DCBA

About DCBA

Founded by Dr. Robert S. Gold in 2002, DCBA helps medical facilities achieve an accurate representation of their patients' illnesses and procedures through documentation in the medical record. Dr. Gold gained inspiration for his educational methods through years of experience as a physician and as a healthcare consultant. Dr. Gold has shared his extensive knowledge and educational methodology with the other consulting physicians, nurses and coders of DCBA. They have helped many hospitals institute successful clinical documentation improvement programs as well as having pointed out opportunities for education in documentation and coding practices found during medical record audits, both in the inpatient and outpatient arenas.

DCBA, Inc. has an experienced and strong senior staff. Our team members have diverse backgrounds that enable them to provide top- level service to our clients from a vantage point of deep knowledge. Our senior staff members have expert knowledge of our industry and are nationally respected for their contributions. This expertise allows us to provide a level of service that is unparalleled.

PRINCIPALS

• Robert S. Gold, MD, CEO
• Randall Guyton, COO

PHYSICIAN CONSULTANTS

• Cesar M. Limjoco, MD, VP of Clinical Services
• Daniel Catalano, MD, FACOG
• Paul Dickson, MD, CCS, CPC
• Timothy R. Schulte, MD

CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION CONSULTANTS

• Sandy Nicholson, MA, RHIA, AHIMA-Approved ICD-10 Trainer
• Samantha Suggs, CCS
• Ashley Ezell, BSN, MBA-HCM, RN, CCDS
• Kelli Estes, RN, CCDS
• Shane M. Catalano, RN, BSN
• Randy Wagner, BSN, RN, CCS

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Robert S. Gold, MD, CEO

Dr. Robert S. Gold is co-founder of DCBA, Inc., and has more than 44 years of experience as a physician, medical director and consultant. A graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, he trained in General Surgery in the U.S. Navy where he spent his professional career as a practicing surgeon. Since leaving the service, he has worked as a consultant in the fields of Managed Care Medicine, Locum Tenens, Home Health, Hospital accreditation and licensure and, most notably over the past ten years, in audit and education regarding documentation, coding and billing accuracy (DCBA) for healthcare services.
Nationally known for his education regarding the clinical orientation of coding in AHIMA teleconferences and at the National Conference for the Society for Clinical Coding, Dr. Gold is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is widely published.

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Randall Guyton, COO

Randall Guyton, co-founder of DCBA, Inc., has more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He has provided consulting services to a variety of healthcare providers including multi-hospital systems, community hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes and physician companies. Randall was previously a senior manager with Ernst & Young responsible for the development of compliance solutions including an internet-based training program and compliance auditing and monitoring software. Other responsibilities included providing and managing the development of compliance programs, Medicare cost report reviews, due diligence projects, financial audits and the implementation of compliance training solutions to various facilities including a 40-hospital system.
A Certified Public Accountant, he is a member of the Health Care Compliance Association and Healthcare Financial Management Association as well as a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Randall received his B.S. from the University of Alabama in 1985.

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Cesar M. Limjoco, MD, VP of Clinical Services

Dr. Cesar M. Limjoco has more than 20 years in the coding field, with extensive experience assisting healthcare clients with Medicare and Medicaid inpatient medical record documentation and reimbursement issues. He has assisted hospitals to ensure coding compliance in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Dr. Limjoco has published numerous articles on clinical coding and documentation.
He was a member of CMS' Technical Expert Panel on Comprehensive Risk Adjustment Data Validation Methodology for Medicare+Choice organizations. He previously served as senior director with IPRO, New York's Quality Improvement Organization, in the Payment Error Prevention Program (PEPP) and was editor of its newsletter, PEPP Update. He served as Physician Advisor to Oxford Health Plan, as well as chair of the New York Medical Coding Section and State Round Table Coordinator for the Society of Clinical Coding. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Ateneo de Manila University and Doctor of Medicine from Cebu Doctors' College of Medicine.

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Daniel Catalano, MD, FACOG

Dr. Daniel Catalano has extensive experience as a physician and physician executive. As a physician executive, he served as Medical Director and VPMA/ Chief Medical Officer for two hospital systems. In these roles, he trained all active medical staff in electronic medical record software. He has developed and managed the implementation of clinical documentation improvement systems and has been a physician team member in seven information system installations.
A 1986 graduate of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, he performed his internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. After serving in the United States Air Force, Dr. Catalano was in private practice for 13 years, holding various medical staff leadership positions during this time.

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Timothy R. Schulte, MD

Dr. Timothy R. Schulte is a Board Certified Family Practioner with nearly thirty years of clinical experience. He attended Medical school and completed his residency at the University of Louisville. He then went into solo practice for close to ten years in his hometown in northern Kentucky. Following that, he went to work for the local hospital as a house physician. It was during his last seventeen years as a house physician at a hospital in Ft. Thomas, Kentucky that he became involved in the field of clinical documentation improvement. He was instrumental in setting up the first documentation program at that hospital and later became Medical Director for several programs within The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. Having both an extensive clinical background as well as years of experience in documentation improvement affords him the unique ability to translate from physician language to the type of terminology needed to help reflect true severity of illness in the patient medical record. Since coming to work for DCBA, Dr. Schulte has led the development of several successful documentation improvement programs.

