Rick Gawenda

Rick Gawenda is founder and president of Gawenda Seminars & Consulting, Inc. He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in physical therapy from Wayne State University in Detroit. Rick is director of finance for a physical therapist–owned private practice with multiple offices located in Southern California. In addition, he was director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Detroit Receiving Hospital from February 2003 to December 2009, where he was responsible for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. He has provided valuable education and consulting to hospitals, private practices, and rehabilitation agencies in the areas of CPT/ICD-9 coding, billing, documentation compliance, revenue enhancement, and denial management as they relate to outpatient therapy services.

Rick is the past president of the Section on Health Policy & Administration of the American Physical Therapy Association as well as the past president of the Michigan Association of Medical Program Rehabilitation Administrators. He is on the editorial advisory board for Advance for Directors in Rehabilitation. Mr. Gawenda serves as the liaison between the Michigan Physical Therapy Association and National Government Services, which is the Medicare fiscal intermediary for the state of Michigan.

Rick is the author of The How-To Manual for Rehab Documentation: A Complete Guide to Increasing Reimbursement and Reducing Denials and Coding and Billing for Outpatient Rehab Made Easy: Proper Use of CPT Codes, ICD-9 Codes, and Modifiers.