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Board
President Barbara Berg, Administrator of the Lake Chelan Clinic since 2005, has served on the RHCAW for the past 8 years and has been a Medicare Billing Specialist. Barbara and her husband, Jim, own a small boutique winery in Manson and have 3 daughters and 9 grandchildren. She is very active in several arenas to raise funds and donations for the Adoption Advocates International orphanage in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, and is a founding member of Chelan to Africa, her local branch of Touching Tiny Lives, which helps to support a safe house for endangered children in Lesotho, Africa. Professional Affiliations:
Current Term 2010-2013
Vice President Cindy Robertson has 15 years of health care experience. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Newbold College in Berkshire, England, she wanted to learn more about health policy and finance, and completed a Masters of Health Administration degree at the University of Washington. While in school she completed an internship with a health insurance company in Seattle. After graduate school Cindy worked for a software vendor as a Project Manager leading implementations of physician practice management systems across the country. The romance of constant business travel wore off after a couple of years, so she accepted a Project Director position at home in Seattle leading the physician billing system implementation at an academic medical center, where she spent the next 7 years. After the initial project was complete she assumed responsibility for half of the operations of the 1,700 physician practice plan (physician coding and charge capture, specialty based accounts receivable inventory/ billing, and client management). She subsequently had the opportunity to work on strategy and technology management for federally qualified health centers for almost 3 years. Cindy moved to the Columbia Gorge in the fall of 2009 to take the position of Administrator at NorthShore Medical Group, an independent 18 provider primary care medical group located in White Salmon and Stevenson, Washington. Her responsibilities include human resources, finance, managing relationships with insurance companies, recruiting clinicians, legal and regulatory compliance, working closely with the local hospital, legislative advocacy, strategic planning, and everything else required to thrive in the dynamic world of health care. She loves her new home, and the opportunity to contribute to the Gorge community and care for many new friends and neighbors. Cindy is a member of the Medical Group Management Association. She has been on the Board of Directors for the Rural Health Clinic of Washington Association since 2011. Cindy and her husband live in Mosier, Oregon. In her free time she enjoys hiking, skiing, and spending time with her dogs and husband. She also enjoys remodeling houses, gardening, cooking, traveling, and eating delicious food. Current Term 2011-2014
Treasurer Barb has worked in healthcare since she was in Junior High cleaning the medical clinic and becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant in High School in Odessa. Other places she worked in healthcare was Spokane County Health District as secretary to a children's program, three nursing homes as bookkeeper and an Internal Medicine office in Bellingham as bookkeeper. She has been the Clinic Manager at the Odessa Clinic for the past 30 years. As manager she oversees the employees and all workings of the clinic and fills in regularly in the clinic as a certified Health Care Assistant and as well as receptionist. The clinic is part of Odessa Memorial Healthcare which is a Critical Access Hospital, so she is involved in many parts of the entire healthcare system in Odessa. One of the most important things in healthcare to Barb is access to quality healthcare in rural areas. This indeed is the reason she agreed to be a Board Member with the RHCAW over six years ago. She has continued to stay on the board as Treasurer because of her commitment to the mission of the RHCAW. If we don't work as a team to protect this aspect of healthcare, it can result in huge losses to rural health. Barb is the Secretary for the Odessa Historical Society, is active in many community activities and enjoys having a few cows, country living, traveling as time permits and visiting with friends & family. Current Term 2012-2015
Secretary Karen and her husband James have 5 children and 2 grandchildren. Her husband has owned and operated a local business in Port Angeles for 15 years. She enjoys gardening, baseball, bowling, camping and hiking. Current Term 2011-2014
Member at Large Darla Westenberg
Darla Westenberg has managed the Swofford & Halma Clinic since 2003. She is responsible for staffing, human resources, accounts payable, payroll, negotiating contracts, legislative issues and much more. Darla was the driving force behind Swofford & Halma Clinic and Mid Valley Community Clinic in Sunnyside becoming established Rural Health Clinics in 2006. During the last two years most of Darla's efforts have gone into coordinating the purchase of property, financing, and the building of Swofford & Halma Clinic's new facility. She was also active in helping the city receive grants for streets, sidewalks and utilities for the new business park development where their new clinic is located. Although only being involved in healthcare for the last seven years, Darla has found it to be the most rewarding position she has ever held. One of the most motivating factors for Darla are the children. Knowing that whether a child lives in a garage or a motel room receives the same quality health care as anyone else is extremely important to her. Another factor is the knowledge that the physicians she works for have been committed to this rural area for many years. Swofford & Halma Clinic have put many of the Rural Health Clinic dollars back into the community with a new state of the art facility, and added more services such as level II ultrasound for our OB patients. Darla would be willing to serve on the board for the RHCAW to help do whatever it takes to maintain what this amazing organization has done to make quality healthcare accessible to everyone. Darla and her husband Ivan live in Sunnyside where they enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren. One of their favorite past times is camping. Last year Darla also ran her first half marathon in the fight against cancer. Current Term 2010-2013
Member at Large Pam has been involved in rural heatlh care for many years. She currently manages a private primary care practice in Shelton, WA. She is responsible for HR, accounts payable, coding, recruiting and retention, contracting, and much much more. She expecially enjoys working on quality improvement projects that improve the quality of care provided the clinics rural population. She and the clinic have participated in the Medical Home Collaborative in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Health. Pam has served on the board for several terms, including past president. Pam received her BSN form Seattle University and a MSM from Troy University. She is also CPC certified.
Current Term 2012-2015
Honorary Board Members Michael Bell, CPA: Michael R. Bell & Company, PLLC , Spokane, Washington. Mike has been in public practice for 30 years, focusing exclusively on the healthcare industry by providing a full range of accounting, auditing, and financial consulting services. Mike's accounting firm provides services to clients located principally in the West and include hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, rural health clinics, and other healthcare organizations. Most recently Mike's firm has worked with many healthcare organizations as they plan and adapt to changes in the industry as a result of the federal and state legislation. Mike has always questioned regulatory changes and regulator interpretations of the regulations. Recently Mike challenged CMS Region X's interpretation of several critical access hospital regulations to find that no definitive answer exists and the issue was finally referred to CMS Central for further resolution. He has challenged a neighboring state's ability to eliminate rural health clinic payments and worked with several rural health clinics in Idaho to ensure that their new Medicaid prospective payments rates were computed correctly. Mike has also tried to look outside the box. He recently pioneered a nursing home - swing bed conversion program that has allowed critical access hospitals in another state to bridge the gap between nursing home cost and Medicaid nursing home payments through higher Medicare reimbursement. Mike was recently elected to the National Rural Health Association Policy Board. Previously, Mike was the treasurer of the Washington Rural Health Association for six years, co-founder of the Rural Health Clinic Association of Washington, served on the Washington Office of Community and Rural Health critical access hospital planning committee, the Washington State Hospital Association Medicaid critical access hospital committee, and many other worthwhile causes.
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