Summary:

Mr. Cusick is a Principal with CCG and has over 38 years experience in the health care industry, covering various aspects of financial, administrative and management information services. After finishing three years of active duty as a US Naval Officer in 1967 he was immediately employed as an auditor for the CPA firm of Haskins & Sells. He went on to work as an Assistant Comptroller and Patients Account Manager for two New York City hospitals and then relocated to New Jersey to work as a Field Systems Analyst for the Computer Services Division of the New Jersey Hospital Association, which was ultimately acquired by SMS. He rose to the level of Senior Account Manager for the New York, New Jersey area before leaving to be the Director of Information Services at a 350 bed Medical Center. After joining Coopers & Lybrand in 1984, Mr. Cusick’s assignments involved him in numerous interim CIO engagements, system selections, contract negotiations, system installations, and long-range strategic planning engagements, as well as accounts receivable management projects working with board members, physicians and executive management of client hospitals. Mr. Cusick retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2001 after 17 years of service.

Experience:

• Interim CIO liaison between McKesson/HBO and senior management in the absence of the Chief Information Officer at a multi-hospital system in New Jersey running an outsourced STAR system for a period of about eight months.
• Interim CIO for a Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY requiring the complete upgrade of the entire financial system for year 2000 compliance while maintaining a current SMS Invision clinical system.
• Interim IS Director for a New Jersey hospital running an IBM System/38 for one month after an emergency dismissal of the entire IS management staff.
• Contract negotiations and implementation planning for a Siemens INVISION clinical and patient safety system at a state university health center.
• Contract negotiations and installation planning for a Laboratory Information System to replace a multi-hospital, shared environment.
• System selection engagement at a multi-facility healthcare system in New Jersey to select a new total hospital information system based upon client server technology.
• Project management engagement at a medium sized hospital in New Jersey to implement all of the MEDITECH applications, within a 10-month time frame.
• Project management assistance at a multi facility health care system in North Carolina, including eight hospitals in two major cities, to implement the enterprise wide registration, access directory, patient management, patient accounting and order entry applications from SMS.
• Diagnostic review at a major Hospital and Clinic operation in Texas, to identify system control issues and improve business office operations surrounding the SMS INVISION and SIGNATURE systems.
• System selection, contract negotiations and implementation assistance for the MEDITECH financial and clinical systems at two New Jersey behavioral health facilities.
• Information Systems planning and requirements definition in preparation for the merger of two large New Jersey medical centers.
• System selection and contract negotiations resulting in the selection of MEDITECH systems at a nationally renowned specialty hospital in New Jersey
• Long-range, strategic information systems planning engagements at three New Jersey medical centers to develop priority projects for new development.
• Developing policy, procedural and training manuals with skill matrices for admitting, outpatient registration and patient accounting.
• Organizing and directing several accounts receivable management projects in a variety of medium and large inner city and suburban hospitals. These assignments emphasized reduced receivables and improved cash flow.
• Assessing the organizational effectiveness and financial viability of several hospital-based physician group practices.
• Reviewing the organizational effectiveness and operations of several Central Business Offices with a focus on the collection and follow-up activities.
• Evaluating the overall effectiveness of a hospital-owned collection agency to identify areas for improving the internal systems and operating policies and procedures.
• Authoring an article for St. Anthony’s Uniform Billing & Payment Report – “Living with Managed Care Contracts.”

Education:

• BBA, Accounting, St. Francis College

Professional Affiliations:

• Healthcare Financial Management Association
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society HIMSS)   Publications
• Mr. Cusick has had several speaking engagements at HFMA and hospital association-sponsored programs and is a published author in the New Jersey HFMA chapter quarterly magazine.

Contact:

477 Franklin St. Duxbury, MA 02332

Telephone (908) 420-5707 Cellular

email: JimCusick@CavanaughConsulting.org