PPOA Patient Care Champion – Monique Alexander

Monique Alexander has a passion for insurance, which is why she has stuck with it her whole career life.

Moving back home to New Jersey from Virginia right out of high school and ready to begin a career, Alexander took a chance and applied for some health care collection agencies.

“Without too much knowledge on the subject, someone took a chance on me and it all began there,” she says.

After working with her former company in New Jersey, she then relocated with the company, which is what brought her to Tampa, Fla. After a while, she decided to make a change and eventually found a position at Physician Partners of America.

Here at PPOA, Monique was recently promoted to ambulatory surgery center revenue cycle manager. In simple terms, she is responsible for and oversees teams for collections, coding, and cash postings. She believes in teamwork and communication, which is what ultimately helps her connect with people so well.

She excels at multi-tasking and meeting every challenge that arises. For her, connecting with people is one of the most important aspects of being a great leader.

Alexander’s niche in health care insurance is not a random choice. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and while it was very difficult on Alexander, she knows she could definitely help with one aspect of it: insurance. She helped her mom get good medical insurance (which is not an easy task) while going through this hard time. Her mother eventually passed away but Alexander was glad she could do that for her mom and provide help in an almost helpless situation.

Alexander loves the PPOA atmosphere because it feels like home to her. “These people are like my family and we all support each other.”

While work is one of her passions, Alexander is also devoted to her 12-year-old daughter.

“She’s my world. Besides work, it’s her,” she says.”

For fun, Monique Alexander and her daughter go swimming and watch movies. They also hope to take some vacations soon.

We thank her for being such a great example of what a PPOA employee should be!

 

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PPOA to Offer Medical Services During 2019 Warrior Games

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Physician Partners of America supporting first Warrior Games in Tampa –

On June 21, some 300 inspirational military athletes will come together in Tampa, Fla. for the Department of Defense (DOD) Warrior Games, and PPOA will stand ready to assist them.

This Paralympics-style competition will run through June 30 in venues throughout the city. Its purpose is to allow disabled athletes to experience the healing power of sports while drawing inspiration from their fellow warriors and teammates.

It is free and open to the public.

Dr. Abraham Rivera, a veteran himself, is the Chief Medical Officer of Physician Partners of America and will welcome veterans from around the world to town. He and others from PPOA will volunteer their time during the games by offering consultations, x-rays and MRIs as needed.

“We are proud to offer our staff and facilities to these brave athletes during the games,” says Dr. Rivera. “They are truly an inspiration to us all.”

Established in 2010, the Warrior Games’ mission is to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans. They come from all military branches including the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

They have overcome a variety of challenges such as injuries to their upper or lower body and spinal cord. Some have suffered traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, serious illnesses or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

This is the first year the highly anticipated games will be held in Tampa. Teams have expanded, as this year’s Warrior Games will include five additional teams from U.S. allied nations: the Australian Defence Force, Canadian Armed Forces, the United Kingdom Armed Forces, the Danish Armed Forces and the Dutch Armed Forces.

Fourteen adaptive sports will be represented including archery, track, field, indoor rowing, powerlifting, road race cycling, time trial cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming and wheelchair basketball. For the first time, there will be competitions in golf, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.

The mission of USSOCOM’s warrior care program is to provide wounded, ill, and injured Special Operations Forces, veterans, and their families with advocacy after a life-altering trauma or illness to enhance their quality of life and strengthen SOF readiness.

The games will demonstrate the mass potential of wounded warriors through sports and show their incredible ability to prosper and overcome their challenges. For tickets, visit DODWarriorGames.com.

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PPOA Patient Care Champions: Ken Stroud

KEN STROUD: CERTIFIED RADIATION TECHNOLOGIST, PLANO, TX

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care.

Ken Stroud was once told he would have made a good pastor or funeral director for his ability to put people at ease. “I wasn’t interested in either,” he chuckles; instead, his caring personality serves patients well at PPOA’s Park Ambulatory Surgery Center in Plano, Texas.

As a certified radiology technologist, Stroud only sees patients for a few minutes before they get procedures, such as epidural steroid injections; but he makes a lasting impression, at turns lighthearted and compassionate. “I believe in treating everyone with the utmost respect and treating everyone the same, no matter who they are,” he says.

