Zenobia Knight, PT, MBA, CIS, RAC-CT
Consultant
Zenobia has more than 35 years of experience in the field of physical therapy. Her background includes
clinical programming, staff training, auditing medical records and treating diverse patient populations.
In her role as a quality and recovery specialist, Zenobia appealed denied claims, performed data
analysis, reported on audit results and quality improvement trends, and developed quality improvement
plans to address deficits noted during audits. Her auditing experience includes RUGS IV and PDPM
MDS/CMI audits, outpatient therapy documentation audits, long term acute care hospital
documentation audits, therapy scheduling and operational assessment audits and inpatient skilled
nursing facility therapy audits. Zenobia is part of a larger team involved in conducting audits for
providers under Corporate Integrity Agreements. She has experience writing Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) policies and procedures using the Code of Federal Regulation standards as
a reference. Zenobia has extensive knowledge in rehabilitation telehealth to include billing and coding,
documentation requirements, and clinical best practices.
As an expert witness, Zenobia has defended claims denials for clients before the U.S. Department of
Justice, as well as written expert opinions for defense and plaintiff. These expert reports involve opining
on negligence, clinical quality practice standards and evidenced based practice as it relates to ethical
provider services delivered in the physical therapy sphere. When conducting onsite therapy systems
assessments, Zenobia interacts with the interdisciplinary teams, reviewing the overall operations and
compliance of therapy departments in skilled nursing facilities.
In her role as a clinical specialist, Zenobia was responsible for auditing PT/OT/ST charts for medical
necessity, regulatory compliance, and accuracy of ICD-10 and CPT coding. She conducted mock surveys
of therapy departments in preparation for state and federal surveys and has extensive knowledge of
PPS, PDPM, MDS, Medicare, Medicaid, commercial insurance, and bundled payments. As a regulatory
clinical specialist of one of the largest skilled nursing providers in the country, Zenobia developed QI/QA
plans for area leadership teams and served as project leader in the technical revision of a medical
necessity audit tool.
She has been a part-time lecturer at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, since 1993; teaching the
physical therapy administration course. Zenobia transitioned the course from a traditional live-in-
classroom format to a synchronous web-based instruction.
Zenobia served in the United States Army where she was awarded a direct commission and served five
years on active duty. She advanced in rank from second lieutenant to captain and was later promoted to
major while in the U.S. Army Reserve. Zenobia was responsible for the supervision of enlisted personnel
and had a clinical emphasis on sports medicine and neuro-musculoskeletal evaluations.
Zenobia holds a Bachelor of Science in physical therapy from Howard University, a Bachelor of Science in
computer information systems from University of West Florida, and an MBA from Monmouth
University. She has completed hours towards a transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy program and is
certified as a Resident Assessment Coordinator.
Congratulations on your 2021 Outstanding Service Award!
