Leadership Team

Bill Carns

MBA, CMPE, CHBME, Chief Executive Officer

A veteran of the health care industry with over 30 years of experience, Bill oversees PracticeMax growth strategies and market positioning. He has served in executive level finance and administrative roles at the hospital level for two national for-profit hospital systems and nearly ten years working with a non-profit multi-hospital system in multiple roles including Chief Operating Officer of their for-profit subsidiary. Twice he worked as an executive team member for two hospital start-ups. He has also worked as Vice President of M&A. Bill’s experience and expertise are comprehensive with special emphasis in the areas of revenue cycle management and information technology, including practice management, governance, payer and hospital contracting, human resources, customer service, business valuations and acquisitions. He has served twice as a Board Member of the Healthcare Billing & Management Association (HBMA) and once as a Board Member of the Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA).    

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Patrick Lukacs

CPA, CHBME, Senior Vice President of Operations

Patrick is responsible for revenue cycle management services at PracticeMax. He has over 25 years of health care management experience with special expertise in Clinical Documentation Improvement, Medical Coding, Electronic Health Record (EHR) Implementations, Workflow Optimization, Practice Management, and Revenue Cycle Outsourcing. Patrick empowers and motivates members of his team to generate results that consistently exceed our clients’ expectations. “Utilizing Information Technology and focusing on process improvement, we strive to continually enhance operational performance which has led to a track record of maximizing financial results for our clients.” Prior to his current role, Patrick served as Vice President, Software Services where he led the efforts to develop and deploy the company’s electronic health record (EHR) software offerings, and helps clients with selection and optimization strategies of these programs.

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Robert Kottman

MD, FACEP, Chief Medical Advisor - Emergency Medicine

In his role at PracticeMax, Dr. Robert Kottman provides expert advice, develops physician medical records documentation training, and creates and writes educational materials for coders and physicians. Employed full-time as an Emergency Department physician since 1977, Dr. Kottman was previously chairman and vice chairman of the Emergency Department of a five-hospital system.

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Chris Ray

MD, DABA, Chief Medical Advisor - Anesthesiology

In his role at PracticeMax, Chris Ray provides strategic advisory services and expert advice, assisting with the development of anesthesia operations best practices and other resources for our anesthesia clients. Dr. Ray is a board certified anesthesiologist with over 15 years of medical education and business experience. He is the creator of AnesthesiaOS, a cloud-based EHR for the anesthesia care team and the winner of the Dell-Intel Healthcare Innovation Challenge. As the Chief Technology Officer for Medical Information Records, LLC, Dr. Ray oversees all technology services, product analysis, and software design and development activities at MIR. In that capacity, Dr. Ray leads the team tasked with identifying, developing and leveraging technology to improve the point of care for patients, improve workflow, and management of clinical data. Dr. Ray also founded Ambulatory Medical Associates, an anesthesia service company offering specialized sedation in the states of Arizona and Colorado. He was instrumental in creating the first anesthesia company in the US that was also a DEA distribution company, DME supplier, and anesthesia service provider all in one. He has been a featured speaker and panelist in discussions on mobile device security, encryption, and secure workspace environments.

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Michael Johnson

MBA, MGM, Vice President, Global Strategy

Michael oversees the PracticeMax Research Department, Marketing Services Department and Special Projects Group. Michael has over ten years of experience in organizational change management with extensive experience in the hospitality, campaign management, non-profit and marketing industries. Michael’s areas of expertise include marketing strategies and tactics for medical practices including marketing automation, web sites and design; patient engagement; stakeholder satisfaction strategies, research and surveys. He led the development of PracticeMax’s proprietary business intelligence platform, MaxIntel, that allows clients to turn data into actionable business intelligence.

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Scott Everson

CHBME, Vice President, Business Development

Scott brings over 26 years of executive and operational experience in the health care billing and practice management industry to his role at PracticeMax where he oversees growth initiatives including strategic partnerships. Early in his career, Scott developed one of the first applications to automate the coding and pricing of anesthesia physician services. His areas of expertise include revenue cycle management and billing for small, mid and large sized medical practices; optimal and compliant physician coding, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs); and strategic planning for medical practices.

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Alix Skalicky

M.Ed, CCS-P, Vice President, Coding

Alix is a certified coding expert with over 20 years experience in the health care industry. She is responsible for the oversight and administration of PracticeMax coding services and has significant expertise in CPT, HCPCS, ICD-9 and ICD-10 professional coding. Alix and her staff provide PracticeMax clients with optimal, compliant and appropriate provider coding. Alix’s areas of expertise also include systems administration, AR management and regulatory compliance.

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Tim Karhu

CHBME, Vice President, Quality Assurance

With more than 28 years of experience in health care billing and management, Tim is responsible for the support and oversight of PracticeMax Payer Contracting and Provider Credentialing and Enrollment. He is the former founder and president of Adds Up, a medical billing firm acquired by PracticeMax in 2007. Tim’s comprehensive experience and expertise include physician billing, AR management and coding; merger and acquisition integration; managed care and vendor negotiation and contracting; and practice management functions such as credentialing, governance, decision making, hospital and payer negotiation and contracting, human resources, marketing and customer service.

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David Landen

MBA, Vice President, Regional Operations

David Landen brings more than 20 years of healthcare management experience to PracticeMax, where he is responsible for revenue cycle management processes in Texas and Louisiana including coding, charge entry, billing, and collections. His strong analytical background, with a focus on driving performance improvements makes him well qualified to provide PracticeMax clients with key performance measures and other actionable data to help them maximize collections for new and existing practices.

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Richard Pendleton

MBA, Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions

Richard is responsible for PracticeMax’s ongoing efforts in the area of mergers and acquisitions. A key dimension of the company’s long-term strategy is bringing together high quality billing companies and experienced senior managers to enable us to meet and exceed our clients’ needs in the rapidly evolving Revenue Cycle Management industry. Richard has over 30 years of experience in management and technology development in the healthcare industry. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago.

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Barry Haitoff

CHBME, Vice President, Regional Operations

With over 25 years of experience, Barry is a respected leader and expert in the field of healthcare revenue cycle management. He is the founder and CEO of Medical Management Corporation of America, one of the largest medical practice management companies in the Northeast acquired by PracticeMax in 2015. Barry currently leads a team of staff members in our Northeast and Midwest regions. His unique skill set includes process improvement, employee engagement, business development and client satisfaction.

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