Professional Learning Center

Faculty

Robert Belfort

Mr. Belfort is Co-Chair of Manatt Healthcare Industry practice group. He has broad experience in the representation of healthcare organizations on regulatory and transactional matters. His clients include hospitals, community health centers, mental health providers, insurers, managed care plans, pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, disease management companies, nursing homes and a variety of other businesses in the healthcare industry. He has also worked extensively with provider and health plan trade associations.

Mr. Belfort focuses a significant part of his practice on healthcare regulatory compliance, representing clients in government audits and investigations, structuring transactions to ensure compliance with state and federal healthcare laws and providing advice on fraud and abuse. Mr. Belfot has special expertise in providing advice to clients regarding compliance with HIPAA and other state and federal privacy laws.

Ema Genijovich

Ema Genijovich, Lic. is the Director of Education at The Minuchin Center for the Family, New York. She is a Co-founder and former Advisory Board Member, of The Minuchin Center. Ema is also a visiting Faculty at St. John's University, Post-Graduate Program in Child, Family and Marital Therapy and a Clinical Faculty, New York University, Medical Center. She is a visiting Faculty at Universities in: Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, and Dominican Republic and in Europe. She is the President of “Genijovich Consulting Services, Inc.”.

International and national presenter, educator and consultant for Mental Health Programs, Foster Care Agencies, Board of Education, and multiple agencies working with substance abusers and others. Ema Genijovich has a private practice in New York. She is the author of articles on: culture, immigration and social class.

Ira Hammer

Ira Hammer has a BBA in Accounting from the Baruch School of the City College of New York, an MSW from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and an MBA in Finance from New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. Mr. Hammer is a senior level executive with over 25 years of progressive management experience in healthcare administration and grants management. He has developed and managed grants totaling in excess of $50,000,000 and ranging from $10,000 to $5,000,000. Mr. Hammer has experience as both a grantor for a large public agency in New York City (the New York City Department of Mental Health), and as a grantee for a private hospital system in New Jersey.

Derek Jansen

Dr. Derek Jansen, brings 30 years of experience in community healthcare to Practice Management Associates, ranging from direct care provision to hospital and outpatient administration as the Clinical Director of Adult and Dual Diagnosis Services for a regional psychiatric hospital system.

Derek has been a presenter at national and regional conferences for the National Council of Community Behavioral Health and others. He is a member of the American Association of Professional Coders, the Medical Billing Association of America, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and numerous others. Currently, Derek consults to community mental health centers, primary care associations, FQHC's, state Medicaid agencies, professional trade organizations, and regional hospital groups and individual practitioners regarding practice management, HIPAA contingencies, billing, coding and documentation compliance. Dr. Jansen is author of “Guide to Documentation, Billing and Coding for Clinical Services in Behavior Health” published by NCCBH.

Jack Jordan

Jack Jordan has 30 years experience in planning, directing and conducting Medicaid audits. From 1985 to 2005 he was the New York State Medicaid Audit Director, managing a staff of 300 auditors in seven locations throughout New York. Mr. Jordan's audit group routinely produced over 400 Medicaid rate and billing audits each year along with internal and external audits on a wide variety of health and social services issues and programs.

Mr. Jordan is currently president of JMJ Healthcare Compliance Group, which conducts compliance reviews, specialty audits, and external support to compliance officers for Medicaid /Medicare reimbursement and audit issues. During the past two years JMJ Healthcare Compliance Group has conducted over 30 simulated Medicaid audits/compliance reviews for a wide range of Medicaid providers. These reviews allow providers to determine their potential audit risk, evaluate their current procedures and internal controls, and implement changes necessary to eliminate identified problems.

Kathryn Kuhmerker

Kathryn Kuhmerker is president of Kuhmerker Consulting Group, LLC, and the former Medicaid Director for New York State. While Medicaid director, Ms. Kuhmerker developed and implemented major program changes, such as Disaster Relief Medicaid (developed in response to the disruption caused by the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack) and the state's major Medicaid expansion, the Family Health Plus program. She also led the Departments of Health's long-term care restructuring efforts. Prior to becoming Medicaid director, Ms. Kuherker was a senior manager in the New York State Division of the Budget.

David R. Lloyd

David R. Lloyd, President of M.T.M. (Management, Training and Marketing) Services, LLC based in the Raleigh, North Carolina area brings new healthcare management, training and community relations/marketing initiatives to Community Behavioral Healthcare Organizations nationally. Mr. Lloyd is the author of How to Maximize Service Capacity and How to Deliver Accountable Care that have been very helpful to Community Behavioral Healthcare Organizations nationally. In his books, Mr. Lloyd has developed principles and solutions about how CBHOs can deliver “Best Value” accountable care.

Petros Levounis

Petros Levounis, MD, MA, is the Director of The Addiction Institute of New York (formerly Smithers) and Chief of Addiction Psychiatry at St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals in New York City.

William Martin

William Martin has been an attorney for over 30 years, and most recently was the General Counsel for Mental Hygiene of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and previous to that the General Counsel of the City's Department of Mental Health. Among other things, he dealt with contracts, personnel issues, regulatory compliance, and health care financing with a specialty in Medicaid issues. Bill was very active in Albany legislative affairs, and drafted a number of Bills that were enacted into law.

