Terri Meier CHFP, CSMC, CSBI
President
Bio: Click Here
Perla Pace
President Elect
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Basak Kaya
Immediate Past President
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Violeta Aguirre
Vice President
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Cindy Pizarro
Secretary
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Shelly Robertson
Secretary
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Fahd Benjalil
Treasurer
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Susan Kilmer
Director of Programs – Education Events
Bio: Click Here
Tonya Richardson
Director of Programs – Social Events
Bio: Click Here
Christina Bolanos
Director of Programs – Social Media
Bio: Click Here
Paromita Laskar
Director of Communications
Bio: Click Here
Adam Taylor
Director of Sponsorship
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Alece Hon
Director of Membership
Bio: Click Here
John Garcia
Director of Certification
Bio: Click Here
Julie Haluska
Awards, Founders
Our chapter’s Certified Members and Fellows:
- Fahd Benjalil, FHFMA
- Jared Berkson, CHFP
- Katy Courson, CHFP
- Mendy-Sue Drew, CSAF,FHFMA
- Craig Du Fault, CHFP
- John Garcia, FHFMA
- Andrea Gonzalez, FHFMA
- Mary Grossman-Scudder, CHFP,CRCR
- Alec Hendry, CHFP,CRCR,CSBI
- Reid Hollyfield, FHFMA
- Alece Hon, FHFMA
- Basak Kaya, FHFMA
- Thomas Kumura, FHFMA
- Jeffrey Lambert, FHFMA, CMA,CSAF,CSBI,CRCR
- Patrick Lash, CPA, FHFMA
- Terri Meier, CHFP,CRCR
- Alicia Mertz, CHFP
- Maya Mohan, FHFMA
- Javier Ochoa, CHFP
- Urvashi Pathak, CHFP,CSBI
- Beata Piehl, CHFP
- Sean Putnam, CPA,CHFP
- Lisa Thakur, FHFMA, CPA
- Narciso Vazquez, CRCR,CHFP
- Xiang Wu, CHFP
The certification committee has one main focus – to get you certified. Our motto is “Just do it,” (take the test that is!) Are you interested in becoming a certified member? Check out the invaluable information on National’s website. https://www.hfma.org/certification/
Chapter contact:
Chair: John Garcia, FHFMA
Sharp HealthCare
Bio: Click Here
Paromita Laskar
As a mentoring leader, Paromita believes in boosting the growth of team members, in becoming independent decision makers, using strong foundational research techniques. Paromita is a passionate public speaker on subjects of motivation, team work as well as Revenue cycle related subjects and has spoken in numerous forums, promoting industry best practices.
She earned her Masters in Public Health from San Diego State University and Masters of Business Administration from Mumbai University, with an undergraduate degree in accounting.
Julie Haluska
Alece Hon
Prior to UC San Diego Health, Alece worked for Scripps Health for over 11 year as a Sr. Clinical Analyst. While at Scripps Health, she supported Hospital Finance, Home Health and Hospice divisions.
Alece holds a Master of Business Administration (Healthcare Concentration), from Point Loma Nazarene. She also has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (emphases in Accounting) and is CHFP from the Health Care Management Association (HFMA).
Violeta Aguirre
Violet Aguirre works for Scripps Health as a Revenue Cycle Manager overseeing the Public Resource Specialists Department. She is responsible for a team of specialized individuals that assist their uninsured and underinsured patients apply for public benefits. These efforts facilitate discharge needs in collaboration with their Case Managers and Social Workers.
Her 18+ years of experience has allowed for successful collaboration between various entities, specifically the hospital and the County Hospital Outstation Point of Entry (HOPE) program. Most recently her team took the lead in conducting a successful pilot which resulted in the current business model on how all participating hospitals do business with the County HOPE Program. In collaboration with other departments, she is focused on advocating for her patients get the coverage they need to reduce self-pay, bad debt and re admissions. All decisions are made with the patient at the center.
Prior to Scripps she worked for the County Health and Human Services Agency as an Eligibility worker for the Medi-Cal program, where she gained most of her program knowledge. She has been a participant and currently serves as the Chair for the HOPE Program Liaison workgroup.
