MANAGEMENT TEAM

Dr. Steve Krebs
Chief Executive Officer

Founder of Wheat Ridge Internal Medicine (WRIM) in 1994, Dr. Steve Krebs is a leading community recognized primary care physician. He remains the president and CEO of WRIM, which is the largest single site, non-Kaiser, internal medicine practice in the Denver metro area. In addition, he was a founding member of Superior Health Systems (SHS) in 1995, which was a PCP-driven, managed care IPA that merged with Northern Health Partners (NHP) in the late 1990's becoming Primary Physicians Partners, the areas largest non- Kaiser managed-care IPA. Dr. Krebs served as President of SHS and the post merger entity, PPP until 2004 when he electively stepped down to pursue other opportunities. In 1996, Dr. Krebs once again founded another entity, Inpatient Services, PC (ISPC) along with Rick Apke, MD and Eric Siegal, MD. He exited that partnership in 1998 when responsibilities at WRIM, and it's own inpatient services needs, became apparent. ISPC remains as Denver's largest and most successful independent inpatient admitting hospitalist group. Steve continues to serve as a board member and an Inpatient Medical Director for Physician Health Partners (PHP), an innovative physician driven MSO in the Denver metro area.

James Gelhaar
Chief Operating Officer

Jimmy has been actively and directly involved with Information Technology systems within private practice for over 7 years. As Manager of Information Systems for Physician Health Partners, LLC, he lead the conversion of the web-based Patient Referral Management System as well as directing the department and information systems through a myriad of corporate purchases and company headquarter moves. His main focus was in creating systems that allowed physician offices to operate as efficiently as possible. He also owns and operates his own Information Systems technology firm, Up And Running, LLC, a provider of systems, support and solutions to physician offices in the Denver Metro area. His experience covers all facets of technology implementation at the practice level, whether it involves systems, software, configurations, or design. He values the relationships he's fostered and developed through the years in becoming a well-respected resource for Information Technology solutions within the physician community.

Julie Chappell
Director of Billing Operations

Julie has been involved within the healthcare environment in Denver for over 20 years. She started her career at Rocky Mountain Primary Care (RMPC) managing 2 providers. The practice enjoyed tremendous success under her tutelage, and grew by over 150% in the 10 years that she managed their business. Julie left RMPC when an opportunity arose to help found an entirely new business, Inpatient Services, PC (ISPC), providing inpatient rounding to local hospital facilities. At the time there was not a viable business precedent, creating a unique but challenging opportunity for Ms. Chappell. Julie was able to design and build their billing and operations systems from scratch and laid the groundwork whereby ISPC was to become the single largest hospital rounding company in Denver, employing over 35 full-time physicians. Shortly after ISPC became successful, Julie was hired to save the physician group, Wheat Ridge Internal Medicine (WRIM). Within 90 days, Ms. Chappell quickly analyzed the business plan and eliminated their expensive and highly inefficient billing system, and alternatively built a new internalized billing platform. Today, billing is 100% electronic and services 13 providers. Their claim capabilities include both inpatient and outpatient and a wide scope of E & M codes as well as a tremendous array of procedures. Largely because of Julie's efforts through efficiency and personnel management , WRIM has become a tremendous success financially and operationally, and a cornerstone medical group practice in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Debbie Pritchett
Director of Finance

Debbie brings over 20 years of direct healthcare experience in accounting and financial management to Provider Edge. As a founding member of Physician Health Partners, LLC she helped increase revenue over 350% and grew the company from 15 to 78 FTE's in just under three years. Through 5 ownership changes, three private stock offerings, and a merger, her skills were critical in working through the many changes that occurred to PHP during the late 1990's. As the Controller of the Senior Care division of Provenant Health Partners and Director of Reimbursement and Contracting, she was instrumental in making key strategic decisions that created tremendous success for the company. Currently she owns a healthcare consulting firm providing oversight and financial assistance to Multi-million dollar corporations and is directly involved with practice management for some of the areas most successful private practice medical groups. From October 2004 to Feb 2006, Debbie was providing interim CFO duties for a $160M practice management firm which manages 75 practices and 25 subsidiaries. Debbie is highly respected within the local physician community and continues to provide exceptional consulting services to the local physician community.

Michael Klaus
Chief Software Architect

Michael has over 15 years of experience assisting organizations in developing software solutions within the healthcare, operations, productivity, and e-commerce fields. He headed the development efforts of the Practice Logix software and brings his extensive experience, insight, knowledge, and understanding to Provider Edge. His previous positions include senior software engineer at Navidec, Inc., consultant for CIBER information systems, and project lead at QuickPen International. Michael has worked in a variety of environments and technologies with a concentration on Java/J2EE and Microsoft solutions and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Colorado State University. His passion for computers started at an early age when he began programming on an Apple II. Michael continues to enjoy the challenge of creating useful applications that enhance people's lives.