2025 spring Spotlight
Meet Jessica Muellenberg
Jessica grew up on a farm near Redfield, SD and graduated from Redfield High School in 2001. She went on to Southeast Technical Institute to pursue an associate’s degree in business administration & marketing. She went into Restaurant & Bar Management. After starting her family, she went back to school to dabble in Cosmetology. While Cosmetology was fun, she felt an urge to get into healthcare. She started working in a local nursing home as the Activity Director and later moved into the Health Information Management role. While working in this role, she also went back to further her education in Healthcare Management at Bellevue University. Upon completion and passing her Boards, she moved into the CEO role within the same company in a different location. After a few years, to accommodate for her son’s health condition, she took her Cosmetology license out of her back pocket and worked part time doing hair while also being available to her son, when he needed her. In August of 2021, her son had brain surgery, which stopped all his seizures. After months of healing and knowing he was in the clear, I knew it was time to get back into healthcare.
A position opened at Community Memorial Hospital & Redfield Clinic in 2022 as Marketing Director. Upon interviewing for the position, she learned the position was more than Marketing Director. Within all rural hospitals, everyone wears many hats. Within her role at CMH she is responsible for all the credentialing, provider enrollments, payor enrollments, licensing, etc. In addition to the marketing and credentialing side of things, Jessica serves as the Executive Assistant to the CEO and is the Director for both the hospital Foundation and Auxiliary.
As the director to two wonderful organizations including the Community Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and the Community Memorial Hospital / Clinic Foundation, she feels blessed to be involved with many community events that allow her to meet so many incredible people within the area, which is what she loves most about her job.
In addition to working with people, Jessica works to excel in organizational skills and communication. Being the Marketing Director for the hospital and clinic allows her to enhance the hospital image for it to be viewed for what it truly is and for what it does for our community.
When not at the facility, Jessica enjoys spending time with her husband, Matt and their four children: Riley, Mason, Karlie, and Kevin. In addition to family, she enjoys lake life, hunting, sporting events, concerts, and relaxing with friends.
2024 fall Spotlight
Meet Gracia Gilbertson
Gracia is originally from Crosby, ND and now lives at Fortuna, ND. She works at St. Luke's Medical Center in Crosby as an Administrative Assistant with many different duties as many do in small rural communities. Gracia completes all the credentialing & provider enrollments, payor enrollments, Emergency Preparedness and is the Safety Coordinator. She also works1-2 days a week at another facility as a PTA. Gracia got a very quick crash course in the credentialing & enrollments process before the previous employee left so what she knows has been a big learning experience with lots of reaching out to others for help. She stated she is grateful she found dakotAMSS to be able to reach out to others for assistance & support as needed!
Gracia & David live on her family farm and operate a small grain, beef cattle and dairy farm. They enjoy evenings at home with their sassy Heelers, Tuff & Rubi, and spending time with friends and family. They also enjoy traveling but the dairy cows do not allow for much of that.
2024 SPRING SPOTLIGHT
Meet Michelle Osmanski
Michelle is the Credentialing Coordinator for Brookings Health System in Brookings, South Dakota. Her opportunity began as an offer to help the Director of Health Information Management "get caught up on credentialing,” and was only supposed to last for three weeks. That was in 2015... Since that time, Michelle has taken on the full responsibility of credentialing and provider enrollments at Brookings Health System and has moved the process from paper to digital. Prior to working in credentialing/enrollment, Michelle was a medical transcriptionist and enjoyed the benefits of working from home while her children were growing up. Michelle and her husband, Curt, have been married for 26 years and have two grown children. Katie is a special education teacher and board-certified behavior analyst, and Matthew is finishing his first year of medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In her free time, Michelle enjoys hiking, reading, writing, and volunteering for non-profit organizations. When asked what she values most about dakotAMSS membership, Michelle replied, "I am truly grateful for the friendships I have forged, as well as the opportunities for growth that membership in dakotAMSS provides. dakotAMSS is an amazing place to learn from others, as well as to share my own knowledge and experience."
2023 Fall Spotlight
Meet Carey Lynn Tyndall
Originally from Saskatchewan Canada, Carey Lynn and her family of four moved to Cando ND in the fall of 2006 after her husband had spent two years commuting. Carey Lynn started working with Towner County Medical Center as a receptionist in 2010. In 2 years she moved into the Administrative Assistant position. However in 2015 and opportunity arose in town and she left TCMC. Realizing the grass isn't greener, 2 years later she returned to TCMC to assume the Credentialing position and unknowingly payor enrollment position! Her learning curve was steep and rocky and it was with the help of DakotAMSS and the network of support in the state that got her through many questions and concerns.
Carey Lynn currently holds the credentialing/payer enrollment position, administrative assistant, reception supervisor and many other duties at TCMC. While the overload of responsibilities seems too much at times, the people she works with make her job all worthwhile.
Carey Lynn has 2 married adult children. Her daughter has 3 boys under 6 and is whom she spends most of her time with. She is currently writing a book, and in her spare time loves playing piano and leading worship at church, journaling and puzzling – basically anything to get her away from domestic chores at home!
Carey Lynn has deeply valued the community and support of the DakotAMSS team in the years she has been a member.
2023 SPRING Spotlight
Meet Blythe Smith
Blythe is originally from Parkston, SD but currently live in Faulkton, SD
where she works for Faulkton Area Medical Center as the Human Resource &
Credentialing Manager. She started with the medical center as an Accounts
Receivable Clerk in the billing office in 2010 but has been Credentialing Manager
since 2012 and took on HR in 2013 as well. We MSPs always seem to
wear a lot of hats, don’t we?!
Blythe and her husband, Glenn, have four children (Logan, Tate, Emma &
Rylee). In the summer they spend a lot of their time on their acreage riding horses. In the
winter they spend their time chasing around to all their kids’ activities, in particular, youth
wrestling where Glenn helps coach. They love spending time with friends and family or having
simple nights at home with the kids’ watching movies and eating pizza.
Like she’s not busy enough between work and home, Blythe is currently pursuing her bachelor’s
degree in HR Management online through Western Governors University. This will
pair well with the associate’s degree in Business Administration and diploma in Health Services
from Southeast Tech that she currently holds. Way to go Blythe!
According to Blythe, one of the things she values from her membership with dakotAMSS is
the input she gets from other members on credentialing since she is a department of one
and her facility is still independent. They do utilize Avera Credentialing Verification services
though, which she states helps significantly.