Adam Taylor
Adam is responsible for charge capture practices, chargemaster management, the organizations clinical documentation improvement (CDI) program, coding/billing integration, and revenue cycle analytics at Palomar. Prior to joining Palomar, Adam spent 8 years proving healthcare IT consulting to a diverse range of clients; serving in roles such as a Solution Strategist at Cerner Corporation and a Senior Advisor at Impact Advisors, LLC.
In addition to Adam’s participation in HFMA, he has participated and gained certifications in equivalent industry associations; Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) from HIMSS. Adam holds a dual degree in Economics and Business Management from Baker University.
Perla Pace
Pace has served as programs chair 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. She has participated in special event planning including the 50th anniversary celebration and 5th Annual Women’s event.
She earned a Bachelors’ degree from the University of Phoenix where her area of study focused on healthcare administration and leadership. Perla Pace is an expert in organization change and is certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Jeff Reid
Jeff joined the HFMA San Diego Chapter program committee in 2014 and currently serves as Co-Chair for membership.
Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree and an MBA. He has been married to his wife Lea for 43 years and they have 7 grown children.
Fahd Benjalil
Fahd believes that hard work, strong relationships, and the willingness to give back to the community are the necessary pillars for a strong foundation to a successful career. Fahd has been involved with HFMA for over 10 years and has held various roles within the chapter culminating with chapter president for 2018-2019. Fahd currently serves on the HFMA National Advisory Committee.
Fahd holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from National University in San Diego, CA. He is proud of his recent U.S. naturalization from his home country of Morocco, and also a proud resident of San Diego’s East County where he lives with his wife, Diedre, their three children, a dogs and a cat.
Mindy Scher
Mindy Scher is the Director of Business Development SW Region for Xtend Healthcare, a Revenue Cycle Solutions Company located in the Nashville Area, TN. Based out of San Diego, Mindy’s territory includes all of California and Arizona and working with the Western Regional VP, she is responsible for sales and
assisting onsite operations with hospital client support.
Mindy has five years of professional healthcare sales experience working with Xtend Healthcare, and an additional two years working in managed care software marketing with Care Compass. Prior to joining Xtend she worked as the Communications Coordinator for San Dieguito United Methodist Church,
Encinitas CA, Developing and managing their Website, as well as electronic communications and event marketing,. She begin her professional career in Computer System Sales with Wang Laboratories.
Joining HFMA San Diego Chapter 5 years ago, she has worked two years as Membership Chair, one year as Vice President and is currently the President Elect. She has also worked on various committees with the Southern California, and Northern California Chapters over the past 5 years.
Mindy holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree with an emphasis in Marketing from University of the Pacific, Stockton California. She has been married to her husband Keith for 32 years and they have three grown children.
Terri Meier CHFP, CSMC, CSBI
Terri Meier is currently the System Director Patient Revenue Cycle at UC San Diego Health, providing leadership and strategic direction of UCSDH’s Shared Business Office (SBO). SBO unifies the patient-facing element of the billing office for both hospital billing and professional billing with a single bill and single point of contact for customer service. Terri has worked exclusively in healthcare for 40 years serving in multiple leadership roles as well as healthcare consulting.
Immediately prior to UCSDH Terri served for four years as the Director, PFS and Director Professional Billing Organization for Stanford Health Care and the prior 12 years as the Director, Revenue Cycle Operations for Oregon Health & Science University.
Terri holds a healthcare financial management certification from the Oregon Graduate Institute as well as CHFP, CRCR, CSMC, CSBI from the Health Care Management Association (HFMA). Terri is also the President for the 2020-2021 year for the San Diego Imperial Chapter of HFMA.
Dan Bannister
Dan has worked on the San Diego Board of HFMA as Communications Director for the past 5 years.
Basak Kaya, MBA, SSGB, CHFP, FHFMA
Basak Kaya is the Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Vituity, a physician owned and led multi-specialty partnership serving over 7.5 million patients in soon to be 18 states.
