About Us
Board of Directors
PRESIDENT
Connie Demeulenaere
Connie is the Director of Reimbursement Services for Therapeutic Rehab/Universal Michigan LLC. For the past eight years she has worked in this role as reimbursement Director managing the billing /collections aspects for the company along with all legal/litigation claims as they related to the Michigan No-Fault arena. She also contributes to certain Human Resource positions along with Operation roles. Prior to this she has an extensive background in Marketing specifically as it relates to the field of Neurorehabilitation. Connie’s entire career has been focusing on the Michigan No-Fault arena either on the Insurance side and currently on the provider side. She enjoys spending time with her husband of 20 years Perry. Her two beautiful daughters along with her stepchildren and six grandchildren with one more on the way!
VICE PRESIDENT
Christy O'Dell, CPC, CPMA
Christy O’Dell, CPC, CPMA, is employed as a Medical Educator with Change Healthcare and Aurand OB-GYN. Christy has worked in the medical auditing, coding, and billing industry for over 20 years. She has spent most of her career working in the Interventional Cardiology and OB-GYN specialties. Although she enjoys coding and billing, she felt she had more to offer both to her peers and providers, as well as a strong desire to learn, leading her to branch out to provider education, quality analysis, and practice management. Christy has been a member of MMBA for the last 16 years and an active board member for 13 years serving as the Northeast Chapter Officer, Secretary, Director of Marketing, Director of Special Events, and most recently President. Christy believes that if you find a job you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life!
DIRECTOR of CHAPTERS
Analiza S Mejia-Urias, CPB, CPC, CH-CBS
Analiza S Mejia-Urias is the Revenue Cycle Manager at Catherine's Health Center. She was previously the Director of Reimbursement for Cherry Health. Analiza has 29 years of Multi-specialty billing as in Family Practice, and Transplant billing, with the last 22 years specializing in Multi-specialty in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) which consists of billing for Internal Medicine, Family practice, Ob-Gyn, Pediatrics, Optometry, Dental, Behavioral Health, Physical Therapy, Dermatology, Radiology, SUD and Methadone.
Analiza is very detailed, dedicated, and mission driven. She loves billing due to the challenges and daily learning that it brings.
Administrative Assistant
Alyssa Ruff, RHIT
Alyssa Ruff is currently the administrative assistant for MMBA and enjoys working closely with the board and the members of MMBA. She previously worked at Aleda E. Lutz VAMC for eight years as a coder and continues to say up to date on her medical record career through the MMBA and education. She attended Delta College and Davenport University where she pursued Medical Office Administration and Health Information Technology/Management.
She loves helping others learn and is passionate about creating educational opportunities for those who are in need on topics that are difficult to understand or find information on. Networking and healthy professional communication are a few of her favorite things.
DIRECTOR of SPECIAL EVENTS
Jill Young, CPC, CEDC, CIMC 
Jill brings with her over 35 years of medical experience. This includes a diverse background in all areas of medicine from clinical to billing and she has worked with many physician specialties. Her consulting company provides auditing and the usual consulting services but additionally provides both education and training from front office to back.
TREASURER
Luisa Ortiz, BSBM, MBA-HC
Luisa Ortiz was born in Chicago, Il. she graduated from Central High School in 1985. Soon after, she began her undergrad at DeVry Institute of Technology in Chicago, Il. Because of personal reasons, she was unable to finish her undergrad, but able to attend and receive certification on Medical terminology, Medical administration and Medical billing from Wright College. She has worked in the medical field for over 30 years. She started as a medical clerical and biller for a specialist in Chicago, Il. After moving back to Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1992, she worked for Blue Care Network as a claims adjudicator, while they were transitioning to a more sophisticated system. Later she worked within the reimbursement department of a large Federally Qualified Health Center in West Michigan for many years, and now with Molina Healthcare for over 10 years. Realizing the importance of education, and setting the examples for her children, she decided to continue her education, where she received her BS in Business Management, and MBA in Healthcare. Her higher education became a focus in providing information to the communities about healthier habits, shared during the health fairs and events she volunteers for.
