Carrie Cooley is the Principal of Weatherbee Resources. Carrie joined Weatherbee in 2009 as an Associate Consultant and was hired as the Consulting Coordinator in 2012. In 2014, Carrie was promoted to Director of the Consulting Division and in July 2015, she assumed the COO position. In 2021 Carrie assumed sole ownership of Weatherbee Resources. Her operational, clinical, and regulatory expertise has been instrumental in her professional growth with Weatherbee and in serving Weatherbee's clients. 

As the Principal of Weatherbee Resources, she leads the strategic growth initiatives for Weatherbee, providing invaluable expertise to individual hospices and the entire field. Carrie's mission is to prepare and support hospices navigating the ever-changing regulatory hospice environment. Carrie and the Weatherbee team focus on delivering consulting services and education that is specifically tailored to meet each client's individual needs. 

Carrie's regulatory expertise and extensive consulting experience includes forensic clinical record auditing, baseline compliance audits/mock surveys, interim management, clinical due diligence, and executive coaching. Carrie also works directly with clients' legal counsel in preparation for arbitration and other hearings; she serves as an expert witness. Weatherbee also works extensively with clients who are under a Corporate Integrity Agreement (CIA); Carrie and the Consulting team manage the Independent Review Organization (IRO) audit activities required by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Carrie's excellent rapport with executives and staff alike – coupled with her regulatory and clinical acumen, and knowledge of best practices – assures excellent consulting outcomes. 

Under Carrie's leadership, Weatherbee has assisted hundreds of clients under investigation by Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPIC), Benefit Integrity Support Centers (BISC), Recovery Auditors (RA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and OIG.  

As a member of Weatherbee's Speaker's Bureau, Carrie teaches a broad range of hospice, regulatory, and leadership-related topics nationally and is a member of the faculty for Weatherbee's renowned Hospice Regulatory Boot Camps. Carrie also frequently speaks at state and national hospice conferences on compliance-related topics.

Carrie is a registered nurse and holds a Master's degree from Samford University with a specialty in nursing leadership and healthcare finance.

Dr. Lauren Templeton has been a Physician Consultant with Weatherbee Resources since 2017. As a physician since 2009 and a hospice and palliative medicine physician since 2012, Dr. Templeton began her career in internal medicine, but soon thereafter was drawn to end-of-life care due to its overall philosophy and her passion for ensuring a dignified death for her patients. As a hospice medical director and Hospice Medical Director Certified physician, she is perfectly positioned to assist your hospice physicians with compliance education!

Dr. Templeton currently works in hospice as the medical director for a medium size not-for-profit hospice based in Texas. In this role, she assists with compliance, quality improvement and documentation review. She continues to participate in clinical care managing hospice patients in both the home care and inpatient setting.

She also serves as associate medical director for the Palliative Care Department at a local medical center, as well as, serving on the foundation board, medical executive committee, and ethics committee for the same facility.

Dr. Templeton’s mission is to help support hospices by educating on the role of the hospice medical director from a regulatory and clinical perspective. She has served as a task force member and item writer for the Hospice Medical Director Certification Board from which she is certified. She continues a robust educational program within her own hospice program and is a regular speaker with the Texas New Mexico Hospice Organization.

As an advocate of the hospice benefit and speaks to groups such as the Alzheimer’s Association about hospice care and currently serves as a member of the NHPCO Regulatory Committee assisting in advocating for hospice providers across the country.

Jean Acevedo*, LHRM, CPC, CHC, CENTC, has over 30 years of health care experience and founded Acevedo Consulting in 2000. Her CENTC designation was bestowed on her as she served on the AAPC Steering Committee that wrote the ENT coding examination. She has a particular expertise in chart audits, compliance and education relative to physician documentation and coding. Jean has also been an expert witness in civil litigation and an investigative consultant for the DOJ and FBI in Federal fraud cases having been officially designated by the courts as an expert in physician documentation and coding.

Recognizing physician reimbursement is moving from a pure “fee for service” model to one reimbursing for quality and value, her firm is helping physician organizations understand the rules and nuances of diagnosis coding and its impact on Medicare Risk Adjustment (MRA) coding.

Jean was an instructor at Florida Atlantic University where she taught the regulatory compliance modules of FAU’s Certificate in Medical Business Management program for 15 years, and a member of several Coding Institute Editorial Advisory Boards. Jean has been a Participant in CMS’ Medicare Provider Feedback Group, CMS Division of Provider Information Planning and Development since 2007, and is a member of the Jurisdiction 9 MAC’s Provider Outreach and Education Advisory Group. She  has been an annual guest lecturer on documentation and reimbursement at FAU’s DNP program since 2015.

She is a frequently sought after speaker as she possesses the unique perspective of avoiding risk and liability while optimizing reimbursement in our highly regulated health care industry.

*Health Care Risk Manager, Certified Professional Coder, Certified in Healthcare Compliance, Certified ENT Coder and, due to her extensive work with the AAPC, was given the designation of AAPC Fellow.

Christopher Acevedo is the Chief Operating Officer for Acevedo Consulting Incorporated (ACI). Mr. Acevedo is a healthcare industry veteran with over 18 years of expertise in combining the unique perspective of avoiding physician risk and liability with opportunities for optimizing reimbursement. 

Chris currently serves as the Healthcare Compliance Officer for Barry University, is frequently called on as expert witness on medical coding and physician documentation disputes with third-party payers and as a Litigative Consultant for the United States Attorneys’ Office (USAO). Additionally he spent a number of years as Vice President of Physician Operations for the Nation’s largest privately held hospice as well as the Chief Operating Officer of the largest multi-state provider of palliative care services in the United States. In these roles he was responsible for day-to-day operations, strategic growth, oversight of clinical integration and excellence, financial performance and operational efficiencies. 

Mr. Acevedo remains a highly sought after lecturer and his expertise in building highly integrated palliative care partnerships has been integral in transforming the way healthcare is delivered to the most vulnerable of patient populations. 

Beyond Christopher's professional accomplishments, he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling to watch his son play lacrosse, and relaxing with his dogs.