People

Linda is a physical therapist with a Masters in Health Sciences. She has worked in home health since 1988 and has been a nationally recognized expert on OASIS since its national implementation in 1999. Linda serves the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractors, assisting in quality measures development, data set refinement and maintenance and updating of guidance manuals and other key provider education resources for Post-Acute Care settings. She provides oversight and subject matter expertise to oversee contracts for the CMS Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Technical Assistance work, as well as for CMS’s Quality Reporting Programs for Home Health, Hospice, Inpatient Rehab Facilities and Long-Term Care Hospitals. She served as the President and a Founding Member of the OASIS Certificate and Competency Board (OCCB) and continues to oversee the COS-C Exam as Chair of the Exam Review Taskforce. Linda is the President and Founder of OASIS Answers, Inc. 

Marian is a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience in home health, hospice, and community-based services.  Marian works in conjunction with CMS leaders in the support of quality measure development and monitoring, public reporting and confidential reporting of quality measures across post-acute settings. Marian served as the Director for the Home Health Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (QIOSC) for Pennsylvania's Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) and served as Director for the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign to reduce avoidable hospitalizations. As a recognized expert in developing and supporting quality improvement activities at the local, state and national levels, Marian has served on and led numerous CMS technical expert panels and quality improvement committees. She currently supports OAI’s Post-Acute Care initiatives, including providing subject matter expertise to OAI’s CMS contract work supporting the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing project, and the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) instrument and quality measure development work.  Marian holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and serves as Senior Director of quality and Innovation with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Megan Bernier is a physical therapist with a Masters in Physical Therapy. Megan serves as an expert in data collection guidance for the PAC assessment instruments and is a lead for the CMS QRP helpdesks for home health, SNF, IRF, and LTCH. Megan shares her vast knowledge in data collection expertise in presenting education for CMS and OAI trainings.    She has worked in the home health industry since 2010 as a field clinician, as well as in supervisory and administrative positions supporting home health quality improvement, regulatory compliance, clinical documentation, and operations. Megan currently supports OAI’s post-acute care work with provider education, guidance manual work, and CMS Help Desks support that provides guidance on data collection of OASIS, the MDS, the IRF-PAI and the LTCH CARE Data Set. She has a passion and appreciation for the critical need for OASIS accuracy and is a knowledgeable and engaging national OASIS educator. Megan holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and serves as a Post-Acute Care Clinical Manager with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Elaine is a registered nurse, practicing in home health since 1977. Elaine’s detailed and provider-focused insights have supported the propulsion of the original HHVBP Model to a national expanded Model. She also supports the development and testing of the CMS standardized data collection tool for hospice, HOPE.  She has held a variety of clinical and management positions at hospital-based, local government, and non-profit agencies. Most recently, Elaine served as Quality Improvement Manager at a large, urban private non-profit certified home health agency where she provided staff education, and monitored aggregate and patient-level data to meet the agency’s financial and quality objectives. Elaine has been a clinical instructor in the nursing programs at Loyola University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and Northeastern University, and has presented at the state, regional and national levels on home health clinical practice, including issues related to caregiver needs and patient engagement. 
Elaine holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) and serves as Home Health Clinical Project Lead with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Kerry is a physical therapist with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She has worked in the home health industry since 2007, as a field clinician, as well as in roles supporting coding and documentation for compliance and quality. She has over 10 years of experience conducting detailed reviews of clinical documentation for home health and hospice providers, focusing on OASIS and diagnosis coding accuracy, as well as regulatory compliance and documentation to support Medicare coverage. Kerry is a certified coder and an AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM Trainer. She holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Clinical Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Lori is a physical therapist with a Masters in business administration.  She has been practicing for 25 years with experience initially in the outpatient setting and then in home care since 2009. Lori’s experience includes positions as a field clinician, quality educator and clinical manager. In focusing on high quality outcomes and performance improvement, Lori’s work emphasizes the critical need for OASIS accuracy in measuring and achieving clinical success.  Lori currently supports OAI’s CMS contract work related to Home Health Value-Based Purchasing, and OASIS data collection guidance and she serves on OAI’s Blueprint Presenter Team. Lori holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist- Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Clinical Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc. 

Amy is a registered nurse with over 15 years of experience in home health, hospice, and post-acute care data collection and quality measurement. She has supported data collection accuracy since 2014, beginning as a field clinician and progressively advancing to clinical supervisory and leadership roles. Amy has developed system-wide training and managed staff and systems to support accuracy in home health, hospice, and post-acute care data collection and quality improvement. Amy currently supports OAI’s CMS contract teams related to OASIS data collection guidance, hospice measure and instrument development, and serves as a member of OAI’s Blueprint Presenter Team. Amy holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist- Clinical (COS-C) designation and is a Clinical Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc. 