SECRETARY
Cindy Micho, BSA, MSA, CPC
I started my Healthcare adventure as a Medical Assistant having obtained an associate in applied science degree. I have over 30 years experience in the healthcare industry. After several years of working as a Medical Assistant I returned to college to earn a Master of Science Administration. I discovered my heart was really in coding and education, so I returned. I have experience with medical billing, medical chart review, claim resolution and coding. I am currently employed with CMU Medical Education Partners. After 18 years with HealthPlus of Michigan I joined the CMU team. I have been with CMU for 3 years. I have experience in the following specialties: Family and Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, Rheumatology, Endocrinology, Infectious Disease, General Surgery and Wound Care. I am a member of AAPC and hold CPC credentials. I look forward to being a part of this dynamic group.
EAST CHAPTER OFFICER
Michelle Pierson, CMRS, CMCS 
Michelle has worked for Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon D Gary Wolford DDS since 1996. She started in the office as his receptionist and through the years has worked to become the surgical scheduler, referral specialist and insurance credentialing liaison. In 2014, she became the office insurance biller/coder and one year later the office manager as well. Michelle has been a part of the Michigan Medical Billers Association for over 8 years! In 2017, she completed the CMRS course and during the 2020 COVID shutdown completed the CMCS course. Michelle looks forward to serving the members of MMBA as the East Michigan Co-Chair!
EAST CHAPTER OFFICER
Kristina Denise Bowens, CMRS
My name is Kristina Bowens and I am a Medical Biller and Accounts Receivable specialist at Oakland Family Dental. I am an accomplished coder in cross coding dental codes to medical and I enjoy using my skills to contribute to helping patients get the most out of their medical benefits.
I graduated from Monroe County Community College in 2016 with my associates degree in Accounting and Finance. In 2019 I took my CMRS exam and received my certificate as a certified medical reimbursement specialist. In 2019 I also became a mom to a beautiful baby girl. I am excited for the future of medical billing and enjoy telling a patient's story by coding. In my free time I like to do photography. I own my own photography business which I opened during the pandemic. Besides photography, in my spare time I love to spend my days with both my beautiful daughter and wife.
MID MICHIGAN CHAPTER OFFICER
Jill Young, CPC, CEDC, CIMC
Jill brings with her over 35 years of medical experience. This includes a diverse background in all areas of medicine from clinical to billing and she has worked with many physician specialties. Her consulting company provides auditing and the usual consulting services but additionally provides both education and training from front office to back.
MID MICHIGAN CHAPTER OFFICER
Rebecca Whitfield, CPC
Rebecca enjoys providing great client and patient services. As account manager for several specialties, she goes above and beyond to develop strategies to guide her teams through billing processes to increase clean claim submission rates. There is never a dull moment in healthcare only opportunities to improve.
NORTHEAST CHAPTER OFFICER
Cindy Micho, BSA, MSA, CPC 
I started my Healthcare adventure as a Medical Assistant having obtained an associate in applied science degree. I have over 30 years experience in the healthcare industry. After several years of working as a Medical Assistant I returned to college to earn a Master of Science Administration. I discovered my heart was really in coding and education, so I returned. I have experience with medical billing, medical chart review, claim resolution and coding. I am currently employed with CMU Medical Education Partners. After 18 years with HealthPlus of Michigan I joined the CMU team. I have been with CMU for 3 years. I have experience in the following specialties: Family and Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, Rheumatology, Endocrinology, Infectious Disease, General Surgery and Wound Care. I am a member of AAPC and hold CPC credentials. I look forward to being a part of this dynamic group.
NORTHEAST CHAPTER OFFICER
Rachel Davies, CPC, CPMA, CEMC
Rachel brings with her 35 years of coding and auditing experience in the following specialties: Urgent Care, Gamma Knife, Pediatrics, Hospitalist, Urology, Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and Family Practice Residency. The last 10 years were the highlight of her career at a local hospital where she educated Residents on documentation guidelines and performed audits for Coders and Providers.