Gayle Schotte, clinical administrator at Park Ambultory Surgery Center, agrees. “Ken is very interactive with patients and shows great compassion,” she says. “He remembers names and faces and treats all of his patients with kindness and respect.”

His work involves taking live x-rays during procedures to help guide the physician to the treatment area. It requires a thorough knowledge of anatomy and a steady hand to ensure needles are positioned perfectly. In essence, he serves as the doctor’s x-ray vision.

Although Stroud says his line of work was chosen for him during aptitude tests in the United States Air Force, he comes by radiology with some background. He was raised in the small town of Kaufman, Texas, by his grandmother, who served as assistant to the town’s only dentist. “I would go in the darkroom and help her develop the x-rays,” he says.

After serving four years in the Air Force and earning a certification in Radiology Technology through Midwestern State University, moved to Albany, New York. Over the next 30 years, he worked at several hospitals and private practices, and crossed paths with one Dr. Abraham Rivera.

When his Texas roots called him back, Ken Stroud responded to an ad from Physician Partners of America. While Googling the company, he saw a familiar face on the screen: Dr. Rivera, who was now its chief medical officer.

Ken Stroud has worked at Park Ambulatory Surgery Center since 2014, and loves every aspect of his job.

A father of two adult children, Phillip, 28, and Rebecca, 25, he also enjoys playing the year-round golf that Texas weather offers, loves tournament bowling – he has bowled 11 perfect games – and playing tournament Texas Hold ‘Em poker.

He may not have turned out to be a preacher or a funeral director, but you might say he’s eclectic – an assessment that is especially true for the people who work with him and the patients who rely on him.

“Ken is a dedicated employee who wears many hats at Park ASC,” says Schotte, his supervisor. “His primary title may be certified radiation technician but his work ethic goes above and beyond. He’s always helpful to co-workers when needed. He’s a jack of all trades.”

 

 

 

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Our View on the Backlash to the Opioid Crisis

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Window sign was unauthorized, untrue

Physician Partners of America (PPOA) as an organization is sensitive to the current backlash to the opioid crisis and the new prescribing laws that have resulted. We recognize a growing movement of law abiding chronic pain patients who rely on long-term “maintenance” doses of opioid pain medication.

In particular, we would like to address a sign that was placed in the window of one of our practices on May 14, implying that we will cease prescribing opioid medication to patients as of May 31, 2019.

Patients are and will continue to be titrated down according to CDC guidelines; however, there is no cut-off date.

This sign was brought to our attention through social media. It was in no way authorized or approved by management, and its message is untrue. It resulted from an employee’s misinterpretation of our goal to reduce opioid dependence.

At its foundation, PPOA uses interventional pain management modalities to treat pain at its source instead of masking it with medication. Our physicians come to our organization with a variety of backgrounds and use many modalities to treat chronic pain. They are medical pioneers like Dr. Phillip Kravetz, researchers like Dr. Neil Ellis and Dr. Michael Lupi, and inventors like Dr. Lesco Rogers.

Treatments may include Stimwave, trigger point injections, nerve blocks, minimally invasive spine procedures with and without laser assistance, Botox injections for migraines, neuromodulation and regenerative medicine. Physicians may also utilize a variety of medications – including topical, oral and intrathecal – to reduce pain.

We use pharmacogenomics to determine the safest dosage and medication type based on each patient’s genome, and intraoperative neuromonitoring

We have championed remedies to the opioid crisis in public forums, in the media, in televised town halls and at medical conventions. PPOA physicians strictly follow the prescribing laws of the states in which they operate.

We recognize the opioid crisis backlash. As an organization, we sympathize with the plight of people who rely on, but who do not intentionally abuse, prescription opioid medications to manage their chronic pain. We aim to show them what we consider a better, safer way to reduce or eliminate pain.

We will continue to engage in serious, thoughtful discussions toward finding a middle ground that balances patient concerns, federal guidelines and state laws.

We thank the public for input on this sensitive topic and invite you to learn more about who we are and what we do on our website.

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Amanda Blair

AMANDA BLAIR, PRACTICE MANAGER, McKINNEY, TEXAS

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care.