Bobi is a registered nurse practicing in home health since 1994.  She has been a leader in both clinical and operational positions at the regional and national level with large corporate home health agencies.  Bobi has extensive experience in OASIS, Coding, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and outcome improvement and is recognized as an OASIS content matter expert. She is a Certified Wound Care Nurse (CWCN) and a Certified Continence Care Nurse (CCCN). Bobi holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Wendy is a physical therapist since 1989 with experience in home health, acute care, rehab, outpatient, and skilled nursing. She is an Associate Professor in the Doctoral Physical Therapy Program at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. Wendy is a Geriatric Clinical Specialist (GCS) and Certified Wound Specialist (CWS), has a Geriatric Training Certificate (GTC), and serves on the editorial board of Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation.  She has co-authored books on home health rehabilitation and has published hundreds of articles on home health therapy in peer-reviewed and trade publications. She provides training nationally on geriatric strengthening, wound assessment and management, falls prevention, and competency testing for home health physical therapists on the drug regimen review and pharmacology. Wendy holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation and is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Kim is a registered nurse with a Master of Arts in Education, practicing in home health since 1984, with much of her career in home health.  She has been a leader in both clinical and operational positions at the regional and national level with large corporate home health agencies, providing the clinical voice of quality, while increasing efficiencies. Kim has extensive experience speaking for national home care audiences on OASIS data collection and strategies, documentation standards, and operational processes to support OASIS and ICD-10-CM coding accuracy. She holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) and is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Rebecca “Becky” is a speech language pathologist and has been working in home care since 1980. She has served as a speech language pathologist, administrator, consultant, and educator. She was a member of the national Home Health Quality Improvement Organization Executive Steering Committee and contributed to Best Practice Intervention Packages as part of the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign. She served on the OASIS Certificate and Competency Board's (OCCB) Clinical Advisory Panel as well as on the 2007 Exam Review Task Force. A noted author and presenter, Becky has served on the CMS Technical Expert Panel for Home Health Quality Measures and on The Joint Commission’s Professional Technical Panel on Home Care.  Becky serves as an adjunct professor at multiple universities, is a Certified Home Care and Hospice Executive (CHCE) and holds the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) designation. Becky is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc. 

Ida, a Registered Health Information Administrator, has worked in Health Information Management since 1975. Along with her hospital, ambulatory care and private sector health information management and coding experience, she has been actively involved in home care management for the past decade. Ida serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Home Care Council and has provided numerous ICD-9-CM training seminars and coding audits nationally. She co-authored a home care coding textbook for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and serves as the Facilitator of AHIMA's Home Health Community of Practice. Ida served on the Clinical Advisory Panel for the OASIS Certificate and Competency Board and is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Lisa is a Clinical Nurse Specialist working at a large Milwaukee home care agency since 1985. Her primary areas of expertise include care of chronically ill adult patients and home infusion therapy. In addition to authoring a recurring column on infusion standards for the Journal of Infusion Nursing, she has authored over 50 journal articles and book chapters, and four books. She was honored by the Infusion Nurses Society as the 2003 Certified Infusion Nurse of the Year, and served as the 2007 President of the Infusion Nurses Society. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2006 and in 2008 participated on the committee to revise the newly published American Nurses Association Scope and Standards for Home Health Nurses. Lisa is an Associate Consultant with OASIS Answers, Inc.

Jennifer is a seasoned tax, finance, and management professional with over 18 years of experience in accounting and operations management within the medical field and professional accounting firms. Jennifer has a Masters in Taxation and a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. She worked for Deloitte and Touche, LLP for five years and served as a practice manager/CFO for a private medical practice for 8 years. As CFO for OASIS Answers, Jennifer serves as financial advisor, contributing to operations oversight and strategic planning.

Amanda is our contracts expert so if you would like to host a workshop at your agency location, she's the person that will help you with that!  Amanda also helps every member of the OASIS Answers team by offering support in clerical and administrative tasks, calendar management, website/social media maintenance and other office projects. Amanda brings her sharp intelligence, deep commitment and a firm knowledge of OASIS Answers history to the job.

Jennifer leads our OAI sponsored education and marketing efforts.  Her days are full of contracts, venue negotiations, and communications with customers. Jen also manages our customer database and website and is a large contributor when implementing our educational programs and activities. Jen has a degree from Washington State University and worked in higher education and in the non-profit sector prior to joining the team at OAI.

Bharti manages all of the aspects of the Certificate for OASIS Specialist-Clinical (COS-C) exam. Her detail-oriented approach to her work and technical expertise make her a good fit for the role. Bharti has a Master’s degree in Information Technology Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Before joining the OAI team, Bharti was an Operations Analyst at Microsoft and a Technical Support Specialist at Dell.

Dr. White is an experienced psychometrician with hands-on experience in all aspects of the certificate program and examination development. For over 25 years she has been providing consultation to credentialing agencies and testing companies in all areas of test development including job analysis, development of test specifications, question writing, passing score studies, and psychometric analyses. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Cornell University. Dr. White has provided psychometric consultation to the COS-C Examination program since 2004.

Melodie serves as our Customer Care Coordinator and is often the first voice you’ll hear when calling the OAI office. Her role includes product fulfillment and addressing and triaging customer needs. Melodie has experience in office administration and reception support in multiple healthcare and service companies. She is an efficient and passionate advocate and support for our valued clients.

Karen has a long and impressive history providing excellent administrative support to organizations and initiatives dedicated to home health and hospice quality. Most recently, Karen served as the Executive Administrative Assistant for the CEO and COO of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. Karen provides invaluable support to OAI’s consulting and CMS contracting efforts.

Kristine has over 20 years of administrative experience in the computer and engineering industry.  Her combined strong organization, project management, prioritization and communication skills to perform high-level project and business and support activities makes her a good fit for her role of Process Support Specialist.  Kristine's support drives the OAI team toward meeting client needs and supporting organizational development and goals.  Kristine has a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree in Political Science and English.  Before joining OAI Kristine's experience included serving as a Geotechnical Engineering Office Manager and Executive Assistant at Microsoft.