Why Pinnacle Health Care Advisors? ROI.
Our primary objective at Pinnacle Healthcare Advisors is to design and implement sustainable improvements that will result in a return on investment (ROI) for our clients. We founded Pinnacle with the belief that your people are at the core of everything you do and that developing them is the most important aspect of driving sustainable improvements in financial performance.

Mission
Elevate our clients’ revenue cycle performance through technology optimization and people development

Vision
Re-define what organizations can expect from a consulting firm

Values
Act with integrity, professional respect for all individuals, internal and client transparency, personal accountability, teamwork driven, open to innovation and customization
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Leadership Team

Todd Hakala
Principal
20+ years leading revenue cycle transformation efforts that have contributed to millions of dollars of bottom line and cash flow improvement.
Meet Todd Hakala
Todd has over 20 years of experience assisting healthcare providers with identifying and implementing operational and revenue cycle improvements that have contributed to millions of dollars in savings and net revenue enhancements as well as improved quality and customer service. Over the past several years, Todd has led numerous revenue cycle transformation efforts in a variety of provider settings across the country.
Todd has deep technical expertise in all areas of the revenue cycle, and he also has experience in implementing labor, non-labor, clinical utilization, and patient throughput improvements. Prior to cofounding Pinnacle, Todd was a project leader at Huron Consulting Group and Novia Strategies, Inc., and he also served in various finance and operations roles at healthcare providers in Minnesota. Representative examples of Todd’s experience include:
- Provided interim leadership for a central business office in Texas and had responsibility for over $80 million of monthly cash collections; also identified and led numerous performance improvement initiatives to increase cash flow, net revenue, and productivity
- Led a revenue cycle engagement at a community hospital in North Carolina that resulted in $6 million of annual income statement improvement
- Led a revenue cycle engagement at a level-1 trauma center in Minnesota that resulted in $14.6 million of annual net revenue benefit and $5.7 million of one-time balance sheet improvement
- Directed a revenue cycle engagement at a 6-hospital system in Illinois that resulted in $23 million of annual net revenue benefit and $13 million of one-time balance sheet improvement
- Led a revenue cycle engagement at a tertiary medical center in Hawaii that resulted in $10 million of net revenue benefit and $11 million of balance sheet improvement
- Served as a process improvement director for a health system in Minnesota where he was responsible for managing a labor productivity system and leading operational, clinical, and revenue cycle improvement initiatives
Todd’s Approach to Transformation
Todd is passionate about leveraging data to drive opportunity identification and prioritization and developing strategies and tactical plans to achieve sustainable results. He appreciates the importance of collaborating with leaders and staff members to develop solutions that work for each organization he partners with.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- American College of Healthcare Executives
- American Health Information Management Association – Credentialed as a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA)
- Healthcare Financial Management Association
Education
- Master of Healthcare Administration, University of Minnesota
- Bachelor of Arts in Health Information Management, College of St. Scholastica

Andrew Jacobsen
Principal
15+ years of experience driving revenue cycle transformation through end-to-end consulting engagements and interim leadership.
Meet Andrew Jacobsen
Andrew has approximately 15 years of experience assisting hospitals and health systems with identifying and implementing revenue cycle enhancements that have led to significant improvements in net revenue, cash flow, and key revenue cycle metric performance. Over the past several years, Andrew has been responsible for overseeing revenue cycle process improvement engagements at community hospitals, tertiary medical centers, and multi-hospital systems across the country.
Andrew has vast technical expertise and leadership experience in all areas of the revenue cycle including patient access, health information management, patient financial services, and vendor management. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Andrew was a project manager at a large healthcare consulting firm where he oversaw revenue cycle transformation projects and contributed to methodology development. Representative examples of Andrew’s experience include:
- While acting as the interim VP of Revenue Cycle at west coast based health system on the Cerner platform, led the buildout of a redesigned revenue cycle organization structure and established core metric and accountability measures for critical revenue cycle functions.
- Co-led a comprehensive revenue cycle engagement at a hospital in North Carolina that resulted in $6 million of annual income statement and significant key metric improvement
- While acting as the interim Patient Financial Services Director, led a business office redesign project at a multi-hospital system in Georgia including implementation of Epic health information system, key process improvements, design/implementation of an accounts receivable coverage strategy, unbilled/billed AR reductions, implementation of metric reporting, and re-implementation of revenue cycle vendors
- Managed the patient access portion of an engagement at a large multi-hospital system in Minnesota which included implementing a new pre-registration unit, improved eligibility / authorization / financial counseling workflows and reporting, and enhanced point of service (POS) cash collections, resulting in a 30% decrease in patient access related denials and significantly improved Medicaid conversions and POS cash collections
- Managed the revenue cycle portion of an Epic health information system design, install, and conversion project in Oregon which included developing best practice revenue cycle workflows and reporting
- Led the design and implementation of a pre-service insurance verification, auth management, pre-registration, and pre-service collections department with the goal of reducing auth related denials, expanding scope of centralized covered services, and improving pre/POS collections. In addition, automated workdrivers were implemented and key metric reporting was developed to monitor improvement. Results include a 25% reduction in auth related denials and a 75% increase in pre/POS collections.
- Led the patient access and patient accounting portions of a revenue cycle transformation project at a health system in Hawaii which resulted in reduced days in AR, increased POS cash collections, and improved cash flow
Andrew’s Approach to Transformation
Andrew’s educational background in Psychology at UC San Diego, with their institutional focus on education and public service, positions him uniquely to navigate the intricacies of organizational transformation in the highly complex healthcare revenue cycle environment.
Andrew is a problem solver and a developer of people, and he drives positive change by building strong, open relationships at the individual level and across the organization.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- Healthcare Financial Management Association
Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and History, University of California at San Diego