Prior to joining Vituity, Basak was the System Director of Revenue Integrity, Quality, Analytics and Training for Sharp Healthcare.
Basak has 19 years of professional experience in healthcare technology, revenue cycle operations, finance, and performance improvement across private and public sectors. She was a Director at Healthcare Financial Services, President/CEO of an international consulting firm, executive over strategic operations for a healthcare technology company in New York City, managed revenue cycle projects at The George Washington University Hospital and worked in business intelligence consulting and new product development at The Advisory Board Company in Washington, DC.
Basak holds a Master of Business Administration degree with a focus in health services management and finance from The George Washington University where she was a Millennial Scholar. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from The University of Virginia. Basak published articles on recovery audits, received multiple academic and professional awards. Basak also serves as an advisor to University of California San Diego Revenue Cycle Education Programs.
Basak is an active member of the HFMA and has been serving on the board of the San Diego chapter for the last 6 years.
Beata Piehl
Christina Bolanos
Director, Revenue Integrity
Christina Bolanos is responsible for hospital revenue integrity efforts for Sharp HealthCare – a fully integrated healthcare delivery system with 2,110 licensed acute care beds at 4 acute care and 3 specialty hospitals, 3 affiliated medical groups, a health plan, 3 skilled nursing facilities, 21 outpatient clinics, and 5 urgent care centers.
Christina oversees quality control, denials, charge integrity and training teams, safeguarding processes that produce accurate, compliant, clean claims across for the system. Her charge integrity team who are system-wide operational experts on TES edits and ensures sound charge entry and reconciliation processes for all departments. Her training team oversee all revenue cycle employees are trained and given the tools to do their job with the most current revenue cycle knowledge. Denial team and QC ensure revenue recovery occurs and quickly and accurately as possible.
Prior to her current position, Christina was the manager over revenue cycle performance improvement, laboratory revenue cycle billing and behavioral health patient access services teams at Sharp HealthCare.
Christina has over 20 years of professional experience, 17 of those years in supervisory roles. After starting her healthcare career as a per diem at Sharp HealthCare Pathology Laboratory, Christina moved into a leadership role helping establish Sharp HealthCare’s first and only outreach laboratory revenue team. Christina was recognized with prestigious “Core” awards for her stellar results in denials management and behavioral health financial counseling efforts.
Tonya Richardson
Vice President of the San Diego Branch
California Business Bureau Inc/Medical Billing Services
Years with CBB: 22
Healthcare Experience: 26
Tonya Richardson joined California Business Bureau Inc./Medical Billing Services in July 1998. CBB/MBS is a full service account receivables management company specializing exclusively to the Healthcare Industry. She has a broad range of experiences in her career; she has held positions as a Collector, Collection Supervisor, Branch Manager and currently as Vice President of the San Diego Office. Through these experiences she has developed a sound understanding for operational needs and delivering client service/sales needs and satisfaction. She has an astute knowledge for managing Medical Receivables. She is proficient in Account Flow Management with a keen ability to Manage Special Projects and a proven track record for delivering results. Tonya is well versed in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, The California Rosenthal Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and also has a clear understanding of HMO/PPO Billing, Workers Compensation Billing, and Self Pay Medical Receivables.
Tonya is the Region 4 President of the California Association of Collectors (CAC) and currently the Social Chairperson for the San Diego-Imperial Chapter of Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). Through these associations, she became involved and concerned with legislative issues that have potential affect on the collection of healthcare accounts. She has attended meetings with state legislators in Sacramento to lobby for or against bills and potential legislation that have or would have likely impact on our business.
Tonya Lives in Poway, CA with her husband and together they have 5 children ranging in age from 9 to 23 years old. Her favorite pastimes are being outside watching her kids play sports, wine tasting with her husband and in her kitchen cooking. She is also training for her 10 th Susan G Komen 3-Day which benefits the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.
Doug Barry
For over 40 years, Doug has demonstrated extensive Revenue Cycle skills. Serving in various Senior Leadership roles for large international financial accounting firms, for numerous financially distressed providers, and large outsourcing firms, Doug is known for his ability to quickly turn-around troubled organizations, his focus on Revenue Cycle performance, and for building collaborative relationships and high functioning teams.
