Grove City Medical Center News

Wolf Creek Practice Administrator Appointed to Professional Association Advisory Board

Rhonda Buckholtz, CPC, practice manager for Wolf Creek Medical Associates, has been appointed to the National Advisory Board of the American Academy of Professional Coders. Wolf Creek Medical Associates is the physician group that practices at Grove City Medical Center in Grove City, Pennsylvania.

            The American Academy of Professional Coders (The Academy) was founded in an effort to elevate the standards of medical coding by providing ongoing education, certification, networking and recognition. Currently, the Academy has a membership base of nearly 49,000 worldwide, of which over 33,000 are certified.

            The Academy’s mission is to provide education and certification for professional medical coders. The certifications focus on physician practice; Certified Professional Coder (CPC), hospital outpatient facility; Certified Professional Coder-Hospital (CPC-H), and recently added insurance professional from the payer perspective, Certified Professional Coder-Payer (CPC-P) for assurance of correct review and payment of claims for reimbursement. Specialty credentials are currently offered through the Academy for evaluation and management, general surgery, obstetrics & gynecology; orthopedics, emergency department, cardiology, gastroenterology, behavioral health, and cardiovascular & thoracic surgery will be available in the near future.

            In her role on the Academy’s Advisory Board, Buckholtz will support and promote the mission of the Academy in the coding profession by subscribing to its ethics and standards, exhibiting professionalism in the workplace and recruiting new members. She will also work with the Academy National Office for the betterment of the entire membership and the medical coding community through active participation in national sponsored publications, educational programs and activities.

            Buckholtz, of Seneca, has been certified through the Academy since 2001 and has worked in various medical specialties. The Wolf Creek Medical Associates group is comprised of three obstetrician/gynecologists, a general surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon and a pediatrician. She is also a part-time instructor for Venango Campus, Clarion University for coding and billing. Buckholtz also performs professional consulting through her business “Coding and Reimbursement Experts.” Other contributions to her profession include frequent publications in the “Coding Alerts” trade journal and numerous seminars for area hospitals as well as local Academy chapters; she is past president of both the Erie and Oil City local chapters.