About Cornerstone Clinical Consulting

Consultants with Cornerstone Clinical Consulting are Registered Nurses experienced in optimizing RUG (Resource Utilization Groupers) and PDPM scores for care provided. 

About the President 

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Andrea O’Neill - RN, RAC-CT, RAC-CTA

Andrea’s healthcare career began early on at a family-owned nursing home while still in school. Finding an appreciation for caring for the elderly, she remained in the skilled nursing industry and quickly transitioned into learning the MDS and Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) in 2008, where she began to develop a keen since of how the acuity-based coding system worked.   

Andrea spent time in various SNF roles, from NAC in 2002 to Unit nurse in 2006, MDS from 2008-2017, then DNS and Regional Clinical Director from 2017-2023 prior to joining Cornerstone Clinical Consulting. During her time as MDS coordinator, Cornerstone and Andrea first began working together (in 2014) to support increasing cmi for her facility.  

Andrea has efficiently trained MDS nurses with no experience or case mix knowledge to improve and maintain entitled credit, with significant increases in facility reimbursement. In some of her first state audit reviews, Andrea and her MDS team achieved not only increased case mix credit for care delivered, but also CMAR (case mix accuracy review) audits with zero error rate. Andrea was and has been active in successful audit reviews, both TPE and RAC.  

While a DNS, Andrea guided the MDS team in MDS / RAI education to develop systems to support successful increases in cmi, achieve the top tier in WA Quality Enhancement (QE) rating, and a 5-Star rating overall. The following CMAR audits, again, 0% error rate.  
In her regional role, Andrea oversaw multiple facilities to support compliance with federal regulations, survey readiness, completing or helping with plans of corrections, infection control compliance as well as ongoing training for nurse leaders to better understand the MDS and QM/QE systems. While often managing many subject matters as Regional Director of Clinical Services, Andrea continued to help MDS nurses, IDT/leadership, and direct care staff grasp the documentation requirements for accurate MDS coding for RUGS (Resource Utilization Groupers III/IV) and PDPM (Patient Driven Payment Model), while moving the cmi in each building.  
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Andrea’s intense desire for ongoing improvement, combined with her deep-rooted passion for the MDS and long-standing SNF experience, has made her successful in increased Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for the facilities she has worked with. 

Email contact: [email protected]

​Education

    • “… this was helpful for Administrators as well as DNS. Great information discussed!” –
    • “Andrea’s training was the best training I got! I learned a lot of new knowledge! Thank You!”
    • “One of the best case-mix trainings I’ve been to as a DNS!”
  • “Thank you for helping me with new information to take using forward.” 
  • “… I appreciate your thoroughness and helping me understand and answering my questions!”
  • “… a great training session… Andrea does a wonderful job of presenting the information!” 
  • “Wow, Andrea’s training is so helpful!” 
  • “I will never forget the way Andrea taught me how to document.” 
  • “Andrea’s guidance and supporting our team has helped make an impact on what we do for our residents.”
  • “I learn a lot from the 1:1 spent with Andrea.” 

About the Founder

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Colleen Marlatt - RN, BSN, RAC-CT, RAC-CTA
Colleen is passionate about excellent care for the elder population, loves the MDS and sharing guidance from the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) manual. Colleen loves awakening the passion for elder care and the assessment process in others.

Colleen has built her career on a foundation of acute & sub-acute direct patient care, staff supervision and training. Colleen has participated as an expert adviser to multi-disciplinary teams regarding the (WA) State and Federal requirements for the Minimum Data Set (MDS); consulting and training on Resource Utilization Groupers (RUGs) III /IV as well as the new PDPM (Patient Driven Payment Model) for entitled payment. Colleen has worked with health care lobby groups to support advocacy for our elders, and ongoing quality and excellence in healthcare.  Colleen has helped state Long Term Care (LTC) industry leaders with clarifications to the MDS and RAI processes.

Colleen worked as a corporate clinical reimbursement specialist before founding Cornerstone Clinical Consulting in 2011. Colleen has been a MDS reimbursement consultant to long term care, Medicare and transitional care facilities in Washington, Idaho and California. Major responsibilities have included: review of the MDS compliance process and systems to help assure accurate reimbursement for the care provided.

Colleen provides ongoing RAI focused education and in-services to facility direct-care staff and leadership regarding MDS coding criteria as it relates to RUG (rug utilization) / CMG (case mix group) scoring, case mix and skilled care services.  Colleen brings a breath of fresh air and simplicity to an otherwise complexed clinical assessment tool.   

Outcome of the facility consultations has resulted in significant increases in entitled revenue to both Medicare and Medicaid as well as successful audit reviews.

Excellence Award winner, working for you.

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2016 LEADINGAGE BOARD CHAIR AWARD WINNER
Colleen Marlatt
for Cornerstone Clinical Consulting.

LeadingAge Washington’s Awards and Recognition Program is all about people who make a difference every day in the lives of those they serve. It‘s all about people who put quality first, deliver excellence, and inspire others to do the same.

The LeadingAge Awards Program, Awards of Excellence recognizes those individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution in the fields of aging, health care, housing and community-based services. It is our way of saying thank you, to those who do more than what is merely expected of them, who do the right things for the right reasons. Click here to see the full award.


Colleen is a member of:
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Customer Testimonials
Regarding Communication Style: 
Colleen –
“…maintains a strong professional ethic by communicating the purpose, need and design of her purpose.”
“…articulates ideas well. Is compassionate and a good listener.
“…is so easy to have around; it feels like she is part of the facility.”
“…message is sometimes difficult for staff to hear, so this can lead to defensiveness on their part.” “…however, Colleen deals tactfully and respectfully with this challenge.”
“…is articulate and communicates well with [the]Administrator and DNS.”
“…takes individualized circumstances into consideration and provides proper advice.”
“…always keeps the residents well being a priority.”
“...is very pleasant, always professional and friendly, very easy to talk to and accepts any questions.”
“…has always been professional in interactions with our staff. She is skilled at communicating delicate information.”
"Colleen ROCKS!"
"So helpful.  You’re shared insights trickle into my consciousness during my quiet time.  Thank you! Carol"
Regarding Educational Services: 
Colleen -
“Accuracy is a specialty of Colleen’s.”
“…is always pleasant and helpful. She does her job with ease and has a great attitude.  Colleen makes doing the MDS and having them evaluated always a learning experience.”
“We enjoy her style; she balances training and education without offending staff.”
“…challenges us, which is healthy and appreciated.”
“If Colleen doesn’t know the answer to a question she knows the resources to get the right info.”
“…has excellent job knowledge – an expert!”
“I learned a lot about ADL coding, end splits, dual eligibility and how to read cmi.”
“…helped Rehab identify specific points.”
“…is a great educator, very pleasant. We enjoy her visits and ideas. She is an excellent resource.”
“The one to one training is very beneficial.”
"This course gave me more than I expected."
Regarding Reimbursement and Reimbursement Information: 
Colleen –
“…is a good resource and recommends appropriate changes to help increase RUGs.”
“She has netted us thousands of money already.”
“…has provided insight and certainly enhanced our reimbursement potential.”
“We enjoy Colleen’s visits; she assists us to achieve our financial goals in a professional and unthreatening manner.”
“…definitely pays for herself.”
“…has been instrumental in helping us improve our systems to increase reimbursement and capture resources on the MDS. I value her knowledge and input tremendously and appreciate her contribution.”
“…system of testing for maximization works well and has earned [this] facility greater reimbursement.”
“…continues to demonstrate exceptional value by her detailed analysis. She remains professional and brings forth fresh information.”
“…has done an excellent job helping with case mix. She is a pleasure to work with.”
“…has helped us focus on achieving much higher RUG rates.”
“…guidance, mentoring and encouraging our staff to excel and increase RUGs and CMI is invaluable.”
“…is great to work with. We get our money’s worth. Colleen keeps us accountable for our performance.”
"Very enlightening and thorough. Now, I feel equipped to do this, thanks to you!"
"​Very thorough with great information to MDS.  Enjoy the small group sessions…. Janelle"
Cornerstone Clinical Consulting | P.O. Box 1083 Stanwood, WA 98292 | 360-969-2057
Cornerstone Clinical Consulting assists Skilled Nursing and Long Term Care facilities with entitled Medicare and State case mix reimbursement.