Virginia’s Emergency Medicine Summit

June 15 – 16, Richmond

Expert Faculty 

Ericke S. Cage, JD, serves as Legislative Counsel to United States Congressman Tom Perriello of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. As Legislative Counsel, Ericke advises the Congressman on legal matters and a diverse range of public policy issues including health care, education, defense, homeland security, and veteran’s affairs. Prior to joining Congressman Perriello’s staff, Ericke served on Capitol Hill as a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Congressional Fellow where he managed a public policy portfolio which included healthcare, energy, environment, and homeland security. Ericke has also worked as a Legislative Fellow/Special Assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington DC. After completing his tour of duty at the VA, Ericke worked in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he handled a variety of legal matters. Ericke earned his Juris Doctorate at Rutgers University in 2007. He went on to earn a Masters of Laws degree in Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution from The George Washington University in 2008. 

F. Brian Clare, MD, FACEP, CPC is the CEO of Practice Management Associates, Inc. located in Williamsburg, VA, specializing in emergency medicine coding and billing operations. A practicing emergency physician for 22 years, Brian is a member of the VaCEP Reimbursement Committee, and a member of the VaCEP Board of Directors. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of nHealth.

Caral L. Edelberg, CPC, CPMA, CCS-P, CHC is a widely recognized expert on emergency department (ED) revenue cycle management, coding and compliance. Caral is currently president of Edelberg Compliance Associates, specializing in emergency and hospital medicine coding and compliance in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has personally managed coding, billing and compliance improvement projects in hundreds of facilities across the country.   Caral has dual coding certifications from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC).  She is also certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC) through the Healthcare Compliance Association (HCCA) and Medical Auditing through AAPC.  Edelberg is a three-term member of the AAPC national advisory board and is currently president of the Greater Baton Rouge chapter of American Academy of Professional Coders.  Caral authored two volumes of Procedure Coding for Emergency Medicine published by ACEP, co-authored the Emergency Medicine Study Guide and Emergency Medicine Specialty Examination for the Advanced Board of Medical Coding (ABMC); authored the Emergency Medicine Study Guide and Emergency Medicine Competency Examination published for Ingenix/AAPC; served as author/editor of the Emergency Department Answer Book published by United Communications; and co-authored the current Emergency Medicine Study Guide and Competency Examination for the AAPC. 

Jason T. Garrison, MD, FACEP is the Chair of VaCEP’s Health Finance/Reimbursement Committee, and a member of the VaCEP Board of Directors, currently serving as President-Elect; he practices emergency medicine in Hampton, VA.

Ron Howrigon is President of Fulcrum Strategies, a Provider Advocacy company that provides a variety of services and products to physicians and hospitals to help them effectively deal with their Managed Care contracts and relationships. Mr. Howrigon has 18 years of experience in the Managed Care Industry as a Negotiator and Network Manager. He has held Senior Management level positions with three of the largest Managed Care Companies in the country including Kaiser Permanente, CIGNA HealthCare and BlueCross BlueShield. His experience with these organizations covered the North East, Mid-Atlantic, and Western areas of the country. Mr. Howrigon was awarded a Masters of Economics degree from North Carolina State University where he focused in the area of Health Economics with a minor in Statistics. He also earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Western Michigan University.

Jay A. Kaplan, MD, FACEP is Medical Director of the Studer Group and Director of Service and Operational Excellence for CEP America Emergency Physician Partners.  A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kaplan has received numerous prestigious teaching awards, including the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Outstanding Speaker of the Year in October 2003.  In October 2009, Dr. Kaplan was elected to the American College of Emergency Physicians Board of Directors. As a national speaker and facilitator, Dr. Kaplan presents to and coaches hospital leadership teams, emergency departments, medical staffs and medical groups across the country with proven implementation strategies and specialized systems that hardwire service and operational excellence. Dr. Kaplan continues to practice clinically because he loves the clinical practice of medicine, and caring for patients helps him remain close to the patients’, the hospital staff’s, and the physicians’ current experience.

Wesley G. Russell, Jr was appointed by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as Deputy Attorney General for the Civil Litigation Division in January 2010. The Civil Litigation Division is comprised of 46 attorneys and 37 staff members.  It handles most of the civil litigation claims involving the Commonwealth, its agencies and employees.  Prior to his appointment, Wes was most recently a partner at the Richmond firm of McSweeney, Crump, Childress, and Temple, P.C. A member of the firm’s litigation section, Wes’ practice focused on professional liability defense and constitutional law. Given his work for both private clients and as outside counsel for the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Russell has extensive trial and appellate experience regarding constitutional challenges to statutes as well as claims involving sovereign immunity, the Virginia Tort Claims Act, and separation of powers issues. However, a significant portion of his career has been spent defending healthcare providers in malpractice suits. Mr. Russell is a 1992 graduate of the University of Virginia and a 1995 graduate of the George Mason University School of Law.

Rachel Suddarth, JD is an associate with Hancock, Daniel, Johnson & Nagle, P.C. She practices in the firm’s corporate health law practice group and focuses on federal and state regulatory compliance issues. Ms. Suddarth earned her J.D. from the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served on the William and Mary Law Review. While in law school, Ms. Suddarth gained first-hand knowledge of Medicaid compliance issues while serving as an intern in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Virginia Attorney General. After graduating she served as a law clerk to Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Prior to law school, Ms. Suddarth worked as the Manager of Public Health Affairs for a large medical professional society representing laboratory professionals. In this role, Ms. Suddarth regularly lobbied members of Congress and regulatory officials, participated in coalitions with other medical specialty societies, and informed laboratory professionals of impending legislative and regulatory initiatives. During her time on Capitol Hill, Ms. Suddarth advocated on a range of issues including bioterrorism preparedness, blood product safety and availability, laboratory staffing shortages, patient safety, and Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

Courtney E. Terry, MBA, MD is the Vice President of Scribe Development Services with Practice Management Associates, Inc. Williamsburg, VA  She manages an online service providing turn-key solutions to the implementation and management of medical scribe programs, and develops strategy for the implementation and integration of scribe services. Previously she worked as the Scribe Coordinator at the University of Virginia Department of Emergency Medicine in Charlottesville VA. While at UVA she designed and directed the implementation strategy, and managed operations for a Scribe Program which increased the efficiency and productivity of residents, to improve medical documentation, and to enhance patient care.  She managed the integration and expansion of the program; facilitated intra-departmental feedback for ongoing education and training; provided quality and financial reports on a quarterly basis; reviewed scribe performance and held monthly program meetings; guided mid-level scribe leadership actions to promote executive goals. Courtney is a graduate of The Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. She is also currently an Emergency Medicine Resident at the Vanderbilt Medical Center Nashville, TN

Gordon Wheeler is the Associate Executive Director of the Public Affairs Division/Washington Office of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Mr. Wheeler provides executive leadership to the staff and activities of the College’s Advocacy Division. His experience includes trade association management, strategic planning and extensive experience in federal legislative affairs. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Wheeler was a Senior Principal and Director, Health Policy Practices Group at Capitoline International Group, a Washington, D.C. based public relations and government relations consulting firm. Before joining Capitoline, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of the Association of Managed Healthcare Organizations, a trade association representing preferred provider organizations and other managed care arrangements. He was also President of the Foundation of the Association of Managed Healthcare. Mr. Wheeler was Director of Federal Affairs for the Health Insurance Association of America between 1989-1993. During that time he also served as Acting Director of the Coalition to Insure All Americans. He was a political appointee in the Reagan and Bush Administrations from 1982-1989. Mr. Wheeler was Associate Director in the Office of Management and Budget for Legislative Affairs and in January 1989 joined the Bush Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs and Director of Congressional Affairs. Mr. Wheeler has more than twenty years experience in public policy, legislative advocacy, and issue analysis. During his tenure at OMB, he was a member of the interagency task force on catastrophic health insurance and worked closely with OMB’s senior staff on a variety of health issues. Mr. Wheeler is a graduate of the School of International Affairs, George Washington University.