Prior to working at Palomar Health as the Vice President of Revenue Cycle, Doug was with the financial accounting firm MazarsUSA where he served in Advisory Services as the Partner responsible for their Healthcare Operational and Financial Performance Improvement Practice. Doug served as President of one of the largest Outsource firms where he had oversight responsibilities for more than 800 hospital clients in 46 states. He served as a Director with PwC, and his provider experience includes System Vice President of Revenue Cycle in several hospitals and systems with responsibility for Patient Access, Health Information Management, Revenue Integrity, Clinical Documentation Improvement, Charge Master, Physician Billing, Vendor Management, and Billing and Collection operations.
Kellie Hooper
Kellie Hooper is currently the Vice President of Business Development for Revecore. Revecore, the leader in helping hospitals navigate complex claims
management services and revenue recovery solutions for more than two decades. Hooper is based in Boise, ID and brings more than 20 years of healthcare experience to lead Revecore’s business focus on their expansion in the west.
Kellie’s experience span companies in the healthcare market, including TransUnion, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology from Idaho State University where she was captain of the Women’s Golf Team and later became the become the Women’s Head Golf Coach. She is passionate in striving to make a difference and honored to apart of the San Diego Imperial Chapter leadership team. Connect with Kellie on LinkedIn.
John Garcia
John has over 20 years of healthcare finance experience including working for healthcare providers as well as revenue cycle technology, consulting, and service firms. Currently he is a Senior Financial Analyst for Sharp HealthCare, and is a member of the Finance team at Sharp Grossmont Hospital. Prior to joining Sharp he was an Account Manager for Avadyne Health where he worked closely with revenue cycle leaders nationwide to help hospital clients improve their revenue cycle performance.
John is a Certified Healthcare Financial Professional (CHFP) and Fellow of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (FHFMA), and is currently the Certification Chair for the San Diego-Imperial chapter of HFMA.
Susan Kilmer
Finance Transformation & Decision Support Manager
Sharp HealthCare
Susan Kilmer is the Finance Transformation & Decision Support Manager at Sharp HealthCare. She has been in healthcare for over 15 years. She has led two system-wide Financial Decision Support Tool implementations and is currently partnering with leaders to develop standard service line reporting. She has her Master’s in Public Administration with emphasis in Healthcare Administration from University of San Francisco, and Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a double manager in Management Information Systems and Accounting from California State University, Chico. She has extensive experience as a project manager, leading teams, successfully partnering with teams across the organization to implement systems, as well as business processes.
Cindy Pizarro
Cindy started with the SBO Department as a Customer Service Professional for 2 years. During that period, she was a mentor to her peers and worked closely with leadership on the implementation of SBO’s process improvements. One of her goals was to continue to expand her knowledge in the healthcare billing industry, guiding her to her current role as a SBO Coordinator.
Chapter Information
The San Diego-Imperial Chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association is a professional membership organization for individuals in financial management of healthcare institutions and related patient organizations. Refer to the following links to learn more about our chapter.
San Diego Imperial Chapter Bylaws (247 KB)
Our Chapter leaders are here to serve the members. If you have any suggestions to improve our services; or would like to participate on a committee; or have an idea for educational programming or social events please feel free to contact any of our Chapter officers, board members or committee chairpersons.
Below is a listing of our Chapter’s Founders Merit Award Series recipients.
Founders Award Recipients (52 KB)
Interested in Certification? Here are our current certified members and information about how to become certified: Become HFMA Certified
HFMA San Diego Imperial Chapter Past Presidents listing: HFMA_Past_Presidents.pdf (180 KB)
Our Chapter offers many services to our members, as well as many ways to volunteer your services and become involved in the Chapter.
If you have suggestions to improve our services, would like to participate on a committee, or have an idea for educational programming, please email hfmasandiego@gmail.com or contact any of our Chapter officers, board members or committee chairpersons.