Christina Melnykovych, RHIA President & CEO   Ms. Melnykovych is a Registered Health Information Administrator with more than twenty-five years of experience working in the health care industry. Prior to founding Coding Continuum, Inc., she held a number of positions, both in academic and community hospital settings, as well as in the payer community as Vice President, Medicare for a large insurer. Ms. Melnykovych's experience includes eight years as Director, Health Information & Outcomes Management with a major teaching facility in the Southwest, where her responsibilities included direction of the Health Information, Quality Improvement, Patient Financial Services, Case Management, Social Work, and Disease Management departments. Ms. Melnykovych played an active role in the hospital's Compliance and Operational Compliance Committees, APC Steering Committee, Quality Review Committee, served as founder and Chairman of the UB-92 Committee, and was designated PRO contact and PEPP program coordinator. Prior to moving to the Southwest, Ms. Melnykovych was Vice President, Medicare Part B in Washington State, where she worked closely with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on initiatives related to Physician Payment Reform, Fraud and Abuse, Coverage, Medical and Utilization Review, Appeals, and Fair Hearings. Prior to assuming her Vice President role, Ms. Melnykovych was Director, Medical Records and Patient Accounts at a busy community hospital located in the suburban Seattle area.   Ms. Melnykovych has been a frequently requested speaker at national, regional, and local conferences sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association, Healthcare Financial Management Association, American Academy of Professional Coders, HcPro, and DecisionHealth. Topics have included Point-of-Service coding, Quality Monitoring, Denial Management program development, APCs, discussion of orders processing and medical necessity, and revenue cycle curriculum and education programs. She has been interviewed by Modern Healthcare regarding APCs.  Articles regarding programs she has developed have appeared in Radiology News and Briefings on APCs. Ms. Melnykovych has participated in the publication of the Q&A coding column of the Link, a newsletter published by the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators association.  In addition, she was a member of the Advisory Board of HCPro's publication APC Answer Letter: Answers to Your Challenging Coding, Compliance, and Reimbursement Questions and an Editorial Advisory Board member of CCH's Compliance Edge.  Ms. Melnykovych was accorded the Arizona Health Information Management Association Mentorship Award as well as a Certificate of Excellence from the PRO for work she has done to further health information and quality monitoring programs.

Charol Spaulding, CCS-P, CPC, CPC-H, PMCC Vice President Ms. Spaulding is a Certified Coding Specialist - Professional Services, Certified Professional Coder (CPC, CPC-H) and AAPC licensed Professional Medical Coding Curriculum instructor with thirty years of health care experience.  Her areas of expertise include education, clinical documentation management, chart abstracting, coding, and reimbursement.  Prior to joining Coding Continuum, Inc. as Vice President, Ms. Spaulding owned and operated her own consulting practice devoted to auditing and education of multi-specialty physician practice groups.  She has provided expert witness testimony in both criminal and civil actions involving allegations of fraudulent and inappropriate claims submission.  Before relocating to the Tucson area, Ms. Spaulding worked for Group Health Permanente in Seattle, Washington, as its Senior Coding Consultant.  Ms. Spaulding's extensive background includes work in California as Manager of UCLA's Medical Group Abstraction Unit and Cedars-Sinai Health Systems' Manager of Physician Reimbursement Services. Ms. Spaulding has served as Past President of the Seattle chapter of the American Academy of Professional Coders.  She is a published author of Coding Coach, "Examination Documentation Made Easy", a text specifically designed for physicians and coders. Ms. Spaulding has a demonstrated track record of success associated with training physicians and staff, resulting in measurable improvements in coding outcomes. She developed and currently teaches her curriculum, "CPC Examination Preparation Course" and designed and taught "Introduction to Medical Coding" at the Seattle Trade Center for Discover U, Sacramento, California.  Ms. Spaulding has participated in the publication of the Q&A coding column of the Link, a newsletter published by the American Healthcare Radiology Administrators association and is a member of the advisory board of HCPro's publication, APC Answer Letter: Answers to Your Challenging Coding, Compliance, and Reimbursement Questions. Ms. Spaulding has been a frequently requested speaker at national, regional, and local conferences sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association, American Academy of Professional Coders, and HcPro.