John W. McDaniel, MHA

President & Chief Executive Officer

John W. McDaniel is President and Chief Executive Officer of Peak Performance Physicians, LLC. From its New Orleans, Louisiana base, the firm has exhibited impressive growth as evidenced by its nationwide clientele and a strong reputation in the physician practice management industry.

In addition to its work with hospitals and physicians across the United States, Peak Performance Physicians, LLC presents educational workshops, publishes a healthcare newsletter and offers an Administrative Residency in Medical Practice Management for Tulane University School of Health Systems Management for future healthcare executives, offers an internship in Medical Coding through the University of New Orleans and offers an Administrative Residency through the Healthcare Management Program of the University of Alabama. Mr. McDaniel is a contributing author and a member of the Editorial Board to Physician Practice Options, a monthly physician practice newsletter with a distribution of 200,000 physicians and also serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Physician’s Compliance Alert.

Furthermore, Peak Performance Physicians, LLC is the only physician practice management organization fully endorsed by several state hospital associations and other various medical organizations throughout the United States. Peak Performance Physicians, LLC is also an endorsed company by the American Academy of Family Medicine.

In addition to overseeing the development and growth of Peak Performance Physicians, LLC since 1989, Mr. McDaniel also has fifteen years experience in hospital administration in having served as President and Chief Executive Officer of healthcare systems in North Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana. He earned a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration from George Washington University and was selected as their 1985 Alumni of The Year In Health Services Administration. Mr. McDaniel has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review and has made numerous presentations to industry and professional associations affiliated with the health care industry. He is also co-author of the book, Disaster Planning for the Clinical Practice.

Rhonda Picou

RN, MSN, CPC

Rhonda Picou is Vice President - Physician Compliance for Peak Performance Physicians, LLC.  Ms. Picou is a registered nurse who received her BSN at the University of Florida and Master's Degree from the University of Texas.

Ms. Picou's focus involves working with physicians and medical practices in assessing their coding utilization, performing chart audits as well as providing the important steps regarding physician and staff education.  Ms. Picou's focus also involves assistance with respect to Managed Care Contracting, Corporate Compliance Plans and Medical Practice Compliance Programs.

Gini Fellows

RN, BS, MBA

Gini Fellows is a registered nurse who received her RN degree from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a MBA from William Carey College.  Gini is also a certified addictions counselor.

Ms. Fellows has fifteen years experience working in hospitals as a nurse and department director.  During her hospital employment, she has developed and implemented, practice improvement programs and worked with managed care companies. In addition to managing physician practices, she has specialized expertise in setting up physician practices and will be responsible for the implementation of our Physician Practice Start-up System. 

Jeanann Hartzell-Minzey

Jeanann Hartzell-Minzey is recognized as a pioneer in health information and reimbursement throughout the healthcare industry. For the past twenty-nine years, she has worked with physicians, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, home health care agencies and ambulatory surgery centers as an educator, lecturer and manager. She has extensive experience in physician practice management including billing, coding, reimbursement methodologies, documentation and third party payor negotiations. Her extensive management background includes serving as Director of Health Information Management at hospitals of every size across the United States.

Ms. Hartzell-Minzey has also served as Health Information Management, Coding and Reimbursement Consultant for national healthcare organizations including Arthur Andersen Consulting and St. Anthony Consulting. Furthermore, she is a principle Medical Records Consultant for both the Louisiana Hospital Association and Mississippi Hospital Association as well as the Healthcare Financial Management Association in Louisiana and Mississippi.

C.L. Smith

C.L.Smith has an extensive background specializing from hospital and physician services to freestanding hospitals, hospital companies and medical practices across the United States. With specialized expertise on physician relations, strategic programming and medical staff relations and physician recruitment and practice management issues, Mr. Smith’s experience regarding the management of numerous hospitals across the United States as well as the structure, construction and operation of medical office buildings and ambulatory surgery centers led to his recognition as one of the premier healthcare consultants in the United States.

With over thirty years experience in both hospital and physician practice management, Mr. Smith completed post graduate studies at both the University of Missouri and the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Furthermore, it should be noted that Mr. Smith has served his country meritoriously through his service in Vietnam, and was awarded the Purple Heart with Gold Star, Bronze Star, Navy Commendation Medal and Meritorious Unit Citation.