Print Friendly VersionKenneth Blickenstaff and Carmen Wolf Form BlickenWolf LLC:
New Corporate Integrity and Investigative Services Firm Helps Healthcare Providers Nationwide Improve Service Delivery, Minimize Risk and Protect Business Integrity
Portage, IN, (May 19, 2004)—With a combined 25 years of experience in healthcare compliance, investigations, and integrity, Kenneth Blickenstaff and Carmen Wolf have launched their own firm—BlickenWolf LLC. Both Blickenstaff and Wolf are leaders in the field of healthcare consulting and, through BlickenWolf, provide integrity and investigative services to hospital systems, physicians and other providers as well as pharmaceutical and device manufacturing companies, claims payers, and law firms. They offer a unique understanding of how the government approaches issues combined with how healthcare delivery really works to assist clients in dealing with compliance related activities and in the prevention, detection and correction of fraud and abuse.
According to Blickenstaff, “Healthcare fraud is a growing concern in the United States. Later this year, changes to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines currently being considered on Capital Hill could significantly impact profit and non-profit organizations in all industries. Likely changes could include heightened leadership accountability, mandatory compliance policies and procedures, improved communication between the compliance officer and upper management and boards of directors, required compliance training at all levels, periodic risk assessments, and ongoing monitoring to name a few. Healthcare organizations should take proactive steps now to review their compliance programs.”
Wolf added, “Healthcare fraud and abuse issues are detailed and complex. That’s why, when forming BlickenWolf, we carefully considered the needs of both healthcare providers and attorneys who need assistance addressing these issues. Our team is highly experienced with varied skill sets including legal, investigative, clinical, accounting, coding, statistics, and data mining. Depending on the issue a client is facing, we can provide one, some, or all of these skill sets—which definitely brings value to our clients.”
Clients rely on BlickenWolf to help them with compliance program development, risk assessment, and training; shadow and internal audits; internal investigations, voluntary disclosures, litigation support and expert witness testimony; revenue cycle design and process improvement; coding and billing policies and procedures; and Independent Review Organization (IRO) services under the terms of Corporate Integrity Agreements.
Blickenstaff, a former partner with Deloitte & Touche, is past president of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Units and a former law enforcement officer assigned exclusively to healthcare fraud prosecutions. Throughout his career Blickenstaff has provided internal investigations, voluntary disclosures, corporate compliance programs and risk assessments. He has extensive experience with Corporate Integrity Agreements including annual compliance, billing and systems reviews, and mandatory training. Blickenstaff conducts a broad range of healthcare investigations and provides fraud awareness and prevention to clients. He also assists healthcare payers in establishing special investigation units and fraud detection techniques as part of claims processing.
Wolf, a registered nurse and former senior manager for Deloitte & Touche, has extensive experience conducting and managing a broad range of healthcare investigations and in providing fraud awareness and prevention training to clients. She assists providers with risk assessments as part of the overall development and implementation of corporate compliance programs. Wolf has consistently helped clients identify underlying operational issues that lead to non-compliance and has assisted with retooling processes to ensure future compliance. Like Blickenstaff, Wolf has done extensive work related to Corporate Integrity Agreements including annual compliance, billing and systems reviews and mandatory training. Wolf is also a former manager of the Milwaukee Heart Institute.
Founded in June 2003, BlickenWolf has a national reputation for providing high quality investigative and integrity services tailored to meet individual client’s needs. Their experienced and skilled professionals have extensive and on-point experience in healthcare and law enforcement to aid in the efficient resolution of complex and sensitive issues. BlickenWolf is proud to have earned a position as the preferred outsourced integrity partner of a large and growing number of provider, payer and legal clients in the healthcare industry.
For more information, contact:
| Kenneth Blickenstaff | Carmen Wolf |
| 219.771.7181 | 414.801.8474 |
| ken@blickenwolf.com | carmen@blickenwolf.com |
