Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dennis Laraway, CFO at Cleveland Clinic
Transcript
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- 0:34This is Alan Condon back with another episode
- 0:37of the Becker's CFO on revenue cycle podcast.
- 0:41Today, I'm delighted to welcome Dennis Laraway, executive
- 0:45vice president and CFO of Cleveland Clinic, one
- 0:48of the most prominent, most reputable academic systems
- 0:51across the globe. I believe 23 hospitals,
- 0:54almost 300 outpatient facilities across Ohio,
- 0:57Nevada,
- 0:58and Florida,
- 0:59as well as a substantial footprint in Canada,
- 1:01London, and The United Arab Emirates. Dennis, a
- 1:05real pleasure to have you on the podcast
- 1:06with us today. Before we dive in, I'd
- 1:08love to hand it over to you. For
- 1:10those who are listeners who might be as
- 1:11well acquainted with yourself, the work that you
- 1:13do at Cleveland Clinic, do you mind just
- 1:15sharing a little bit more about your role
- 1:16and your background?
- 1:18Sure. Happy to, Alan, and thank you, for
- 1:20having me here, today.
- 1:22So appreciate the introduction. You you have my
- 1:25my current capacity,
- 1:27with Cleveland Clinic.
- 1:29As I as I've often,
- 1:32noted here and and as I interviewed to
- 1:35come to Cleveland Clinic, I trained a lifetime
- 1:38to be here, and
- 1:40I've had
- 1:41a a great career. I've had a a
- 1:43good run, so to speak.
- 1:45Most recently,
- 1:46prior to coming to Cleveland Clinic, I held
- 1:48the same capacity
- 1:50executive vice president and CFO for Banner Health,
- 1:54in the West.
- 1:56Third at the time, 32 hospitals in six
- 1:58states,
- 2:00similar
- 2:01scale, and size,
- 2:03between Banner Health and Cleveland Clinic,
- 2:05but different organizations,
- 2:07different comp,
- 2:08composition
- 2:10of each enterprise,
- 2:12certainly different markets,
- 2:14especially with Cleveland Clinic being a global,
- 2:17enterprise.
- 2:19Prior my to my time at Banner,
- 2:22I was,
- 2:23again, same capacity,
- 2:25EVP and CFO for Memorial Hermann in Houston,
- 2:29Texas.
- 2:30I was there,
- 2:32for about,
- 2:33six years.
- 2:35Prior to that,
- 2:36similar capacity for Scott and White. And at
- 2:39the time, it was just Scott and White
- 2:41Healthcare.
- 2:42Today, it's known as,
- 2:44Baylor Scott and White,
- 2:46long after my time,
- 2:48there.
- 2:49I spent,
- 2:50fifteen years,
- 2:52prior to,
- 2:54these,
- 2:55re more recent capacities
- 2:57in Catholic health care. I was
- 2:59a regional CFO in New York,
- 3:02for Ascension Health, and I go back to
- 3:05the days of when it was Daughters of
- 3:07Charity,
- 3:08National Health System,
- 3:10prior to Ascension. So I I saw both
- 3:13of those,
- 3:14organizations,
- 3:16come come to be.
- 3:18And,
- 3:19I also spent,
- 3:21about five years with Dignity Health when
- 3:25I left New York to come west,
- 3:27to Arizona,
- 3:29at Saint Joseph's
- 3:31Hospital Medical Center and the Barrow Neurological
- 3:34Institute.
- 3:36That was part of, then Catholic Health Care
- 3:38West, but today, Dignity Health are common spirit.
- 3:42So I've had a a long run across,
- 3:45across the country,
- 3:47number of years in large national,
- 3:50health systems,
- 3:51then,
- 3:52you know, states like Texas,
- 3:55Arizona,
- 3:55multistate in the West,
- 3:57and now global enterprise,
- 4:00here today with, Cleveland Clinic.