In her current roll at Covenant Health Care, she codes Urology surgeries and provides support to various Family Practice Offices and Urgent Cares with diagnosis coding, claims follow-up, and review of Evaluation and Management levels.
She enjoys spending time with her husband Daniel of 39 years, her 2 adult children, and 3 grandchildren with one more on the way. It’s true that unconditional love of a grandchild to a Grammie is unbelievable!
NORTHERN MI CHAPTER OFFICER
Cindy Hartline, CPC, CPMA
Cindy is a graduate of Baker College in Cadillac. She started her billing career with an externship at Northern Billing Specialists and has been employed there ever since. She is now the coding specialist. Cindy has over 11 years experience in billing and coding. She is also an adjunct instructor at Baker College of Cadillac for the Medical Insurance Specialist program and has been since 2013. She is also an auditor for MACS, a member of AAPC, and a member of NAMAS. Cindy holds certifications as a Certified Professional Coder (CPC) and a Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA).
NORTHERN MI CHAPTER OFFICER
Roxanne DuFort, CPC, CFPC, CPMA, CPB
Roxanne owns and operates a medical billing company in the northern region of the state of Michigan. Roxanne has been in the business since 1995 providing billing, credentialing and auditing services to Michigan providers and practices of varied specialties. Roxanne is the founder of the Local Cadillac AAPC Chapter and has served in numerous officer positions. Roxanne has previously been on the MMBA board and has returned again to Co-Chair the Northern Chapter.
NORTHERN MI CHAPTER OFFICER SECRETARY
Sue Johnson, CPC
Sue is a certified professional coder, dual certified by both AAPC and MMBA, and has been in the billing arena for 30 years. She started out in cardiology at a local group in Traverse City Michigan. She has been the Billing Supervisor for Physical Medicine Associates of Northern Michigan for the last 22 years. She's been on the board for our local AAPC chapter in past years as the Vice President. She always enjoys the MMBA seminars and always learns new information when attending them. She loves the networking that happens when one attends and thinks it is important to stay on top of the ever-changing world of billing and coding. She is looking forward to helping others with this task as a board member of MMBA. For that reason, she's very excited to be the Chapter Secretary for the Northern Chapter.
WEST MI CHAPTER OFFICER
Luisa Ortiz, BSBM, MBA-HC
Luisa Ortiz was born in Chicago, Il. she graduated from Central High School in 1985. Soon after, she began her undergrad at DeVry Institute of Technology in Chicago, Il. Because of personal reasons, she was unable to finish her undergrad, but able to attend and receive certification on Medical terminology, Medical administration and Medical billing from Wright College. She has worked in the medical field for over 30 years. She started as a medical clerical and biller for a specialist in Chicago, Il. After moving back to Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1992, she worked for Blue Care Network as a claims adjudicator, while they were transitioning to a more sophisticated system. Later she worked within the reimbursement department of a large Federally Qualified Health Center in West Michigan for many years, and now with Molina Healthcare for over 10 years. Realizing the importance of education, and setting the examples for her children, she decided to continue her education, where she received her BS in Business Management, and MBA in Healthcare. Her higher education became a focus in providing information to the communities about healthier habits, shared during the health fairs and events she volunteers for.
WEST MI CHAPTER OFFICER
Analiza S Mejia-Urias, CPB, CPC, CH-CBS
Analiza S Mejia-Urias is the Revenue Cycle Manager at Catherine's Health Center. She was previously the Director of Reimbursement for Cherry Health. Analiza has 29 years of Multi-specialty billing as in Family Practice, and Transplant billing, with the last 22 years specializing in Multi-specialty in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) which consists of billing for Internal Medicine, Family practice, Ob-Gyn, Pediatrics, Optometry, Dental, Behavioral Health, Physical Therapy, Dermatology, Radiology, SUD and Methadone.
Analiza is very detailed, dedicated, and mission driven. She loves billing due to the challenges and daily learning that it brings.
