Laurie Amdur, CPAR, CFC, PAS
Financial Counseling Supervisor
Rockdale Medical Center

Lauire Amdur graduated from Shorter College with BBA in Accounting.  Soon after graduation, she began working in the business office of Rockdale Medical Center where she has been employed for 10 years.  She has extensive experience in the business office, from top to bottom.  She has supervised cash posting, customer service, insurance followup/collections, and billing at one point or another. She is currently responsible for supervising the Medicaid collections team and is the Financial Counselor.  She is also responsible for the preparation of the majority of the month end reports required by corporate.  Rockdale Medical Center was not for profit when she started and has been a for-profit publicly traded facility since Feb 2009. 

Mary Askew, CCA
CDM & Coding Coordinator
Draffin & Tucker, LLP

Mary Askew, CCA is Charge Description Master and Coding Coordinator for Draffin & Tucker, LLP in Albany, Georgia. She directs all charge description master and medical record reviews for the firm. She has 6 years experience in providing healthcare consulting services and 15 years hospital related experience. Prior to joining Draffin & Tucker in November 2000, Mary held the position of Rehabilitation Coordinator for HCA Palmyra Medical Centers in Albany, Georgia.

Phil Bowers
Professional Skills Development

Phil Bowers is the founding partner of Professional Skills Development, a performance consulting and motivational teaching company.

Phil's professional experience spans thirty years with a broad base in manufacturing, sales and marketing with U.S and international companies. Over the course of his career, Phil has successfully built and led sales and marketing teams in some of the toughest markets in the United States. Phil has also served as a representative on international business teams, and his sales and technical responsibilities have taken him to markets a diverse as Mexico, Japan and Brazil. He has developed training programs that not only targeted specific development needs, but also focused on measuring progress and results.

Phil received his Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Chemistry from Georgia Tech and was named outstanding graduate in 1975 by the Georgia Textile Manufacturer's Association. Phil also completed the Advanced Management Program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Phil serves on the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce Education Council, the Closing the Achievement Gap Committee, and is on the Board of Directors for Crossroads Sexual Assault Response Center.

In addition to being a training professional, Phil is a speaker and an author, having published his first book, Management is NOT a Dirty Word.

Rose Duffy
Materials Management and Environmental Services Director

Rose Duffy has been in the healthcare business for thirty-five years, the last 18 have been as Materials Management and Environmental Services Director at a hospital and nursing home in Northern Georgia. She is experienced in contract negotiation, utilization and compliance with GPO contracts, capital and yearly budget processes, all aspects of Purchasing and EOC as it pertains to new construction, as well as HIPAA. The corporate office often uses her as a liaison between the corporate office and other Materials Managers in the organization. She is now in her third computer conversion, which took them from regular Materials to Point of Issue.

Rose's responsibilities include educational training with new hires for HIPAA and Code of Conduct as well as HIPAA Privacy Officer and Team Leader for the Disaster Recovery Team. She also has experience as Compliance Officer, Security Officer, and Safety Officer.

Ms. Duffy is a member of the AHRMM and is CMRP certified. Currently, she serves as Member at Large with the GSHMM Board of Directors associated with GHA. In 2002, she received the Materials Manager of the Year award from HomeTown Health.

This leaves little spare time, which is spent with family and monthly mission work with her church.

Walt Dundore
Computer Information Systems Instructor
North Georgia Technical College

Walt Dundore is a small business owner and Computer Information Systems Instructor at North Georgia Technical College where he won the Rick Perkins award for excellence in teaching. He holds a Master's Degree in Computer Science and has literally written the book on many technology topics. Dundore is proud to call Northeast Georgia home and is proud to be working with HTHU.

Cindy Dupree, CPA, FHFMA, CCS
Director of Consulting and Compliance Services
Draffin & Tucker, LLP

Cynthia R. DuPree, CPA, FHFMA, CCS is a Partner with Draffin & Tucker, LLP in Albany, Georgia. She serves as Director of Consulting and Compliance Services for the firm. Prior to joining Draffin & Tucker, Cindy served as Director of Financial Analysis and Vice-President of Budget and Reimbursement for two large hospital systems. She is an active member of the Georgia HFMA, where she has served as a board member, chapter officer and has earned fellowship status. Cindy is a Certified Coding Specialist and is a frequent speaker to health care organizations including HFMA and Hospital Associations, as well as presenting in-house seminars to individual hospitals.

Linda Braswell Fausett
Patient Financial Specialist

Linda Fausett is the Master Instructor for Patient Financial Services for Hometown Health, LLC. Linda started working in a hospital in the Patient Access Department in 1984. She has since worked in many areas of the hospital setting including Patient Access Manager, IS Manager, Billing Manager, and Patient Financial Services Manager. Linda understands the need for continuing education in the Patient Financial Services area; and, after 23 years of experience, she has developed a great passion for healthcare and the needs of the healthcare employees. Linda is proud to be a member of Hometown Health's organization.

Jimmy Lewis, CEO
Hometown Health, LLC

Jimmy came to health care as a result of soaring insurance costs for his manufacturing company. After forming a partially self-funded insurance program for his company, his health care involvement led him to a position on the board of directors of a hospital. He ultimately sold Cross Equipment Company to become market development officer for that hospital. That opened the door to becoming Vice President of Government Relations for Columbia/HCA's 20 hospitals for the state of Georgia. Thereafter, he took his knowledge of the rural health care delivery system in Georgia, resigned Columbia HCA, and formed a consulting company, The Leadership Group. The Leadership Group sponsored development of the Georgia Rural Hospital Roundtable. The Roundtable had 22 rural hospitals as members. Its purpose was advocacy for rural hospitals in the state legislature in Georgia. Members were limited to hospitals that had fewer than 100 licensed beds.

Under his leadership, HomeTown Health has grown to now a Georgia based virtual company where business partners and hospital members have cumulatively over $800 million in annual sales from the 55 rural and small hospitals and 49 business partners. HomeTown Health has expanded services into education as well, having developed HomeTown Health University, which now boasts of 500 students mostly in the Business Office arena for rural hospitals.

Donna Meeks
Director of Training & Certified Customer Service Specialist
HomeTown Health, LLC

Donna Meeks is the Director of Training for HomeTown Health. As a Certified Customer Service Specialist, Donna has led many HomeTown Health member hospital management teams in planning and developing a vision and mission focused toward excellence in Customer Service. Donna obtained her Customer Service education from North Georgia Technical College along with specializing in Leadership Development. She has managed the creation and implementation of HomeTown Health University, HomeTown's own online education university. She is currently managing over 500 students with 26 rural Georgia hospital business office courses online.