- 4:02Yeah. Fantastic. I mean, what a what a
- 4:04tenured experience at some some fantastic health systems
- 4:08in very different parts of the country, very
- 4:09different operating models. Ascension, like you said, at
- 4:12Dignity, Baylor Scott White Health, Banner Health, and
- 4:15more recently in your in your current role
- 4:17as EVP and CFO of Cleveland Clinic. Fantastic
- 4:20academic institution as well. So fast forward into
- 4:24to today, we're we're closing to the 2025,
- 4:282026
- 4:29on horizon.
- 4:30In your seat as CFO of Cleveland Clinic,
- 4:33Dennis, what are the the two or three
- 4:35kinda key trends that you're paying most attention
- 4:38to today,
- 4:39and why?
- 4:40Yeah. I'm I'm sure I'm in a good
- 4:42company as as the entire sector,
- 4:46is
- 4:47in transition. It's in transformation.
- 4:49You know, health health sector as a whole,
- 4:52you know, nearly 20%
- 4:54of the GDP generated in this country,
- 4:58something I'll come back to, I I think
- 5:00here in my comments,
- 5:02today.
- 5:04But at 20% GDP, it's very fertile ground,
- 5:07for,
- 5:09a lot of activity, a lot of emerging
- 5:11technology
- 5:12transformation,
- 5:14even more,
- 5:15of
- 5:16industrialization,
- 5:17if you will,
- 5:18that really has not
- 5:20occurred in the health sector as it has
- 5:22in other industries,
- 5:24and sectors of our economy over the years.
- 5:27So maybe with that as a backdrop,
- 5:30you know, we're we're following here and and
- 5:33me personally in my capacity for Cleveland Clinic,
- 5:37a few major
- 5:38converging forces, if you will.
- 5:41And I'll start with
- 5:43health care legislation,
- 5:45you know, some of the activities in Washington,
- 5:48the impact that they have to states,
- 5:51around,
- 5:52the country,
- 5:53payment reform,
- 5:55changes in in payment methodologies,
- 5:58and
- 5:59revenue revenue models. And,
- 6:02certainly,
- 6:03we would wrap
- 6:04the the transformation
- 6:05and shift from fee for service,
- 6:08volume based health care to value based care,
- 6:12and that journey that we've been on for
- 6:14a number of years now
- 6:16is now getting folded into,
- 6:20more,
- 6:21impactful legislative changes and payment reform. And and
- 6:25the punchline there,
- 6:27in my mind is, you know, fed federal
- 6:30dollars,
- 6:31and the affordability
- 6:33of the federal budget to health care,
- 6:36those dollars are going to come down.
- 6:40Federal funding of programs,
- 6:43the risk the government has in fee for
- 6:45service health care, that's utilization
- 6:48risk, claim risk, volume risk,
- 6:52That's budget risk, and those dollars are going
- 6:55to come down. And so there's going to
- 6:57be price
- 6:58and payment pressure
- 7:00from CMS,
- 7:02and as well the federal funding
- 7:05of, state Medicaid programs,
- 7:08across the country. And we're gonna see,
- 7:11pressure,
- 7:12in government programs,
- 7:14into the near future, whether we'd like it
- 7:16or not.
- 7:18And many of our health systems, including Cleveland
- 7:21Clinic,
- 7:21across the country,
- 7:2460%
- 7:25of the utilization
- 7:27of of our hospitals
- 7:29are are in the form,
- 7:31and provided to Medicare and Medicaid
- 7:37shift and price transformation,
- 7:39it's got all of our, attention,
- 7:42needless to say.
- 7:43Maybe along with that,
- 7:45another theme here,
- 7:48would be our response,
- 7:51in the form of cost transformation.
- 7:53If you've got price pressure,
- 7:56and,
- 7:57revenue revenue pressure, then we must turn to
- 8:00what's right in front of us, our own
- 8:02expense base,
- 8:04and our own,
- 8:06labor and non labor,
- 8:08cost efficiencies and synergies
- 8:11that are there for us,
- 8:13to act upon. And, you know, that's leadership.
- 8:16That's what we're here, to do.
- 8:18That's going to be ever more important moving
- 8:20forward
- 8:22is getting leaner,
- 8:24across our enterprise,
- 8:26labor, labor productivity,
- 8:29supply chains,
- 8:31consolidation
- 8:31of back office services.
