Deborah is a nationally sought after leader in the industry and is passionate about assisting physicians and hospitals in improving their coding, documentation, and business operations to maintain compliance and improve revenue. She will go above and beyond to help industry leaders, physicians and others achieve excellence. Her motto is “documentation excellence is the key to improving revenue.”

Deborah brings over thirty-two years of healthcare industry experience as a practice administrator, medical record auditor, clinical documentation improvement practitioner as well as a sought after speaker and educator. She has works with a variety of specialties including primary care, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, physical medicine and rehab, radiology, oncology, cardiology and pulmonology and many more. She works with physicians, hospitals and outpatient facilities both small and large and provides practice assessments, revenue cycle guidance, coding, auditing, CDI development, education and project management. She also provides litigation support to attorneys nationally on behalf of their physician and health system clients. She is considered a top ICD-10 implementation expert and routinely appears on ICD-10 Monitor’s “Talk Ten Tuesday.”

As a trainer, Deborah combines teaching with practical advice on coding and revenue cycle issues. She has delivered programs for organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Association of Physical Medicine and Rehab, American Academy of Otolaryngology, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri State Medical Associations, American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Academy of Dermatology, various state Medical Group Management Association chapters, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri and Tennessee, Dermatology and ENT Administrators Associations, Healthcare Finance Management Association, American Academy of Professional Coders, and the Indiana Health Information Management Association. She has numerous books and publishing credits and has developed coding program curriculum for the American Academy of Professional Coders, Indiana University Health, and Martin University in Indianapolis.

In addition to her work at KZA, Deborah was a Senior Manager of Revenue Cycle at Blue and Co., LLC where she oversaw the consulting division for physician services and worked closely with hospitals and hospital owned physician groups assisting with coding reviews, practice operations, ICD-10 implementation, and consulting. She has held the role of Vice President of Strategic Development and then President of the American Academy of Professional Coders where she oversaw the association operations. She owned her own full-service consulting firm for 12 years, leading her team to provide coding, auditing, and revenue cycle guidance to hospitals and physician groups. Prior to entering consulting, she was a practice administrator at IU Health.

Deborah has a B.A. in Business Administration from Indiana University. She is a Certified Professional Coder (CPC), a Certified Outpatient Coder (COC), a Certified Professional Coder Instructor (CPC-I), a Certified Professional Coder, Payer (CPC-H), a Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA), a Certified E&M Coder (CEMC) with the American Academy of Professional Coders, a Certified Coding Specialist (CCS-P) and a Certified Clinical Documentation Improvement Practitioner (CDIP) with the American Health Information Management Association. She currently serves on the ICD-10 Monitor Editorial Board and Indiana Health Information Management Association Executive Board of Director as a delegate. She is the past president of the Indiana Health Information Management Association and the past president of the American Academy of Professional Coders National Advisory board and served on the board for 7 years. Deborah has served on the CPT Editorial panel, the editorial board of Contexo Media, and currently serves on the editorial board of ICD-10 Monitor.

Deborah loves to sail and has reached her goal of obtaining her certification as a bareboat skipper. She likes spending as much time as she can on the water in the summer. Deborah also enjoys traveling the world, the performing arts, reading, spending time with good friends, and her 3 grandchildren who are interesting and fun. She spends much of her free time writing coding publications, which is her passion.