About Cleverley + Associates: Firm History, Key Staff Bios, Employment Opportunities

About Cleverley + Associates

Simply put, Cleverley + Associates' goal is to enhance the financial performance of hospitals. Our aim is to provide quality benchmarking and consultative services to hospitals in financial, operating, and clinical areas, with an emphasis on data interpretation and business solution identification.

It is our belief that significant opportunities for financial improvement remain available to the vast majority of hospitals through insightful review and interpretation of data. Our primary goal is to provide solutions and recommendations to clients that will enhance their financial performance through better pricing decisions, improved coding, capital restructuring, cost & productivity enhancements, and/or investment management changes.

We believe that many hospitals can increase their current level of profitability through a thorough, critical review of operations. Our staff of professionals is well qualified to assist in these reviews and to help identify areas for substantial improvements in hospital financial improvements.

Firm History

Cleverley + Associates is a privately owned, professional service organization specializing in information services for the healthcare industry. We provide timely and accurate information to hospitals and to organizations serving the healthcare industry.

William O. Cleverley, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Health Services Management & Policy, The Ohio State University, founded Cleverley + Associates January 1, 2000. In 1978, Dr. Cleverley and HFMA founded HFMA's Data Plus Services, which was acquired in October 1992 by the Center for Healthcare Industry Performance Studies (CHIPS), a company created by Dr. Cleverley & Dr. Roger Harvey. CHIPS merged with St. Anthony Publishing in March 1996 and the consolidated firm was sold to United Healthcare in March 1998.

Cleverley + Associates offers consulting services, custom and off-the-shelf reports, and custom databases. Our customer base includes hospital executives and analysts, organizations serving the healthcare industry (consultants, accounting firms, commercial banks, underwriters, insurers, law firms), hospital associations, state departments of health and human resources, HMOs and PPOs, and manufacturers, distributors, and other companies marketing products to the healthcare industry.

We maintain databases containing financial and operating data, ratios, and performance measures for US hospitals, departments within hospitals, and Medicare patients. Cleverley + Associates produces individual hospital financial, operational, departmental, and clinical reports from its databases - reports used for financial and operational benchmarking, healthcare industry analysis, market share analysis, charge and cost analysis, and quality-of-care assessment.

Key Staff Bios

William O. Cleverley, PhD
William O. Cleverley, PhD has been the President of Cleverley + Associates since its formation in January 2000. Prior to forming the company, Dr. Cleverley, in conjunction with Dr. Roger Harvey, established the Center for Healthcare Industry Performance Studies (CHIPS) in 1992, which was acquired by United Healthcare in March 1998. In addition to his professional responsibilties, Dr. Cleverley is also Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University where he has taught courses in healthcare finance since 1973.

James O. Cleverley, MHA
Mr. Cleverley has been a Consultant at Cleverley + Associates since September 2003. Prior to joining the firm, he directed a statewide health services program for a medical association. Mr. Cleverley has written several articles dealing with healthcare financial analysis and application and recently won the Helen Yerger/L. Vann Seawell Best Article Award for his article, Scorecards and Dashboards: Using Financial Metrics to Improve Performance. Mr. Cleverley received his Masters in Health Administration from The Ohio State University in 2004. He received his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University in 1999.

Susan E. White, PhD
Dr. White has been the Vice President of Research and Development for Cleverley + Associates since January of 2000. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. White was the Vice President of Data Operations for CHIPS/Ingenix. Dr. White has also served as an adjunct faculty member at The Ohio State University where she has taught data analysis courses. Dr. White has written numerous books and articles regarding the benchmarking of healthcare facilities and the appropriate use of claims data. She has published articles in the areas of outcomes assessment and risk adjustment using healthcare financial and clinical data. Dr. White received her PhD in Statistics from The Ohio State University in 1991. She is a member of the American Statistical Association.

Joanna M. LaFortune, MBA
Ms. LaFortune has been the Vice President of Data Services for Cleverley + Associates since January 2000. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. LaFortune was the Manager of Sales and Service for CHIPS/Ingenix. She joined CHIPS in 1993 where she was primarily responsible for the sale and technical support of hospital data-driven products. Ms. LaFortune has worked extensively with the Medicare Cost Report and has a broad understanding of financial and operating performance measures. Ms. LaFortune received her Masters in Business Administration from The Ohio State University in 1998. She received her Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University in 1993.

Lauree E. Handlon, MS, RHIA, CCS, CPC-H
Ms. Handlon has been a Data Quality and Reimbursement Consultant for Cleverley + Associates since July 2002. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Handlon was the OCE/NCCI Auditor at The Ohio State University Medical Center. She continuously monitored all facets for accurate, timely, and compliant coding of outpatient accounts. She worked closely with APC regulations, guidelines, and updates provided by CMS and the local Fiscal Intermediary. Ms. Handlon received her Masters degree through the School of Allied Medical Professions from The Ohio State University in 2008. She received her undergraduate degree in Health Information Management and Systems from The Ohio State University in 2000. She is a member of the American Health Information Management Association, the Ohio Health Information Management Association, and the American Academy of Professional Coders.

Michael D. Howe
Mr. Howe has been the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Cleverley + Associates since January 2000. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Howe was the Director of Marketing for CHIPS/Ingenix. He joined CHIPS in 1996 as Senior Product Marketer where he was primarily responsible for lead generation, product marketing, and corporate communications. Prior to joining CHIPS, Mr. Howe worked in direct marketing and periodical publication marketing for a mid-level accounting and enterprise management software company. Mr. Howe received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Adrian College in 1990. He is a member of the national and local chapters of the American Marketing Association and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Employment Opportunities

Cleverley + Associates does not currently have any openings, but we are always on the look-out for creative team players. Feel free to submit your resume and if anything should open up, we will be in touch. Thank you.

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