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For over 60 years, our firm has provided traditional accounting, tax, and consulting services to physician practices in our service areas nationwide.  In 1995, Carol Hamerski joined the firm after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and passing her CPA exam.  Carol had worked in a hospital billing office and for physician practices while completing her college classes.  Her experience working directly in the healthcare facilities, along with her accounting skills, provided a unique opportunity to further help our firm's healthcare clients.  In 1997, one of the firm’s clients asked if we would consider doing the medical billing for his practice.  After careful thought and analysis of the needs of our clients, we made the decision to start a medical billing practice.  Since that time, the medical billing service has grown and expanded to include multiple specialties, extensive services geared directly to healthcare practices, and team members with a variety of backgrounds and qualifications.  Michelle Depew joined the firm in 2005, manages the day-to-day medical billing services and works closely with our clients and their staff on projects.  Chris Kujawa and the IT team keeps the systems running smoothly and securely, can customize reports to your hearts content, develop customized interfaces to efficiently share data, and provides both remote and on-sight support for client hardware and software.

Just as the healthcare industry has changed, we continually expand our knowledge and services to help our clients adapt and succeed.  We realize that each practice, physician, and provider has unique goals and we can help you achieve those goals through thoughtful insight, experience, and resources of our team through-out the firm.

Our Team

Carol Hamerski, CPA, CPC, CPCO
Partner-in-Charge

Carol joined the firm as a staff accountant in 1995 and was promoted to partner in 2001. Prior to entering public accounting and while she was completing her degree in accounting, Carol worked in a physician's office and hospital billing office for six years. This experience provided her with a unique perspective in providing services to the firm's health care clients. Carol continues to receive substantial continuing education in health care services consulting and medical practice management.

Carol's experience includes preparing all types of individual, corporate, partnership, and estate tax returns, preparing financial statements, and consulting with clients on financial accounting and tax issues. Carol developed the medical billing department and provides extensive consulting and practice management services to physicians and health care providers.

Carol graduated cum laude from Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1995. She successfully passed all parts of the CPA examination on her first sitting in 1995. She passed the Certified Professional Coder examination in 2004 and the Certified Professional Compliance Officer examination in 2012. Carol has served on various boards, including President of the local chapter of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC).

Professional Associations
  • American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
  • Illinois Certified Public Accountants Society
  • Medical Group Management Association
  • American Academy of Professional Coders
Community Affiliations
  • Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce
  • SSM Health Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees
  • Spero Family Services Board of Directors
Michelle DePew, CPC
Partner

Michelle joined the firm in 2005 and gained experience in various areas, including accounting, tax, and medical billing. She now manages the medical billing staff and works directly with clients to assist with their practice management needs. Michelle has detailed knowledge in revenue cycle management, managing the appeals process, EDI transactions, Medicare and Medicaid MIPS/Meaningful Use Reporting, analyzing payer contracts, credentialing, coding, and quality control review. She also has assisted clients by working directly at their offices, which has given her added insight as to what takes place in a busy medical office.

In 2002, Michelle graduated magna cum laude with her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM). She went on to receive a Master of Business Administration degree from UTM, graduating in 2003. Michelle was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Theta Kappa, and Beta Gamma Sigma honor societies. In 2008, she passed the Certified Professional Coder examination and has actively participated in various leadership positions within the Mt. Vernon chapter of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). In 2012, Kemper awarded her the Richard J. Roth Leadership Award.

Professional Associations
  • American Academy of Professional Coders
  • Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
Community Affiliations
  • Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce
  • Healthy Woman, Board Member
Chris Kujawa, MCSE, MCST
Partner, Network Administrator

Chris' experience includes network design and deployment, server installation and support, workstation support, firewall management, security testing, and many other network related activities. Chris manages all of the IT for the medical billing division as well as offsite client networks.

Chris graduated cum laude from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems in 2003. He gained his Network+ certification in 2003 and the Security+ certification in 2005. Chris became a Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 and completed all exams for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification in 2007. He also gained the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in 2009.

Professional Associations
  • Microsoft Certified Professionals
Community Affiliations
  • Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce
  • YMCA Board of Directors
  • Cedarhurst Special Events Council