Brian Felland
Principal
Over 15 years of experience providing technical, functional, and leadership expertise in all areas of revenue cycle operations.
Meet Brian Felland
Brian has over 15 years of experience assisting healthcare providers with strategic revenue cycle optimization and transformation resulting in sustained increases in functional and financial performance. Over the past 2 years, Brian has been in an interim revenue cycle leadership position for a large health system focusing on operational, technical, and analytic integration and stabilization.
Brian has strong technical, functional, and leadership expertise in all areas of revenue cycle operations and has experience working in community hospitals as well as large multi-facility organizations. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Brian was a solutions advancement leader and project manager at Huron Consulting Group. Representative examples of Brian’s experience include:
- Provided interim leadership for a large, multi-facility patient accounting office in Illinois during a system conversion and business office consolidation engagement
- Developed and supported implementation and training of enhanced technical, reporting, and functional best practice methodologies over the span of 9 client revenue cycle implementations
- Led the patient access, denial management, and vendor management portions of a revenue cycle engagement in North Carolina with a focus on patient access technology optimization and design
- Managed the patient access, patient financial services, vendor management, and charge capture portions of a comprehensive revenue cycle engagement at a community hospital in Washington that resulted in $3.5 million of annual recurring income statement benefit
- Led a revenue cycle engagement for a community hospital in California that resulted in a 20%+ reduction in accounts receivable days and a 20% increase in net cash factor
- Managed the revenue cycle implementation for one hospital as part of a multi-facility engagement in California that resulted in a significant increase in overall cash factor performance and reduction in avoidable adjustments
Brian’s Approach to Transformation
Brian invests in his clients with his hands on and collaborative approach. He works with his teams to establish and sustain the most optimal solutions to meet each individual client need.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- Healthcare Financial Management Association
Education
- Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology, University of California at San Diego
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of California at San Diego

Nick Fortman
Director
Experienced in back-end revenue cycle management improvement, EHR optimization, and system implementations.
Meet Nick Fortman
Nick is a versatile and adaptable professional who has extensive experience managing healthcare revenue cycle projects and developing teams to deliver solutions to end-users. Success in breaking problems down into detailed components to build understanding and implement lasting and sustainable solutions. Nick has recently focused on providing analytic and operational guidance for a large health system during an electronic health record (EHR) conversion and business office consolidation.
Nick has spent his entire 10-year career as a revenue cycle performance improvement consultant with a focus on blending operational and technical solutions. Nick is an expert at analytics, data management, reporting, and tool configuration. Representative examples of Nick’s experience include:
- Developed workflow improvement plans, report sets, and risk mitigation strategies to support a large-scale health system during an EHR conversion and business office consolidation
- Spearheaded a hospital and physician revenue cycle optimization and software implementation engagement at a 400-bed health system, increasing recurring cash by $19M annually, 45% over projected goal by improving authorization rates, redirecting collection efforts, and focusing on denial prevention
- Planned and executed a project to redesign and implement denials workflows which resulted in reducing over $10M in AR backlogs by addressing pre-billing root cause issues, improving documentation, and establishing metrics to drive accountability
- Managed HIS optimization project for a $1.2B net patient revenue academic medical center, reducing workload by over $49M during the project period and producing over $12M in annual benefit by addressing workflow redundancies, providing clear metrics, and establishing a communication structure to track and maintain progress
- Provided design, configuration, and delivery support of specialized revenue cycle management work-drivers and reporting suites across multiple simultaneous clients
Nick’s Approach to Transformation
Nick’s key to success is in breaking problems down into detailed components to build understanding and implementing lasting and sustainable solutions. Nick uses client data to ensure solutions are customized to gain buy-in from staff to maintain improvements over the long-term.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- Healthcare Financial Management Association
Education
- Bachelor of Science, Finance, Decision Sciences, and Management Information Systems, Miami University