- 8:34Many of the things that we've been working
- 8:35on,
- 8:37as health systems,
- 8:39for a number of years are are now
- 8:42more and more, important.
- 8:45Pre creating standards,
- 8:47that can be reproduced
- 8:49with reduced variation
- 8:51to try to get more and more efficiency,
- 8:54in into the into the system. That that's
- 8:57has our attention.
- 8:58I can speak a little bit more about
- 9:00that in a few minutes, but,
- 9:02certainly a theme,
- 9:04that we pay close attention to here. And
- 9:06then I'd add a third, maybe a three
- 9:08legged stool here of of trends that we're
- 9:11following,
- 9:12would be the technology
- 9:14transformation itself.
- 9:17And, again, I'm not I'm not alone,
- 9:19in in what we're paying attention to here,
- 9:22but the health sector
- 9:24as a whole has lacked,
- 9:27technology adoption
- 9:29that that we've seen across other industries from
- 9:32banking to the airlines
- 9:34to manufacturing,
- 9:37RPA, robotic, and AI driven manufacturing
- 9:40plants.
- 9:41We have lagged behind,
- 9:44as as an industry.
- 9:47If for no other reason than operating margins
- 9:50are thin,
- 9:52dollars for
- 9:53tech technology transformation
- 9:56have historically been limited.
- 9:58And aside from the Affordable Care Act and
- 10:01the dollars that were infused
- 10:03for electronic
- 10:04medical records and so forth,
- 10:06We have a long way to go in
- 10:09in technology.
- 10:11AI is is now
- 10:14very, very well represented
- 10:16in in the health sector. As I mentioned
- 10:19before, health care,
- 10:21is very fertile ground,
- 10:23and that is very true
- 10:25for the opportunities and synergies that are available,
- 10:29for
- 10:30AI, robotics,
- 10:33technology that can
- 10:35increase our coverage,
- 10:37of of volume and patients and
- 10:40transactional,
- 10:41volumes,
- 10:43speed,
- 10:43and accuracy.
- 10:45And that drives cost transformation,
- 10:47and that drives a response
- 10:50to payment reform and,
- 10:52health care legislation. So those three are very
- 10:55well connected here at Cleveland Clinic, and I
- 10:58trust for many of my colleagues across the
- 10:59country.
- 11:01Yeah. Absolutely. I think, so helpful to hear
- 11:04that breakdown and kind of some of the
- 11:05specific areas that you're focusing on. In terms
- 11:07of, obviously, health care legislation,
- 11:09we we know so much coming down the
- 11:11pipeline in terms of Medicaid cuts. Payment reform
- 11:14is such a huge thing. ACA subsidies, so
- 11:16much up in the air as we as
- 11:17we look down for a potential December vote
- 11:19there. But, Dennis, I think in terms of
- 11:22the cost transformation that you'd referenced,
- 11:25we this came up unsurprisingly to you and
- 11:27many of your peers listening to this podcast
- 11:29time and time again at our, Becker CEO
- 11:32and CFO roundtable earlier this month in terms
- 11:35of arguably the the the pressure, the downward
- 11:38pressure on cost and prices.
- 11:40One of the toughest one of the challenges
- 11:42environments we've seen, we've seen CFOs in your
- 11:45seats at house systems said they're taking a
- 11:47harder look, possibly harder than they've ever had
- 11:49to take at reducing costs whether through vendor
- 11:52consolidation,
- 11:53working through bring down supply cost through GPO,
- 11:56looking at their their labor force. I'm curious,
- 11:59is there anything,
- 12:00from Cleveland Clinic standpoint in terms of bringing
- 12:02down costs on the vendor side, on the
- 12:04supply side? Is there anything that granted no
- 12:07silver bullets, but is there anything that has
- 12:09proven
- 12:10quite substantial for you in terms of bringing
- 12:12down some of those costs,
- 12:14recently?
- 12:15Yeah. Great great question. Great follow-up there.
- 12:18I I would maybe point to a couple
- 12:21of examples. And,
- 12:23you know, there's a little bit of this
- 12:24that's,
- 12:25you know, blocking and tackling,
- 12:28one zero one, pick an axe work. Right?
