Susan Senna
Susan (Susie) Senna is a highly experienced Revenue Cycle Specialist with 35+ years in the medical revenue cycle field, bringing deep expertise across the full continuum of healthcare financial operations. Based in North Port, Florida, she currently serves in a reimbursement-focused role with Pinnacle Home Care, supporting home health billing operations across episodic and managed care environments. Her work spans commercial insurance, Medicare Advantage, billing compliance, denial management, and end-to-end revenue cycle performance.
Susan’s career began at the front desk of a vascular surgery practice, where she quickly expanded her responsibilities into medical assisting and surgical assisting at a time when formal certifications were not always required. She went on to build comprehensive expertise across front office operations, authorizations, billing, and revenue cycle management, eventually leading teams of billers and front desk staff. Over the years, she has managed complex multi-role office environments and developed a strong ability to understand and operate every function within a medical practice. In her current role at Pinnacle, she began with episodic billing through WellCare and now works extensively with managed care and Medicare Advantage plans, including challenging third-party billing arrangements tied to Blue Cross networks.
Known for her investigative mindset and problem-solving approach, Susan thrives on identifying billing issues, analyzing root causes, and implementing effective long-term solutions. She has established structured communication processes with carriers, including monthly meetings, reporting systems, and performance tracking tools to improve claim outcomes and reduce inefficiencies. In addition to her technical expertise, she is deeply interested in mentoring others and sharing her knowledge with professionals entering or growing within the revenue cycle field. Her leadership style is rooted in hands-on experience, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous improvement in healthcare financial operations.
• Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma
• Lean Six Sigma White Belt, Lean Six Sigma
What do you attribute your success to?
For 35 years, I've mastered every twist and turn of the revenue cycle, from my start at a medical office front desk to authorizations, medical assisting, billing, and ultimately managing teams. Now at Pinnacle, I tackle complex managed-care denials and rejections in home health billing, while leading monthly meetings that keep teams aligned. One of my proudest achievements came at CareCentrix, where I identified a critical TOB issue that had been going on long before I took over the carrier. I cleaned up the process, started meetings to get it fixed, and helped take us from $190,000 outstanding down to just $50,000 over about 6 months, working with my team members. What truly drives me is the detective work: finding an issue, digging into root causes, and fixing it for good. I'm very analytical and a researcher, so I dig in to figure it out and learn to get the answers. My advice to young women entering the field is to be open-minded and think outside the box. You have to be willing to dig in and really find answers. You can't be lazy. You've got to be willing to use your portals, make the calls, use websites like AAPC, know your portals so you can go to Medicare validity and all the different things. You really have to put the time in to figure it out. It's definitely not an easy position just to float through. With these carriers, they'll deny you for anything, like right now they're denying my claims for no authorization when the authorization is there. You have to be willing to fight and do your appeals, do your recons, do your phone calls. That relentless curiosity and willingness to never give up is what makes the difference.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You have to be open-minded and think outside the box. You have to be willing to dig in and really find answers. You can't be lazy. You've got to be willing to use your portals, make the calls, and use websites like AAPC. You need to know your portals so you can go to Medicare validity and all the different things. You really have to put the time in to figure it out. This is definitely not an easy position just to float through. Sometimes it is easier, but there are other times that it is not. With these carriers, they'll deny you for anything. Like right now, I have one denying my claims for no authorization when the authorization is there. It's craziness like that that you have to be willing to fight. You have to do your appeals, do your recons, do your phone calls. You can't just give up.