Amanda Blair grew up wanting to be a cop like her grandfather. The idea of helping people and righting wrongs appealed to her nature. That dream eventually came true – she did spend time in law enforcement – but ended up transferring those skills to the healthcare field.

As the practice manager of Physician Partners of America – McKinney, TX clinic, Blair pulls together many skills to keep the practice running smoothly. She keeps the schedule moving, supervises the staff, assists the practice physician, Dr. Edrick Lopez, and – her favorite part – helps people get out of chronic pain.

“I find it so rewarding,” she says. “We have one patient who lived in pain for 20 years. Dr. Lopez completed the spinal cord stimulator procedure for him, and he is now pain-free. Seeing people with chronic pain like that drastically improve is so gratifying to me.”

Blair became the PPOA McKinney practice manager in February 2019 with a background in law enforcement and management, but has quickly woven herself into the PPOA culture and proven a more than capable healthcare leader.

“She is the true definition of a practice leader and is very well-respected by her physician and APP in the practice,” says her supervisor, Rhonda Boysen, regional director of operations – Texas. “She has become a strong support to her operations manager and is always open and willing to help others. Her clinic has become our ‘go-to’ clinic for new hire training. We are very proud to have Amanda as the leader of our McKinney practice with Dr. Lopez.”

Embracing challenges is second nature to Amanda Blair. Growing up in the Central California town of Bass Lake near Yosemite National Park, she grew up skiing, hiking, and horseback riding. Graduating from high school at 16, she put herself through college by training horses. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Criminology at California State University – Fresno, she moved to Texas with her sister and took a job as a fraud analyst for a banking firm.

“I loved it but I felt I wasn’t that involved in affecting people’s lives on a day-to-day basis and being a positive influence in the way I’d hoped,” she says. She was promoted to a management position in financial risk mitigation for a mortgage company, and while she was grateful for the management experience, she still wasn’t fulfilled.

“I did some research and decided to go back to school and get my degree in nursing,” Blair says. She is currently working toward her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Texas Women’s University, and one day aims to be a nurse practitioner. For now, combining her leadership skills and desire to help others is a perfect fit.

She credits her team for the clinic’s success with helping patients. “It’s amazing to be a part of the practice here. We have great team of staff and providers,” Blair says. “I couldn’t be luckier to have the dedicated staff I do. They’re all so helpful and committed to exceptional patient care. It’s rewarding to be part of such a great team.”

Her “team” at home is equally rewarding. She and her husband have a 17-month-old son. Although she hasn’t ridden horseback in a while, Blair enjoys staying active by running, including marathons and triathlons. Work, too, gives her energy.

“There are so many moving pieces. There’s never a dull moment. I wear a lot of hats and every day is different,” she says. “It can be challenging to juggle everything, but I love challenges.”

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Georgiana George

GEORGIANA GEORGE, SENIOR ACCOUNTANT – TAMPA

 

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care.

Georgiana George has worked her way up quickly at PPOA. She was recently named senior accountant at the company’s Tampa headquarters. She’s responsible for training newcomers to handle the hundreds of transactions a fast-growing healthcare corporation demands.

Her job touches just about every department, from building leases to making sure clinics have petty cash. She is the one who reconciles company credit cards and makes sure every expense is put is the right category.

While her job doesn’t touch patients directly, it is an essential part of ensuring the success of PPOA’s mission: delivering world-class patient care. That means taking her job seriously and helping her coworkers.

“Georgiana truly is the ‘dream’ employee,” says her supervisor, Controller-ASC Division Lisa Llorente. “She is an extremely hard worker who always goes the extra mile to get her job done.”

Working for a fast-growing company in a big city is not where Georgiana George thought she would be as she grew up in the one-red light town of Cedar Bluff, Alabama. Always strong in math, she earned her B.S. in Accounting from nearby Athens State University. She met her husband, Caleb, at work.

When he landed a job as a paralegal at MacDill Air Force Base, the two moved to Tampa. It was by far the largest city she had ever lived in, but the couple quickly adapted, and enjoy its sunny weather and pace of life.

After working for nearly two years as an accountant at the mega law firm of Morgan and Morgan, George joined Physician Partners of America in May 2018.