- 12:30You know, get back to the basics, and
- 12:32I'll start with labor.
- 12:34Labor productivity.
- 12:35You know, we can never never pay too
- 12:38much attention
- 12:39to how efficient,
- 12:41we are with our workforce.
- 12:44We want to be
- 12:45the best
- 12:47employers, in the country or the world,
- 12:50for that matter.
- 12:51We want to be seen as the employer
- 12:53of choice
- 12:55in in our communities,
- 12:56in the sector of health care.
- 12:59So that means we want compensation
- 13:02and benefits,
- 13:03the environment of care,
- 13:06an environment in the workforce.
- 13:09So all of those are top of mind,
- 13:11forefront every day.
- 13:13But we also need to make sure we're
- 13:16using
- 13:17our workforce
- 13:18at the top of their license
- 13:20in each and every,
- 13:22sort of category of labor, job class of
- 13:25labor,
- 13:26throughout the enterprise,
- 13:28be at top of license where you can
- 13:30be,
- 13:31be as
- 13:32productive,
- 13:34whether that's bedside,
- 13:36productivity,
- 13:38nursing standards and patient ratios,
- 13:41operating room efficiencies,
- 13:43or back office services
- 13:46and transactional productivity.
- 13:48We have to be able to use the
- 13:50workforce as efficiently as possible
- 13:53and be that employer of choice,
- 13:56and competitive wages and benefits and all of
- 13:59those
- 14:00all of those activities across the board. We've
- 14:02gotta be able to do both. And
- 14:05and we spent a lot of time,
- 14:07working on this.
- 14:09And, of course, for these large complex health
- 14:12systems, this is a a complex undertaking.
- 14:15And we have multiple markets,
- 14:18of course,
- 14:20you know, both domestic
- 14:22and abroad. So
- 14:24I'm not saying that it's easy, but it
- 14:26is back to basics. And if you do
- 14:29this work really, really well,
- 14:31it
- 14:32it tends to take care of the other
- 14:35numbers. And and I'll give a a quick,
- 14:38punchline example for Cleveland Clinic. So this
- 14:42this year through the three quarter
- 14:45mark of the year ended September 30, and
- 14:48we're public with those,
- 14:50financial,
- 14:52statements and earnings released through the third quarter.
- 14:55So we're we're exceeding our plan for the
- 14:58year in top line revenue.
- 15:00And so then when you look at, well,
- 15:02how how much of that,
- 15:04revenue
- 15:06growth over plan is dropping to
- 15:09operating income or operating cash flow,
- 15:12for us, it's nearly 100%.
- 15:15And that's because
- 15:17of our attention to managing our expense base,
- 15:20managing to volume,
- 15:23and patients served across the enterprise,
- 15:27not necessarily
- 15:28to the revenue streams and the dollars
- 15:31because we could be getting price,
- 15:33revenue cycle, other revenue
- 15:36benefits,
- 15:37but we should be managing our expense base
- 15:40to the utilization
- 15:42that we're serving.
- 15:43We're showing an improved ability to do that.
- 15:46Our labor productivity
- 15:48is continuing to improve year on year,
- 15:52and that is allowing us
- 15:54to translate top line revenue growth directly to
- 15:57the bottom line in the income statement. Couldn't
- 16:00be couldn't be more pleased with with some
- 16:03of the successes that we're we're having there.
- 16:06And and I'll give I'll give another quick,
- 16:09what's working well,
- 16:10here,
- 16:12and that's,
- 16:13some consolidation,
- 16:15standardization,
- 16:18adoption of supply chain,
- 16:20formulary,
- 16:22creating greater alignment with our physicians,
- 16:25our employee professional staff,
- 16:27our physician partners in our communities
- 16:31to
- 16:32have the high adopters
- 16:34and participants within our formulary,
- 16:37of
- 16:38of supplies and pharmaceuticals.
- 16:41And if we can create that alignment,
- 16:43that that adoption,
- 16:46we create contract leverage, if you will,
- 16:49contract consolidation.
- 16:52We reduce variation.
