Bio

Dr. Dunaway holds a BS with distinction from Duke University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. He received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania and his post-graduate work in general surgery was completed at the University of Virginia and the University of South Alabama. He is a board certified surgeon and a Fellow of the American College of Surgery. He started a solo practice in Camden, South Carolina in 1986 and added two partners over the next six years. He later merged his practice to become a founding and principle partner in a multi-specialty practice.

Growing increasingly frustrated with physician loss of autonomy, diminished professional respect and reduced reimbursement in the 1990’s, he attended a physician documentation/coding seminar in 1995. After suffering through two days of “coding education” Dr. Dunaway decided: (1) he had no interest in becoming a coder and (2) he needed a simple way to approach the complexities of E&M coding and documentation. He created a physician friendly, clinically oriented methodology that would become known as Risk Based Coding. Best of all, it required no “coding knowledge” for physicians who also wanted to improve documentation and coding accuracy but didn’t want to become coders either.

In 1997, Dr. Dunaway created a publishing company; Rebel Records, Inc., and published his Risk Based Coding methodology in Pocket Guide to Clinical Coding. Asked to speak on “coding” by the South Carolina Surgical Society, this led to a series of engagements and he started speaking professionally. His animated contrarian physician perspective coupled with irreverent humor backed up with a healthcare insider’s knowledge soon made him an in-demand speaker and he immediately attained professional membership status in the National Speakers Association. Dr. Dunaway is currently the only physician to hold the highest earned award of the National Speakers Association, the CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation, and the first ever surgeon to hold this distincion. Other coding aids and books using the Risk Based Coding methodology were created and eventually evolved to become Dr. Dunaway’s Risk Based Coding System. In 2002 he created his physician education and consulting company, Healthcare Care Value, Inc.

After obtaining dual certifications as a Healthcare Corporate Compliance Consultant and Officer he was asked to speak at a national healthcare compliance meeting. Subsequently, Dr. Dunaway met Joe Batte, CFE, a former OIG certified fraud investigator, and Tom Criser, a former compliance newsletter editor, and co-authored Doctors are from Jupiter; Compliance is from a Galaxy Far…Far…Away to bridge the gap between physicians and the “healthcare compliance culture.” Not only did his consulting and speaking expand to healthcare compliance, but into other segments of the healthcare industry. Today, Dr. Dunaway speaks to a variety of healthcare market segments, including Homecare, Hospice, and the Pharmaceutical Industry on how to connect in more meaningful and profitable ways with physicians.

Dr. Dunaway’s concept of Mutual Value Integration was developed to connect physicians as well as all segments of healthcare with each other by finding the chemistry to make viable economic linkages and by honoring the contribution all workers in the healthcare industry make to achieve patient care excellence. After sixteen years as an every-other-night-on-call general surgeon he left his clinical practice to engage full time in his work as a healthcare ecologist who now doesn’t have phones ring in the middle of the night.

Dr. Dunaway remains on the community board of the National Bank of South Carolina and is the Teen Youth Minister of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. Dr. Dunaway and his wife, Jane, have three children and have a deep interest in pre-1860 American antiques and reside in the oldest surviving home (c1780) in Camden, SC. He also has way too many frequent flyer miles.

Curriculum Vitae

Michael Trayser Dunaway

BS, Duke University 1977, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, Graduate with distinction in Psychology

MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 1981

Internship, University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, Virginia

Residency in General Surgery, University of South Alabama Hospital, Mobile, Alabama

Certified and Re-Certified by the American Board Surgery Certificate No. 33935
Fellow of the American College of Surgeons

Certified Healthcare Compliance Consultant (CHCC)
Certified Healthcare Compliance Officer (CHCO)

Therefore, M. Tray Dunaway, MD, FACS, CSP, CHCC, CHCO becomes
M. Tray Dunaway, MD, FAC7S2, H2O, P or simply “A doctor with watered down facts and a little "P. ”

Principle and founder, Camden Surgical Associates, 1986-1996
Principle and founding partner, Sentinel Health Partners, 1996-2002
Medical Staff, Kershaw County Medical Center, Camden, South Carolina

Author, Pocket Guide to Clinical Coding, Flexform, Coding Checkbook, Risk Based Coding Manual; How to get More Doctors to More of your Meetings Manual;
Co-Author, Doctors are from Jupiter: Compliance is from a Galaxy Far...Far...Away.

Publisher, Rebel Records, Inc.,

Columnist, Cardiology Today, Orthopedics Today, Orthopedics Today International Edition, SLACK Incorporated

Consulting Editor, General Surgery Coding Alert, The Coding Institute

Speaker, Professional Member, National Speaking Association

Awards

Longest continuous recipient of the Delinquent Medical Records Poster Child award, Kershaw County Medical Center

Personal, Married Jane in 1984, three children followed. Jane and Tray have also been antique dealers and still have special interest in medical antiques, American coin silver and furniture, and wrought iron kitchen implements.

>> About Dr. Dunaway

>> Why Dr. Dunaway?

>> Download Photos

>> Company Fact Sheet (Print Friendly Version)

What they are saying:

"You pull the audience in, take them on a journey of reflection and possibility, and leave them with a sense of renewed optimism...you are truly one of the best in the business."

-Vicki M. Hoak, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Homecare Association