As required in the numbers field, she is passionate about precision, making sure her email inbox is zeroed-out by the end of the day; but don’t mistake her for the strictly no-nonsense type.

She and her husband are proud dog parents, with three rescues including a three-legged Chihuahua. “We take the dogs no one else wants,” she says. “My motto is, ‘the more, the merrier.’” She also enjoys sewing, a skill she learned from her mother. “It’s very relaxing,” she explains.

Still, work is a priority, and Georgiana George is highly valued throughout the company. “She is a team player who will pitch in to help any time she is asked,” Llorente says. “She offers to help when she sees someone needs a helping hand.”

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – William Scott

WILLIAM SCOTT – MEDICAL ASSISTANT, TAMPA-FLETCHER

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care.

William Scott always knew he wanted to help others. Growing up in Tampa, Fla., he was an active volunteer at church, helping the sick and elderly with errands, and helping his own mom after an injury. “It’s always been in my heart to help other people,” he says. “I’ve always been hands-on and want to help.”

Today he enjoys assisting patients at the PPOA Fletcher Avenue clinic in Tampa. His duties mainly involve helping with appointments and interventional pain management procedures, but he prides himself most on making patients comfortable.

“William goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to patient care, whether he is making an appointment for a patient or assisting a patient with a wheelchair to their car,” says his supervisor, Practice Manager Amanda Perrone. “He does not just come to work to get a pay check; he comes to work because he generally cares about each and every single patient.”

Adds Dr. Carissa Stone, one of the pain management physicians he works with, “William is kind, hardworking, very effective and cares about his work and the patients.”

Scott’s path to healthcare was not direct. Like many young people, he tried out several paths. After graduating from Robinson High School in Tampa, he worked in maintenance and restoring homes, then worked for UPS for six years.

“I found myself wanting a more fulfilling path,” he says. A friend’s mother worked as a nurse at a local nursing home, and offered on-the-job training. He found his calling.

“The feeling of helping another person is one of the greatest feelings in the world,” he says. “Even if you help one person a day, then you’ve helped make a better change in your life.”

He enjoys spending time outdoors with girlfriend Sheena Sierra, who also works as a PPOA medical assistant, and their children. William Scott also plays drums in his church band, and helping others both inside and outside of work.

“You only have one life to live,” he says, “so why not help make other lives great?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dr. Thomas Heil to Join PPOA in Keller, Texas

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Physician Partners of America announces it has hired Dr. Thomas Heil as an interventional pain management specialist in our Keller, Texas practice. He begins in early July 2019.

Dr. Heil is double board-certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Management and treats all pain conditions using a wide variety of modalities. These include neurostimulation and treatment of neuropathic (nerve) pain.

He comes to PPOA from Southeast Pain and Spine Care in Charlotte, North Carolina, and served as its medical director for pain management. He is a member of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia, and the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

A native of West Virginia, Dr. Thomas Heil earned his medical degree from West Virginia University. He began a residency in General Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., but later decided his passion lay in helping patients relieve their pain. He completed a residency and fellowship training in Anesthesiology at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Penn.

He has lectured widely on interventional pain management, cancer pain and other topics, and is listed in Leading Physicians of the World.

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PPOA Patient Care Champion – Evidelsy Vazquez

EVIDELSY VAZQUEZ: AUTHORIZATIONS AND VERIFICATIONS TEAM LEAD, TAMPA

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Evidelsy “Evi” Vazquez gets excited talking about insurance. Who does that? you might ask. Talk to her for a few minutes and you’ll understand why.

Vazquez is an authorization and verification specialist team lead, the one who tells patients what their insurance covers. She also leads the 18-member team responsible for clinics, procedure suites and ambulatory surgery centers. Her department’s goals are to deliver authorizations to the clinics, allowing physicians to perform needed procedures helping patients get out of pain.

“I love knowing what we can do to help someone,” she says. “We’re up against insurance companies. If they don’t want to pay, you’re limited. But an insurance verification and authorization specialist finds out why they don’t want to pay and finds out what can be done to get that claim paid. Knowing I can help really makes me keep pushing.”