- 16:54That's better quality of care,
- 16:57that I think translates from that.
- 17:00And it certainly helps us leverage price and
- 17:03utilization
- 17:04controls. And so that's another area that's working
- 17:07well. And, you know, maybe lastly,
- 17:10back office services
- 17:12for a global enterprise,
- 17:14we consolidate
- 17:15our corporate enterprise services.
- 17:18Most of that here in Cleveland,
- 17:21we show real scale benefit
- 17:23for doing that.
- 17:25In a quick punchline example again
- 17:28of our aggregate
- 17:30corporate
- 17:31shared services cost across our global,
- 17:34footprint,
- 17:36our total,
- 17:38enterprise services
- 17:39as a percentage of our revenue,
- 17:42is down to now 8%,
- 17:45of our total revenue streams in the form
- 17:47of our centralized services.
- 17:50That's at an all time low, for us,
- 17:53and we're showing the benefit of scale and
- 17:55scale synergies
- 17:57of standardization
- 17:58and consolidation
- 17:59across our enterprise.
- 18:01Just a few areas that I hope would
- 18:03be helpful.
- 18:04Absolutely. I appreciate those those three specific and
- 18:07unique examples and some of the great work
- 18:09that that you that your team at Cleveland
- 18:10Clinic have done recently in those areas.
- 18:14It ties nicely into
- 18:15my next question as well, Dennis. In terms
- 18:17of you I'm sure there's a few areas
- 18:19we could go with this question. In terms
- 18:21of what you specifically are most excited about.
- 18:24I know at the top of the conversation,
- 18:25you talked a little bit about health care
- 18:27is 20% of GDP.
- 18:29You you touched on AI and potential excitement
- 18:32in that area. But for you, when you're
- 18:33seen as CFO of Cleveland Clinic, is there
- 18:36one area that you're particularly excited about when
- 18:38you think about the future?
- 18:40Yeah.
- 18:41Great great question. I'm not sure I could
- 18:43narrow it to one, but let me let
- 18:45me try to be, as brief as I
- 18:47can. Couple a couple examples is fine. Sure.
- 18:50I pre I appreciate that.
- 18:52In in this profession, in this industry,
- 18:56every day here is opportunity
- 18:58abound.
- 18:59You know, a transforming,
- 19:01industry,
- 19:03transformative times, if you will,
- 19:05I've noted the 20 near 20% GDP,
- 19:08the fertile ground for industrialization,
- 19:11tech
- 19:12transformation,
- 19:15the evolving emerging AI,
- 19:17applications and opportunities,
- 19:20you can't help but
- 19:22but have opportunity abound. And leaders
- 19:26leaders are made in transformative
- 19:28times. So
- 19:30bring bring all the tools,
- 19:32in in your toolkit. Bring your lunchbox to,
- 19:35you know, lunch pail to work every day,
- 19:39and it's opportunity abound,
- 19:41for us. And that that's pretty exciting,
- 19:44about professions,
- 19:45job,
- 19:47in this in in this industry.
- 19:49And maybe a couple of examples of that.
- 19:51The
- 19:52the partnerships
- 19:54that are emerging
- 19:55from from these transformative times are pretty amazing.
- 19:58And, you know, some of that is most
- 20:01easily seen today in the AI,
- 20:04emerging companies and solutions.
- 20:07But there there are crossover
- 20:09companies
- 20:10that are crossing over into health care. Some
- 20:13of the biggest brand name companies
- 20:16in the world, the Oracles,
- 20:18the Googles,
- 20:19the Microsofts,
- 20:22on and on are are crossing over here.
- 20:25Palantir,
- 20:27is is an example of a big partnership
- 20:29here at Cleveland Clinic,
- 20:32working on operational,
- 20:34synergies for us.