Bill Martin and Michael Rabin, long time colleagues, formed the firm of Martin and Rabin in 2007 and represent non-profit organizations.

Mark McGovern

Dr. McGovern is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. McGovern specializes in the treatment of substance use disorders and practices through the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He has studied and published widely in the area of addiction treatment services research. He has conducted projects in a variety of settings including inner city detoxification programs, community mental health centers, state psychiatric hospitals, academic medical centers, office-based practices, and in private specialty treatment programs. He has also conducted training and research in the assessment and treatment of the dual-diagnosis patient in both psychiatric and addiction treatment systems.

Kim T. Mueser

Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Community and Family Medicine at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr. Mueser's clinical and research interests include psychiatric rehabilitation for persons with severe mental illnesses, intervention for co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders, and the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. He has published extensively.

Michael Rabin

Michael Rabin has been a New York City attorney for over 30 years, representing clients I a wide variety of matters in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He served as General Counsel at the City Department of Personnel, handling employment and civil service matters. He has also served as the General Counsel, Chief of Staff, and First Deputy Commissioner of the City Department for the Aging. In the non-profit sector, Michael served as General Counsel and Director, Contracts Management for Medical and Health research Association (MHRA).

Bill Martin and Michael Rabin, long time colleagues, formed the firm of Martin and Rabin in 2007 and represent non-profit organizations.

Bill Schmelter

Dr. Schmelter has more than 30 years of experience in the behavioral health field. A licensed psychologist, his career roles have included therapist, researcher, quality management executive, psychiatric hospital administrator, community services director and planner as the Director of the Long Island Regional Office of the New Your State Office of Mental Health. His professional experience includes the private, not-for-profit and governmental service sectors. He is currently a behavioral health consultant and with the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NCCBH) as well as with MTM Services Inc.

Jim Sheldon-Dean

Jim Sheldon-Dean is the founder and director of compliance services at Lewis Creek Systems, LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm founded in 1982, providing information privacy and security regulatory compliance services to health care firms and businesses throughout the Northeast and nationally for more than six years. He is a participating member of the advisory board of the Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL), the Vermont Health Information Technology Plan working group, and the Security Workgroup of the New Hampshire/Vermont Strategic HIPAA Implementation Plan (NHVSHIP). He is a frequent speaker regarding HIPAA and information privacy and security compliance issues at seminars and conferences. Mr. Sheldon-Dean has over 25 years of experience in policy analysis and implementation, business process analysis, information systems and software development.

Alicia D. Smith

Ms. Smith has over 10 years of health care experience spanning program and policy development, reimbursement policy and rate setting, compliance monitoring, strategic planning, technical assistance and consulting, and health services policy research. As operator of a consulting practice before joining HMA, she has served a variety of state and local behavioral health authorities, provider organizations and a national philanthropic health foundation. At Health Management Associates, Ms. Smith works with clients on a range of issues, using her systems and data analysis skills to help clients achieve their objectives.

Michael Swerdlow

Michael Swerdlow has a BA from San Diego State University and a Ph.D from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. Dr. Swerdlow has over 20 years of experience in grants writing and implementation, with an excellent track record in managing the clinical, operation and financial performance of a wide range of behavioral health and social service programs. He has developed numerous community-based outreach and treatment programs, and has published in the area of cross-cultural program design and international mental health. Dr. Swerdlow is certified as a Total Quality Management Trainer.

Ms. Thornton is the president of MTA and its founder. She is a talented and engaging consultant and trainer with significant expertise in mental health rehabilitation reimbursement systems, medical necessity and documentation, coding and reimbursement, and corporate compliance in behavioral healthcare. Ms. Thornton was a member of the consulting teams that assisted in the conversion to rehabilitation option for the states of Illinois, Georgia, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. She was also the lead consultant on compliance issues for the state of Ohio in its SOQIC project designed to further operational efficiency through standardized documentation and training in medical necessity and rehabilitation option services. She is also a nationally recognized trainer and a featured speaker for many state and national associations of provider agencies.

Tom Trabin

Tom Trabin, Ph.D., M.S.M. is an independent consultant to trade associations, government agencies, treatment provider organizations and managed systems of care within the behavioral healthcare field. He specializes in the areas of informatics and quality and accountability, has published several books, book chapters and articles on these topics, and has given presentations at over 150 international, national and regional conferences. He served on the Institute of Medicine Committee that recently produced Improving the Quality of Healthcare for Mental and Substance Use Conditions.

Laura Travaglini

Laura Travaglini, MA, is Coordinator of the Substance Abuse Programs at Columbia University Eastside and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of dually-diagnosed patients through evidence-based interventions. She is also involved in an NIH-funded research project at Columbia, and holds a certificate as a Motivational Interviewing Network Trainer (MINT) from the renowned Dr. William Miller and his team at the University of New Mexico. Previously, she was Project Director of VISN 3 MIRECC (Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center), which included research, training and evaluation in the use of MI for seven VA hospitals in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.