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Cathy Costello is an attorney specializing in medical-legal work who has been involved with the Ohio Health Information Partnership since its inception in 2009. In her role as head of The Partnership’s Regional Extension Center, Cathy was responsible for managing the network of regions that provide services to 6,000 primary care providers and supported their Meaningful Use programs.

Through her ongoing work as Director of CliniSyncPLUS, Cathy continues to work with physician groups, hospital systems, and Critical Access Hospitals to assist them in moving ahead with new CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and state quality initiatives involving the use of EHR (electronic health records) systems, including Meaningful Use, PQRS, ACO (Accountable Care Organizations)and other group payment models.

Cathy also serves at the national level as a commissioner for EHNAC, the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission, which is responsible for operational efficiency and data security review for healthcare organizations. Among other programs, EHNAC provides accreditation for organizations participating in the national Direct Trust network. Cathy also acts as a coordinator for outreach programs to hospitals, physicians and pharmacies around the state of Ohio for the e-prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS).

Before helping to establish the Regional Extension Center program for the Ohio Health Information Partnership, Cathy worked for the Ohio State Medical Association as a legislative liaison, legal counsel and practice economics director. She worked extensively with various state agencies on issues that affected physician practices. Cathy represented the OSMA on the Ohio Board of Regents Committee on Physician Supply which studied issues created by an aging population and a shrinking physician base. She has worked extensively on healthcare reimbursement issues to help improve payment systems for both the providers and the public. Cathy edited several editions of the book, Physician’s Guide to Ohio Law.