- 20:36We have
- 20:37other,
- 20:39partnerships that have been recently announced,
- 20:43globally here,
- 20:44with,
- 20:45Oracle,
- 20:47g forty two, in The Middle East,
- 20:50and Cleveland Clinic
- 20:52to work on,
- 20:54the the transformation
- 20:55of care in a more AI driven,
- 20:59experience for patients, providers,
- 21:02and stakeholders abound,
- 21:05in sort of reimagining health care and how
- 21:08that can be,
- 21:10implemented
- 21:11and commercialized,
- 21:12across,
- 21:14across countries. So so really, really creative,
- 21:18things that are happening there. And then maybe
- 21:20down to some smaller examples, we're we're working
- 21:23with emerging,
- 21:25AI companies like Ambiance and the Ambiance listening,
- 21:30capability of of physicians
- 21:33in their offices seeing patients
- 21:36without having to type on a keyboard.
- 21:38And,
- 21:39you know, iPhone driven or I should say
- 21:41just cell phone driven
- 21:44automation
- 21:45that then transcribes,
- 21:46develops the patient note that helps drive coding
- 21:50and abstracting,
- 21:52and the opportunity to use that kind of
- 21:54technology
- 21:55for hospital care, attending
- 21:58special subspecialty care,
- 22:00connections to the revenue cycle. You know, all
- 22:02of that,
- 22:03is is about,
- 22:05here.
- 22:06We have another example in directly in our
- 22:09revenue cycle with Acasa,
- 22:11that we're
- 22:13automated,
- 22:16documentation,
- 22:17query, and coding, and abstracting
- 22:20that we have historically done through brute force
- 22:23with labor and CDI nurses and
- 22:26workflow queries and emails to our providers
- 22:30can now be done through algorithms,
- 22:33AI driven
- 22:34workflow
- 22:35in Epic,
- 22:37as as an example. So
- 22:39a lot a lot of transformation,
- 22:42that that we can point to,
- 22:44that's pretty exciting
- 22:46that
- 22:46and, you know, it's nice to have a
- 22:48seat at the table,
- 22:50in in some of these,
- 22:52affairs and partnerships.
- 22:54Cleveland Clinic,
- 22:56has,
- 22:57I think, both a responsibility
- 22:59and an ability
- 23:01to be impactful,
- 23:03in this transformation around the world, and we're
- 23:05gonna do everything we can to make that
- 23:07happen.
- 23:09Yeah. No doubt. It's such an innovative system.
- 23:11A ton of fantastic examples, fantastic partners that
- 23:13you just announced in terms of who you're
- 23:15working with. Your colleague, doctor Connor Lane, you
- 23:18recently told me how about how excited he
- 23:20was about the AI Ambient Listening technology as
- 23:22a physician leader in Cleveland Clinic,
- 23:25and some of the some of the already,
- 23:26fantastic effects that's having in terms of physician
- 23:29engagement, the patient experience, and whatnot.
- 23:32One quick follow-up, Dennis, I have for you
- 23:34in terms of AI specifically in the revenue
- 23:37side, which you just touched on in terms
- 23:38of one of your partnerships there.
- 23:41In terms
- 23:42of AI as AI becomes
- 23:45let me back up. Payers have been using
- 23:47AI automation on on their end of the
- 23:48spectrum for for quite some time. It feels
- 23:51like we're at a point now where providers
- 23:53are playing a little bit of catch up,
- 23:55embedding and leveraging AI to a little bit
- 23:57more benefit in the revenue cycle, automation.
- 24:00I'm curious. Do you think about
- 24:02the AI arms race between payers and providers?
- 24:06How you see this kind of evolving in
- 24:08the coming years as AI becomes more deeply
- 24:11embedded in the revenue cycle, more deeply integrated
- 24:14in the revenue cycle.
- 24:15Any kind of thoughts there just out of
- 24:17curiosity?
- 24:19Yeah. This is, there's some double edged sword
- 24:22effect here,
- 24:24to some of the issues you just raised
- 24:26there.
- 24:27I'll try to do this justice in a
- 24:29short period of time.
- 24:32So we're
- 24:34we in in the provider sector,
- 24:36we
- 24:38we're chasing this a bit. Right? We don't
- 24:40control the purse string.
