Ara Balkian, MD, MBA
Ara Balkian is the founder and CEO of Pediatric Resource Group (PRG). The driving force for starting PRG is his desire to leverage his experience and team of experts to positively affect pediatric organizations around the country with the ultimate goal of expanding and improving the care provided to children.
Dr. Balkian was the first hospitalist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and was the Associate Head of the Division of Hospital Medicine and the Associate Chair for the Department of Pediatrics until he took on his current role of Chief Medical Director of Inpatient Operations. In that role, he has leadership over the Inpatient Access & Transfer Center, which is responsible for the handling of almost 18,000 admissions a year.
Dr. Balkian leads CHLA’s utilization management (UM) program and chairs the UM committee. He is the medical director for inpatient care coordination and leads CHLA’s throughput management efforts. He helped develop and continues to lead the Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) program. He developed and leads the Physician Advisor program and the Denials Management program.
Dr. Balkian has lectured nationally on topics related to hospital reimbursement, CDI, denials management, and pediatric physician advisor program development. He continues to see patients and teach trainees as a pediatric hospitalist and his research interests are focused on the efficient delivery of inpatient pediatric care.