Dec. 17, 2014: Martha Weiner to Retire; Interim Named

Dear Colleagues,

We write to thank Martha Weiner for her many years of service and to let you know she will be retiring on Jan. 31, 2015, from her positions as senior director for the offices of Billing Quality Assurance and Clinical Research Billing.

Martha began her 24-plus-year career at The Johns Hopkins University as the health care auditor covering all aspects of the school of medicine. There, she was promoted to manager and built a team. When the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General launched national audits of teaching hospitals and extracted enormous penalties, Martha assisted in the planning and design of a critically important physician education and auditing program. What was intended as a temporary assignment turned into Martha's appointment as the first director of the school of medicine's Compliance Office, now known as the Office of Billing Quality Assurance, covering over 2,500 faculty and clinical providers across The Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System.

In 2005, when Medicare began levying fines for clinical research billing mistakes, Martha joined a multidisciplinary team that created the necessary compliance infrastructure. Then, in 2007, she was asked to combine the Johns Hopkins Health System and school of medicine compliance efforts into a single Office of Clinical Research Billing. Martha's commitment to excellence and dedication to our faculty and school of medicine has resulted in a model that has been emulated by several academic medical centers.

To help fill Martha's many roles, we are pleased to announce that M. Tyrone Whitted has been appointed interim senior director. Ty has served as the director of operations for the Office of Billing Quality Assurance and has done an outstanding job. He has over 17 years of experience in coding, billing and compliance, along with a B.S. in economics, an M.J. in health law, certification in health care compliance and two professional coding certifications.  

To backfill Ty's position, Ruth Spangler has agreed to serve as interim director of the Office of Billing Quality Assurance's operations. Ruth joined the Office of Billing Quality Assurance three years ago as the ICD-10 project manager after a long tenure with Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Information Services. Most recently, Ruth has been working with Access Services, shepherding many major projects that integrate and improve access for patients. Ruth has a bachelor's degree in nursing, a master's degree in health informatics, certification as a project management professional and over 20 years of health care experience.

At this time, there will be no changes to clinical research operations. Liza Rodriguez will continue as associate director of clinical research billing, and Scott Streibich will stay on as the associate director of clinical research revenue cycle and compliance.

Please join us in applauding Martha for her many contributions to Johns Hopkins Medicine and wishing her well in her retirement. We would also like to congratulate Ty, Ruth, Liza and Scott in their new and continuing leadership positions.

Sincerely,

William A. Baumgartner, M.D.
Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs
President, Clinical Practice Association
JHM Sr. Vice President, Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians

Daniel E. Ford, M.D., M.P.H.
David M. Levine Professor of Medicine
Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine