The Georgia Scroll
April 1998

CPAR High Scorer
By: Donna Watts

The 1997 CPAR graduates were honored during a banquet held at the Westin Peachtree hotel on January 29, 1998. This year, 624 people took the CPAR test and 228 passed. Fannie Robbins, Billing Supervisor at Grady Hospital took top honors by obtaining the highest score on the test during her first attempt to obtain certification. As an added bonus, her daughter, Karen Oliver was also honored as a CPAR graduate on the same night!

Fannie has been with Grady Hospital for 25 years. She started her career at Grady as a commercial insurance biller. Through the years, Fannie obtained experience with Georgia Medicaid and Medicare. After mastering these two challenging lines of business, she started focusing on special accounts. This well-rounded experience led her to her present position of Billing Supervisor where she currently supervises 12 employees. In her free time, Fannie enjoys reading and watching sports, especially the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Braves.

Fannie started studying for CPAR three months prior to the exam and estimates that she spent a total of 100 hours studying the CPAR manual. In addition, she attended HFMA sponsored coaching session and also went to the library every Saturday for quiet study time. Fannie also utilized the "buddy" system as a studying tool. Her study buddy was her daughter.

On hand to present the CPAR awards to Grady employees was Larry Bradley, Senior Director of Patient Financial Services at Grady hospital. Larry states that Fannie is a "wonderful, unassuming person who has the respect of everyone who works with her. Fannie is a great person and a wonderful employee."

Fannie’s reaction to receiving top honors was one of surprise. "I was just trying to pass. The hardest part of the test for me was Managed Care since I don’t have much experience in this area. The easiest part was Medicaid." Fannie also put a lot of pressure on herself to do well. "I don’t like to do something and not do my best," she said.

Fannie’s advice for future CPAR’s is to "study, study, study-don’t just depend on the current knowledge that you have!".

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Last modified: June 22, 2001