Jeffrey Bettinger, MD, FACEP

Dr. Jeffrey Bettinger is a founder and managing member of Bettinger, Stimler, Schultz & Associates, LLC (BSA Healthcare). A leader in the emergency medicine billing arena, he has been involved in billing and reimbursement for large medical groups for more than 20 years.

A graduate of Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, Dr. Bettinger completed his residency in internal medicine and served as a staff physician, and later as emergency department medical director, for the Emergency Medical Group of Miami (EMG). He is board certified in both internal medicine and emergency medicine.

In the mid-1980s, Dr. Bettinger built a billing and accounts receivable management system for EMG, which later merged with EMSA, the forerunner of InPhyNet Medical Management, Inc. In 1997, InPhyNet merged with MedPartners, and Dr. Bettinger assumed the role of executive vice president of billing and reimbursement for Team Health, the hospital-based physician subsidiary of MedPartners. He remained in this role until February 2000. As vice president of billing and reimbursement for Team Health, Dr. Bettinger directed a billing and accounts receivable operation that billed for more than 4 million encounters annually.

Dr. Bettinger is a former chairman of the Florida College of Emergency Physician's Medical Economic Committee, and he is currently a member of the American College of Emergency Physician’s Reimbursement Committee.

In 2008, Dr. Bettinger was chosen as a Hero of Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The campaign, which is part of ACEP’s 40th anniversary, recognizes emergency physicians who have made significant contributions to emergency medicine, their communities and their patients.

John Stimler, DO, CPC, CHC, FACEP

Dr. Stimler is a founder and managing member of Bettinger, Stimler, Schultz & Associates, LLC (BSA Healthcare). For the past 20 years, Dr. Stimler has been actively involved in reimbursement issues at the local and national levels, including physician-charting education, proper choice of billing codes, compliance, fee schedule creation, billing operations and managed care negotiations.

Dr. Stimler is a graduate of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Stimler completed his residency in emergency medicine at University Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida. He is also a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and is certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC).

Dr. Stimler then served as the acting director of the emergency medicine residency program at University Medical Center before founding Emergency Physicians Incorporated (EPI), an emergency medicine group that grew to contract with 12 hospital emergency departments. As executive vice president of EPI, Dr. Stimler managed all reimbursement activities and helped negotiate most hospital coverage and managed care contracts for the group. Dr. Stimler was also president of EPI Clinics, an entity that operated, and subsequently sold, two freestanding urgent care centers.

From 1992 to 1999, Dr. Stimler served as medical director for Gottlieb's Financial Services, a medical billing and coding company that billed for more than 300 emergency departments in 33 states. As medical director, he focused on resolving regulatory issues involving Medicaid, Medicare, workers' compensation and managed care.

In the political arena, Dr. Stimler was active in legislative issues involving managed care payment to providers and Medicaid fee schedules. He was also involved in coder medical education and chart audits for proper code choice and documentation review. He continues to educate physician groups and billing and coding organizations about proper chart documentation and code choice methodology.

Dr. Stimler is an attending clinical instructor at the Shand's Jacksonville emergency medicine residency program. He is past president of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians (FCEP), and a former chairman of the FCEP Medical Economics Committee. Additionally, Dr. Stimler is a former member of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Governmental Affairs Committee. He is currently a member of the ACEP Reimbursement Committee.

In 2008, Dr. Stimler was chosen as a Hero of Emergency Medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The campaign, which is part of ACEP's 40th anniversary, recognizes emergency physicians who have made significant contributions to emergency medicine, their communities and their patients.