- 24:42So we're often often responding
- 24:45to,
- 24:47you know, claims that it's,
- 24:49you know,
- 24:51rules and bulletins and things of that nature
- 24:54that guide
- 24:55from the purse string holders,
- 24:58from,
- 24:59government,
- 25:00payers,
- 25:01CMS, Medicaid,
- 25:03plans,
- 25:05to, you know,
- 25:06small, medium, and large commercial,
- 25:08plans, across our communities. And
- 25:11and so
- 25:13we do our best to adopt, change, create
- 25:17create billing editors and claim editors and try
- 25:21to align
- 25:22with the rules and with
- 25:24with with changes over time
- 25:27to minimize as much friction
- 25:29as we can.
- 25:31But with all of that work, we still
- 25:33face
- 25:3515
- 25:36plus percent denial rates
- 25:38on our claims,
- 25:40which starts a cascade of rework,
- 25:43rebilling,
- 25:45medical director appeals,
- 25:47on and on and on. A lot of
- 25:49friction
- 25:49that sometimes involves the patient and often involves
- 25:53the provider, the doctor,
- 25:55him or herself. So a lot of time,
- 25:58energy, and resources consumed
- 26:01in that friction.
- 26:03And at the end, when we sort it
- 26:05all out from initial denial rates to
- 26:09final
- 26:11percentages of controllable loss,
- 26:14we bring those denial rates down to sub
- 26:16two percent at the end.
- 26:19But all of the time, energy, and resources
- 26:22consumed to get it from 15 to sub
- 26:25two
- 26:26is unsustainable.
- 26:28And that's arguably
- 26:29also unnecessary
- 26:31and unsustainable
- 26:32for
- 26:33the payers, the plans.
- 26:36If they're watching the same report card that
- 26:38we are, an initial 15%
- 26:41ends up being sub two,
- 26:43at the end of the day.
- 26:45That doesn't seem to be productive
- 26:47friction in health care for either side of
- 26:50the table.
- 26:51So whether they
- 26:53ramp up AI faster than we ramp up
- 26:56AI to try to beat the algorithms and
- 26:58beat beat the edits, if you will,
- 27:01that doesn't seem to be the right game.
- 27:04The right game is
- 27:06to
- 27:06collaborate and create alignment,
- 27:10do the right thing,
- 27:12come to agreement
- 27:13on
- 27:15claim reviews, chart reviews,
- 27:17things that need to be done to create
- 27:20ongoing integrity
- 27:22in the revenue cycle for both sides,
- 27:25and then do that on retrospective reviews,
- 27:30you know, audits, things of that nature on
- 27:33collaborative joint operating committees
- 27:36rather than putting claims
- 27:38and patients and providers
- 27:41in the middle
- 27:42of all of this friction.
- 27:44We need to be able to do this
- 27:46better, and AI is not not exactly the
- 27:49answer
- 27:50for either side,
- 27:52of this table.
- 27:53Let me pause there.
- 27:55Mhmm. Yeah. Absolutely. I think just just something
- 27:58that's been on the question of my mind,
- 28:00no doubt, other CFOs, revenue cycle leaders like
- 28:02yourself.
- 28:03I think partnership and collaboration, no doubt over
- 28:06this kind of AI arms race and push
- 28:08pull dynamic that you've been seeing particularly
- 28:10challenging over the last few quarters.
- 28:13Dennis Laraway, so so greatly appreciate you taking
- 28:15the time out of your busy schedule to
- 28:17hop on the Becker CFO on revenue cycle
- 28:20podcast.
- 28:20I've I've certainly learned learned a lot. It's
- 28:23been a pleasure connecting with you, and no
- 28:25doubt, our our listeners and our hospital executive
- 28:27audience will have greatly appreciated this episode as
- 28:29well. Thank you so much for taking the
- 28:31time. Thank you, Alan. Glad to be here.
- 28:35When it comes to negotiating fair prices for
- 28:37health care services, guessing is no way to
- 28:40go. That's why there's Claritif.
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- 28:47insights built on 500,000,000,000
- 28:49public records, Claritif is helping revolutionize the approach
- 28:53to health care services pricing, helping create more
- 28:55predictability for providers,
- 28:57more affordability for payers and employers,
- 29:00and more quality
- 29:01for patients.
- 29:02With Claritif, health care isn't left to chance.
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