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Paul Dickson, MD, CCS, CPC

Dr. Paul Dickson has more than 25 years of healthcare experience, initially as a corpsman in the US Navy, a practicing general surgeon in N.E. Georgia and now a healthcare consultant. Dr. Dickson has provided a wide variety of consulting services to health systems, hospitals, physician practice management groups and physicians nationwide. Some of these services include physician liaison training, clinical documentation improvement education for physicians, HIM staff, and nurse clinicians/case managers, quality reviews, and CPT coding and billing along with evaluation and management documentation training. He has also provided DRG and CPT Compliance and quality reviews in both inpatient and outpatient setting.
Dr. Dickson was certified by the American Board of Surgery during his years of surgical practice and also obtained certification in inpatient and outpatient coding and billing through the American Health Information Management Association and the American Academy of Professional Coders. A graduate of Georgia State University, he holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the Medical College of Georgia, where he also completed his surgical residency.

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Sandy Nicholson, MA, RHIA, AHIMA-Approved ICD-10 Trainer

Sandy Nicholson has more than 25 years of experience in the Health Information Management field as a coding professional, department director and consultant. An honors graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a degree in Medical Record Administration, Sandy has held director-level positions in hospitals ranging in size from 100- bed community hospitals to 450-bed urban teaching facilities.
While serving as Director of Clinical Information in a nearby hospital, Sandy obtained her masters degree in Health Services Management from Webster University, Little Rock, Arkansas. During her experiences as Health Information Management director in various facilities, she has implemented concurrent coding programs to streamline coding and billing processes and established Resource Management departments, bringing together HIM, Social Services, Utilization Review, Infection Control and Discharge Planning functions to improve patient throughput, reduce LOS and enhance clinical documentation and coding processes.
Since 2001, Sandy has been known nationally as a presenter of audio conferences on coding and clinical documentation improvement. She has provided numerous workshops and seminars to physicians and their office staff concerning professional fee coding and billing compliance as well as one-on-one and group sessions with physicians and hospital-based clinicians in areas of inpatient clinical documentation improvement.

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Samantha Suggs, CCS

Samantha Suggs has an extensive educational background including a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a program in premedical sciences. Samantha worked in patient care at Northside Hospital in Atlanta before taking a research position at Emory University which she held for several years. She then completed a course in medical billing and insurance coding and became a certified coding specialist through the American Health Information Management Association. Shortly thereafter she accepted a position with DCBA and has assisted in successfully implementing several clinical documentation improvement programs.

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Ashley Ezell, BSN, MBA-HCM, RN, CCDS

Ashley Ezell has 19 years of experience as a registered nurse and consultant. She focuses on Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI), departmental and organizational assessments, orientation and implementation of CDI programs, and physician practice coding reviews. Ms Ezell has extensive experience in Clinical Documentation Improvement in the acute care facilities as well as the long term acute care hospitals (LTACH), denial management in both private physicians' offices as well as in hospitals, and coding for private practice physicians, Compliance Auditing for Rehabilitative Medicine, as well as working with facilities under a Corporate Integrity Agreement. Ms. Ezell earned her BSN from the University of Alabama and her MBA from University of Phoenix.

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Kelli Estes, RN, CCDS

Kelli Estes has 15 years of experience as a Registered Nurse with more than half of that time spent focusing on clinical documentation improvement. Graduating from Eastern Kentucky University in 1993, Kelli has worked in various clinical areas including Med/Surg, Endoscopy/Special Procedures, PACU, Home Health, and Radiology. After leaving the clinical setting, Kelli successfully implemented a CDI program at Taylor Regional Hospital in South Central Kentucky, successfully managing and maintaining the program for 3 years. During that time, she became more involved with utilization review coordination, risk assessment and management, and hospital compliance teams.

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Shane M. Catalano, RN, BSN

Shane Catalano has been working with DCBA, Inc. since 2008. She has broad practice in management, education and marketing, and has practiced nursing in multiple areas including the fields of emergency, pediatric intensive care, operating room/recovery and organ procurement. As a clinical analyst at a major university medical center in California, her responsibilities included managing the development and implementation of a Value Improvement Program, a cost effective practice system. This involved financial and operations studies to assist management and physicians in decision processes, development of inpatient practice protocols and implementation of an outcomes measurement system.
While working in managed care in California, she developed a tertiary case management program, assisted in the development of a telephone triage system, and performed physician and staff education in managed care. While working for a large multi-specialty medical group, Shane was responsible for initiation and implementation of a Utilization Management program and formation of a Quality Management department meeting all the regulations of the contracted HMOs.

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Randy Wagner, BSN, RN, CCS

Randy Wagner has more than a decade of experience as a clinical documentation improvement and coding consultant educator and mentor with multi-decade experience as a registered nurse in various clinical settings. She has experience as an academic nursing educator and contributor to curricula development. Clinical Documentation Improvement Program consulting gives Randy the opportunity to provide personal mentoring on the key elements of clinical documentation that may be translated into the most proper and accurate ICD-9-CM, CPT E&M code assignment that best reflects severity of illness of the patient with the quality of care provided. "Educating and mentoring is my passion." Randy is a graduate of The Ohio State University. Prior to her association with DCBA, she was the Documentation Compliance Program Education Coordinator of a multi-campus healthcare system in Ohio. She has been a seminar presenter and contributor to healthcare publications.