The RPC team works closely with litigators from discovery to mediation to trial to understand the issues in the case to develop an independent analysis of those issues and to provide a professional critique of the work of experts retained by other parties to the litigation.

Dr. Luke and his colleagues have been accepted as expert witnesses in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies in more than 25 states, and have testified in regulatory proceedings and consulted on projects for major national hospital chains, as well as community hospitals.

Because of RPC's multi-disciplined staff and large-scale document management and data management resources, it is capable of handling large cases.

Areas of Expertise:

Certificate of need studies Construction litigation Damages in personal injury cases Economic impact studies Economic, financial and statistical analysis Fraud and abuse investigations Healthcare market feasibility studies Healthcare planning Life care planning

Lost earnings capacity analysis Management disputes Medical records review Medical staff disputes Patient rights Payment disputes Personal injury litigation support State and federal anti-trust disputes Vocational assessment

Ronald T. Luke, JD, Ph.D. is a principal consultant and president of Research & Planning Consultants, LP. Ron joined RPC in 1976 and became its president and principal owner in 1979. Along with working on personal injury and commercial litigation, he has consulted on projects for health care providers, managed care plans and public agencies in more than 25 states. He also serves as an expert witness in trials, administrative proceedings and legislative hearings.

Dr. Samuel H. Steinberg, MBA, PhD, FACHE is a Board Certified Hospital Administrator with over 35 years of experience, including 10 years as a hospital chief executive officer. Early in his career he became interested in Risk Management and has created an evidence based methodology for Hospital Risk Management.

Dr. Steinberg's Risk Management methodology identifies health care activities that create hazards that cause many malpractice cases. This proactive approach allows health care executives to focus on the right issues and build upon the risk management program already in place. Evidence-based risk management seeks to eliminate the causes of many corporate negligence cases by looking at administrative processes, such as policies and procedures, physician credentialing, the handling of critical test values and compliance with accreditation and licensure standards.

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