Kevin Blanchard
Director
14 years of experience guiding clients through front-end to back-end revenue cycle improvements and Epic HB go-live and post-live optimizations.
Meet Kevin Blanchard
Kevin has over 14 years of experience collaborating with healthcare organizations to drive enhanced revenue cycle performance. He has been responsible for leading patient access re-design efforts, accounts receivable reduction initiatives, and Epic electronic health record optimization engagements that have led to sustained improvements in net revenue, cash flow, automation, productivity, and reporting transparency.
Kevin has extensive experience developing methodologies and implementing solutions to enhance Epic revenue cycle functionality related to reporting, metric management, work queue (WQ) prioritization, and account flow. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Kevin was a project manager at Navigant Consulting, Inc. and Huron Consulting Group where he oversaw revenue cycle transformation projects and Epic revenue cycle implementations. Representative examples of Kevin’s experience include:
- Led the development and implementation of a comprehensive Epic HB WQ re-design to reduce overlap and WQ black holes, increase reporting transparency, and improve WQ stratification for billing, follow-up, denials/variance, self-pay, and credits. Outcomes included a net reduction of 600+ WQs and the identification and resolution of 15K+ accounts that were failing to qualify for staff WQs.
- Managed a remittance code (RMC) audit to ensure logic was designed in a way that accurately identified and routed denials within Epic to drive transparent reporting and accountability. This was coupled with a denial WQ re-design effort focused on WQ consolidation and black hole reduction. Finally, denial-specific Watch List metrics were developed to trend denial #/$ by owning area within Radar Dashboards.
- Led the Epic Candidate for Bill (CFB) go-live risk mitigation committee including the development of the CFB management team, achieving 3.4 days in CFB within 60 days of the Epic go-live
- Co-developed methodology and functionality tied to Simple Visit Coding and MinDay (suspense days) reduction to increase automation and free up capacity in HIM
- Led the creation of a newly insourced self-pay unit at an Epic provider which included the development of scripting, account stratification, and low dollar write-off policies
- Implemented scheduling workflows to improve abandonment rates resulting in an abandonment rate of 2.3%. Developed metrics and dashboards to drive performance.
Kevin’s Approach to Transformation
Kevin collaborates with hospitals to develop methodologies and solutions that increase reporting transparency, improve workflows, and reduce denials. Kevin understands the revenue cycle work flow and can work with teams to develop methodologies and tools to increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Kevin prides himself in his ability to connect and partner with various levels of management to work towards a desired outcome throughout an engagement.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- Healthcare Financial Management Association – Credentialed as a Certified Revenue Cycle Representative
- Certified in Epic Resolute Hospital Billing
Education
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Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Colorado at Boulder

Vickie Bridge
Senior Manager
20 years of experience working in and with healthcare organizations to enhance their clinical documentation and revenue integrity processes.
Meet Vickie Bridge
Vickie has over 20 years of experience working for and consulting with healthcare organizations to drive sustained improvements in net revenue and quality. She is skilled in overall revenue cycle management with particular expertise in clinical documentation and charge capture improvement which also positively impact data quality and patient outcomes.
Vickie has an extensive background with several unique knowledge sets in the areas of traditional health information management (HIM), revenue integrity, utilization review, and quality management. Over the course of her career, she has gained deep experience in completing patient chart and claim reviews, analyzing data, developing educational materials, guiding work plan execution, and implementing on-going monitoring to sustain outcomes. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Vickie was as a project manager at BRG | Prism and Huron Consulting Group, and she has also served in leadership roles at healthcare organizations. Representative examples of Vickie’s experience include:
- Achieved $3.2M annual net revenue increase for a community-based hospital by enhancing emergency department (ED) clinical documentation and charging structure
- Developed Medicare Annual Wellness Visit program enhancements resulting in a $714K increase in annual net revenue
- Drove $2.4M annual net revenue increase for a community-based hospital by improving clinical documentation, charge capture, and charge structure within the ED, perioperative services, endoscopy, and cardiac cath lab
- Increased annual net revenue for a regional medical center by $4.1M by improving clinical documentation and charge capture processes for outpatient infusion therapy, recovery room, and ED supplies
- Served in HIM, utilization review, quality, physician practice, and patient accounting leadership roles at several healthcare organizations in Indiana
Vickie’s Approach to Transformation
Vickie builds solid client relationships across all levels of the organization to better understand the client’s mission, methodologies, strategies, and culture. She works in collaboration with clients to identify revenue cycle and clinical opportunities. For each opportunity, Vickie confirms the current state, identifies barriers, and develops an actionable future state to establish the ideal sustainable solution to meet the client’s need.
Certifications & Professional Memberships
- Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA)
- Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ)
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
- American Academy of Professional Coders
- American Health Information Management Association
- Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists
- Indiana Association for Healthcare Quality
Education
- Master of Business Administration, Indiana Wesleyan University
- Bachelor of Science, Indiana University School of Medicine

Liz Hendricks
Operations Manager
Over 10 years’ experience supporting business operations.
Meet Liz Hendricks
Liz serves as Pinnacle’s Operations Manager with nearly 10 years of experience working for healthcare consulting firms. With PHR certification, Liz’s area of specialty is Human Resources. Liz works to identify opportunities for increased efficiencies and decreased costs while maintaining quality and compliance.
Education
- Master of Arts in Industrial Organizational Psychology, Central Michigan University
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Capital University