Auditing for Compliance and Education, Inc. consultants have been authorities on billing, coding, documentation, compliance, and reimbursement issues in the field of anesthesia and pain management for many years. Our consultants have been featured as speakers at various national conferences to share their expertise and provide education to the personnel within this specialty. Our Consultants provide our customers and conference attendees with the latest information and training available.
ACE, Inc. is comprised of 7 Consultants, 23 coders, and additional corporate staff. Below you will find a brief bio for each of our core coding staff and consultants. For additional info, please visit Our Company page.
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An ACE Consultant must have at least 10 years of relevant experience, be a certified coder (or possess an equivalent certification), be willing to travel, and be considered an “expert” in the field of anesthesia and pain management compliance. Click here to tell us about your experience.
Devona Slater is a nationally recognized consultant, keynote speaker, and author. As President and Compliance Auditor of Auditing for Compliance and Education, Inc. (ACE) she helps anesthesia and pain management practices improve compliance efforts, billing processes, and productivity. Her areas of expertise include anesthesia and pain management billing, coding, compliance, and operations assessment. With more than 25 years of experience in healthcare management, Slater’s breadth and scope of knowledge has made her a strong ally to physicians and the personnel that support them. Her consulting career has taken her to 49 states to help numerous anesthesia and pain professionals with billing, coding and compliance issues.
Prior to working with ACE, Slater was the Business Manager of ALM, Inc., a subsidiary of Physician Support Systems. She was responsible for billing and practice management for over 40 physician group practices specializing in reimbursement for hospital-based physicians. Dedicated to assisting physicians manage the business end of their practices, Slater educates her clients about their rights and responsibilities in the process of procuring reimbursement for medical treatment.
A respected member of numerous professional healthcare associations, including the Medical Group Management Association, Anesthesia Administration Assembly, American Institute of Healthcare Compliance, Healthcare Compliance Association, and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Slater also has a solid background in tax accounting and business administration. She has spoken at several national meetings including the Society for Pain Practice Management, Decision Health/Anesthesia and Pain Management Divisions, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Anesthesia Administration Assembly, and Harvard Medical School’s Pediatric Sedation Conference. Her talks have included educating physicians and practice managers on compliance, coding, office billing audits, managed care issues, contracts, tracking multiple fee schedules, and capitation.
She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration and Juvenile Corrections from Central Missouri State University, is a Certified Managed Care Professional (CMCP) from the Healthcare Financial Management Association, is certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) from the Health Care Compliance Association, and is a Certified Healthcare Auditor (CHA) for the American Institute of Healthcare Compliance. She co-authored the book, Prescription for Pain Billing, authored the business chapter in Winer’s Pain Management, A Practical Guide for Clinicians, Sixth Edition, authored the billing and coding chapter in Pediatric Sedation Outside of the Operating Room both the 2011 and 2013 editions and directed the team that wrote Medisyn, a physician billing software package.
When Deena Gauthier, CPC, CDEO, CANOC, CGSC was a young girl she wanted to be a nurse, a teacher or a truck driver when she grew up. Her inability to stay upright at the sight of blood and her struggles to navigate even a compact car in reverse made teaching a natural choice.
A graduate of UMF with a degree in Elementary Education, Deena taught for several years in Maine and Massachusetts, from Pre-K to adult education, (but never high school). Years of budget cuts and position changes prompted a career change. Her love of MATH (yes we exist...can you believe there is a WHOLE language of numbers?), computers and anatomy lead her to look into a career in medical coding. Deena has been coding professionally as well as teaching coding for 13 years. She becomes very passionate about any opportunity to talk about coding topics that come her way. Even though you are not likely to hear any child say they want to grow up to be a medical coder, it is a profession Deena is so grateful to have found her.
Kayla Lee, CPC joined the Auditing for Compliance and Education, Inc. (ACE) team in November 2014. Ms. Lee has spent the past several years under the mentorship of ACE’s president and nationally known expert in anesthesia and pain management Devona Slater, CHC, CHA, CMCP. Kayla holds a Certified Professional Coding (CPC) certification. While working at ACE she has been instrumental in cultivating the ACE coding division that provides a coding service, producing over 80,000 cases a month for groups across the country. Prior to that, she worked as a Certified Pharmacy Technician after graduating from Kansas State University. Kayla is very passionate about the anesthesia industry and believes that education for coders and providers is instrumental in creating the best coding service.