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who moved to Bethlehem, Penn. at age 11, Vazquez has an innate desire to help others and was always drawn to healthcare. She earned her Certified Medical Assistant certificate at Star Technical Institute in Allentown, Penn., then began work at nearby Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The physician residents who staffed the facility had an all-hands-on-deck mentality that allowed medical assistants to learn a variety of tasks. “They let us do a lot of hands-on work because they were learning, too,” she says. “I worked the front desk doing insurance. I took out sutures. I assisted with injections. I scheduled patients. I loved being so involved,” she says, adding that she enjoyed working in the hospital’s pain clinic.

That experience helped her find her niche. Evidelsy Vazquez moved to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Penn., and became a financial counselor. She loved helping patients understand changes in insurance plans, and getting referrals and authorizations.

“I Realized How Important Insurance Is”

From there, Vazquez moved to Florida and helped start up the verification team at the now-defunct Laser Spine Institute. After ten years of growing that part of the organization, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her work had taken a personal turn.

Out of work for 18 months, the company could not hold her job and the insurance coverage that came with it. She got by through grants, help from her family, and sacrifice. “I was self-pay for everything,” she recalls. “I tried to apply for grants, used pharmacy discounts, got fewer pills and stretched them out until someone could give me money,” she said. “I realized how important insurance is.”

As she got back on her feet, she she decided to start job-hunting. She found PPOA through am amazing coincidence.

“On the day I learned I was in remission, I was sitting in the waiting room at Florida Cancer Center and saw a commercial for Dr. James St. Louis,” she recalls. Dr. St. Louis had recently come from Laser Spine Institute to PPOA to head its laser spine division. Vazquez had enjoyed working with him at LSI and immediately applied to PPOA “for any job I could.”

Putting Patients First

Vazquez says she enjoys the patients-first environment at PPOA, and the unique challenges she handles every day: winter visitors with out-of-state insurance, the different specialties she works with, and trying to help people get insured for procedures.

“A lot of it is making sure our documentations meet the insurance requirements so they could cover what a patient can or can’t do physically. That can make all the difference,” she says. “So I work closely with the clinics.”

Her manager, Christopher Ripoli, enthusiastically nominated her as a PPOA Patient Care Champion.

“Evi’s leadership capabilities, caring not just for patients but for her coworkers and team members, demonstrates her exceptional understanding and qualities that are an asset to the department, as well as to PPOA’s mission and values,” he says.

In addition to helping others at work, Vazquez is a giver in her personal life. She is the wife of a pastor, the Rev. Miguel Marquez of Church of God Ebenezer in Tampa. They have a blended family of four daughters and a son.

Evidelsy Vazquez has founded her own ministry, Abby’s Heart Mission Ministries, inspired by her own late mother’s personal mission trips to the Dominican Republic. Vazquez and her ministry have helped feed and clothe hundreds in the impoverished Caribbean island for the past four years. The ministry also has delivered kids’ school backpacks and blankets to the homeless in Tampa.

 

Did you know that PPOA offers FREE online insurance verification? Click here for details.

 

 

 

 

 

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PPOA Florida to Sponsor Walk to Cure Arthritis

About 54 million Americans suffer from arthritis, including 300,000 children affected with this lifelong disease. Physician Partners of America treats many cases of spinal and osteoarthritis pain each year, and has a passion for this cause.

Therefore, we are honored to be a corporate sponsor for the Arthritis Foundation’s Walk to Cure Arthritis in Tampa and Orlando. This fun and family-friendly 5k and 1 mile walk will be on Saturday, May 4, at Al Lopez Park in Tampa and Saturday, May 11, at Lake Eola in Orlando.

In addition to being a corporate sponsor of both walks, Physician Partners of America is committed to having a large team of at least 30 participants in Tampa and 20 in Orlando.

With support, the Arthritis Foundation will continue its mission to boldly pursue a cure for arthritis America’s No. 1 cause of disability, while championing the fight against arthritis with life-changing resources, science, advocacy and community connections.

The community at large is invited to join PPOA staff at the Walk to Cure Arthritis on May 4 in Tampa or May 11 in Orlando. Contact team leads Connie Huber at @chuber@physicianpartnersoa.com or Angela Jimenez at ajimenez@physicianpartnersoa.com. Or visit the Arthritis Foundation Events page to get involved in your community.

 

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