Susan West, RHIT possesses more than 35 years of experience with hospital and physician billing. In 1999, Ms. West chose to work exclusively in anesthesia and pain management coding and reimbursement when she came to work for ACE. She has extensive knowledge of Medicare and Medicaid coding/billing requirements and policies. Ms. West has assisted many practices in understanding coding concepts and applying the numerous rules and regulations to coding compliance. She has opened communications between providers and billing staff to better enhance documentation, correct coding, reimbursement and collections.
Susan received her designation as a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) through the American Health and Information Management Association in September of 1978. Ms. West continues her education each year through various coding training sessions and conferences. Ms. West received her designation as an AHIMA approved ICD-10-CM trainer and has developed the ACE anesthesia ICD-10-CM on-line training education for coding staff and providers.
Responsibilities with ACE include auditing documentation, providing reports and recommendations to ensure proper payments according to policies and procedures, as well as on-site compliance education. As a Compliance Auditor, she assists in the development of coding staff, auditing and coaching for the ACE Coding Team. She also spearheads the Monthly Auditing Program.
Lynette Peterson, CHC, CHA, is a business management veteran with expertise in process modeling and business quality principles. Lynette has over 20 years of diverse management experience facilitating change in a variety of business environments. She is now applying her expertise to the health care industry specializing in Anesthesia and Pain Management. She has a strong background integrating quality concepts into business operations and held several Director level positions with a Fortune 500 Company for 20 years.
Peterson began consulting for ACE in 2008. Her certifications include Certified in Healthcare Compliance from the Health Care Compliance Association, Certified Healthcare Auditor from the American Institute of Healthcare Compliance, and Specialty Coding Professional for Anesthesia from the Board of Medical Specialty. She is our resident expert on process documentation and analysis and has been the lead on several special projects regarding anesthesia reimbursement and billing processes.
Judi Blaszczyk, RN, CPC, ACS-PM, brings to ACE, Inc 18 years of experience as a registered nurse working in an acute care hospital setting. This background provides invaluable insight into the clinical aspects of medical coding and documentation as well as experience interacting with physicians and other clinicians. In addition to her clinical background, Mrs. Blaszczyk has 24 years of experience in medical coding and billing with a specialization in anesthesia and pain management. She received her CPC from the American Association of Professional Coders in 1999 and her Advanced Coding Specialist-Pain Management Certification from the Board of Medical Specialty Coding in 2006.
For 18 years she was part of the management team for a large anesthesia and pain management billing company. This allowed her to work with practices of various sizes, scope of practice and geographical location. This experience has prepared her to meet the needs of the wide variety of ACE client practices. One of her passions is assisting providers in understanding and remaining current on the ever changing coding and billing regulations. She has provided on site education to clinicians and coding and billing staff. Mrs. Blaszczyk is also a nationally recognized speaker on coding and documentation related issues. As a member of the BMSC National Pain Management Advisory Board she has further opportunity to impact the future of the coding and billing industry.
As an ACE auditor since June of 2009, Mrs. Blaszczyk is excited to have the opportunity to use her knowledge and experience to assist our clients in meeting their compliance and business goals.
Amelia Dinh, CPC obtained her Bachelor's of Science degree in Chemistry from Saint Mary's College and served in various roles in Quality Assurance and R&D in the biochemical industry prior to joining the ACE team in April of 2016. She has since obtained her certified professional coder's license and established herself as a technical and operations specialist under the tutelage of ACE's nationally renowned president, Devona Slater. Amelia's primary focus has been standardizing and streamlining ACE's coding operations. She was instrumental in deploying ACE's coding workflow management system that coordinates ACE's efforts to complete over 80,000 cases per month for groups across the country. Amelia is very passionate about the anesthesia industry and believes that clearly defined expectations and standard ways of working are the key to delivering best-in-class coding services.
Daniel Hammond
Solution Architect
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Daniel R. Hammond, M.A. joined the Auditing for Compliance and Education (ACE) team as a full-time solution architect in 2021 after two decades as an independent developer of ACE's proprietary auditing software. Danny holds bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from The University of Kansas and a master's degree in educational psychology from The University of Georgia. He has co-founded a pair of digital marketing startups and is passionate about teaching and implementation of technology solutions in a way that's easy for clients to understand.
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Auditing for Compliance and Education, Inc. consultants have been authorities on billing, coding, documentation, compliance, and reimbursement issues in the field of anesthesia and pain management for many years. Our consultants have been featured as speakers at various national conferences to share their expertise and provide education to the personnel within this specialty. Our Consultants provide our customers and conference attendees with the latest information and training available.
ACE, Inc. is comprised of 7 Consultants, 23 coders, and additional corporate staff. Below you will find a brief bio for each of our core coding staff and consultants. For additional info, please visit Our Company page.
