Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Revenue Cycle Through Innovation and AI with Heather Dunn

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Transforming Revenue Cycle Through Innovation and AI with Heather Dunn · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Andrew Pass with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by
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  Heather Dunn, senior vice president and chief revenue
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  officer at Novair Health. Heather, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast. It's great
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  to be here. Thanks for asking me to
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  join.
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  Before we begin, can you tell us a
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  little bit about your background?
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  Sure.
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  I came, into revenue cycle like most revenue
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  cycle leaders, accidentally.
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  I was I graduated from college and I
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  went to work for a small start up
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  technology company,
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  a long time ago
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  and fell in love with the challenges that,
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  health care providers and payers and the whole
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  health care space sort of have. I thought
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  if I worked really hard, I could solve
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  all of those problems.
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  I loved the complexity of it.
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  And so here I am several years later.
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  I've journeyed through, academic medical centers and small
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  regional hospitals and have landed at, Novant Health.
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  So it's a little bit of my journey.
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  Yeah. And so you have been at Novant
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  Health for, just about a year now. Is
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  that correct? That is correct. It was March
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  17 was my one year anniversary.
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  Yes. So, congratulations
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  on that milestone. And,
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  what are you, most proud of in your
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  first year?
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  I think, you know, part of coming to
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  Novant Health and what was so attractive to
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  me was really the lean that we have
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  in technology and the ability
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  to
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  kind of blue take a blue ocean of
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  ideas and really start to see things come
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  to life.
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  You don't always get that in health care.
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  It moves a little bit slower at times.
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  The whiteboard of imagination
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  is not always there, but it exists here
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  at Novant Health. And I think that has
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  been,
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  the greatest
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  both challenge and the most exciting part is
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  being able to do something different,
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  and approach things differently,
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  than I've ever had the opportunity before.
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  And so speaking of excitement, what are you
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  most excited about right now in health care?
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  Well, I am particularly excited by the team
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  that we just put together in revenue cycle
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  for Novant Health.
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  This team is
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  cannot be understated enough. I can't say it's,
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  like, not the most amazing team because it
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  is. We've hired some folks that are very
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  forward thinking, that are very bold,
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  that are coming at revenue cycle from a
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  very different perspective and really hoping to not
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  only
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  change,
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  the way that we perform at Novant Health,
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  but also to inspire our colleagues and our
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  peers across the country. So
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  I'm excited about that. I'm excited that we
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  have all of the tools and the technology
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  and the people at Novant Health to pull
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  off, a complete transformation
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  in this space. So I am most excited
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  about that.
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  Yeah. Speaking of that transformation, can you, kind
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  of give us a little bit of a
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  outline of how you're trying to, transform your
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  revenue cycle? Sure. Sure.
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  Well, the first thing that we did was,
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  you know, kinda take a big step back
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  and ask,
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  if you could do this differently
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  and you had no constraints,
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  what would it really look like? Where would
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  you eliminate the friction points that you think
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  are the biggest friction points in revenue cycle?
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  And there's there's a lot of friction points.
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  That was just sort of our first step
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  was
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  whiteboarding very simply.
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  If you could pull all the parts together
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  from initial patient interaction right through to managing
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  your AR and managing relationships with payers,
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  what would what would a frictionless
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  revenue cycle be?
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  From there, we started thinking about all of
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  the structures that we had to put into
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  place to get to
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  something that looked different than today.
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  So we've got, like, sort of a multifaceted
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  group,
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  different
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  priorities within each of the components of revenue
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  cycle. So first setting up our centers of
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  excellence
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  and carving out transformation
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  from our day to day operations.
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  There's a a purpose behind that, and it
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  is, you know, you you have to, as
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  I say, keep the trains on the tracks
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  at the same time that you're laying new
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  tracks,
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  and those are not the same,
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  types of personalities and characteristics in leadership.
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  So you really have to kind of divide
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  that out. And so that's the first thing
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  that we did, was we went through a
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  complete,
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  operating model redesign,
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  put in an access,
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  clinical
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  and a shared services,
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  and back office,
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  centers of excellence, and then carved out transformation
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  under a different leader. Each of them with
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  a focus on operations, but also on what's
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  to happen in the next eighteen months to
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  to three years.
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  And how will you, measure the success of
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  this transformation?
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  Well, there's a couple of outcomes. The typical
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  revenue cycle KPIs,
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  always hold true. You know, you have to
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  manage to your AR days, your cost to
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  collect, you know, keeping your accounts flowing through
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  the system, so measuring your, you know, discharge
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  not final build and looking at things like
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  clean claims. So that's really not anything different
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  than everybody is sort of measuring in the
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  industry. But the one thing that we started
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  to also measure is
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  our team member satisfaction,
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  and to really lean in on our our
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  staff within revenue cycle getting what they need
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  from not only just changing workflows, but supporting
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  them through transitions in this automation. So that's
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  one of the major metrics that we look
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  at. The other thing that we're looking at
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  is, you know, from a cost to collect
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  perspective,
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  technology right now can be very expensive.
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  But if you're thinking about
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  how you're,
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  managing your labor versus how you're managing your
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  technology and where you're going to get the
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  biggest leverage,
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  that is really, kind of a return on
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  investment that you're looking for. So we've really
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  been leaning in on if you're going to
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  invest in technology and it's going to,
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  help to make you more efficient,
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  then where are we really gonna find the
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  savings and and looking at those metrics in,
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  I guess, in partnership with the other KPIs
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  that drive revenue cycle.
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  So, in the revenue cycle, what would you
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  say is the biggest headwind you're facing right
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  now, and how are you tackling it?
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  It's not new, but we're always
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  looking for
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  how do we be most efficient
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  and grow,
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  and to
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  be able to provide the same level of
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  service to our organization and to our patients
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  as we have capacity constraints.
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  So we wanna grow. We want to do
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  things differently. We want to keep up. So
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  it's really a matter of being able
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  to morph within your own revenue cycle, and
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  I can give you a good example of
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  that.
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  We've changed our medical group revenue cycle focus
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  to an institute level
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  as opposed to just one big revenue cycle,
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  one big bucket of accounts.
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  And that has really provided the kind of
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  partnership that we need with the clinical areas
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  to specifically
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  focus on their specialty needs within our revenue
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  cycle. So we're sort of, like, adopted that
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  team of teams approach
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  and partnered with each of those clinical
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  institutes
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  and started to,
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  manage their AR along with them in the
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  way that they needed to. And that was
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  just a small fraction of some of the
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  bigger things that we've done that has had
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  a massive impact to not only the relationships,
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  but also just the health of the AR.
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  Things are moving a lot faster.
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  We are much more aligned, clinically and and
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  financially with those institutes, and that has just
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  been one small change that we made, but
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  that had major
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  impacts.
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  And so what are some of the top
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  trends you're following in health care today, either
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  in the revenue cycle or just in the
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  larger,
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  health care space?
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  Yeah. The impacts to the big beautiful bill
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  have been pretty significant.
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  We I think, all health care is concerned
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  about patients who are no longer going to
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  qualify for Medicaid or who are no longer
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  gonna have credits on the ACA program, and
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  I think we're trying to figure out how
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  to bring that affordable care to them
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  where they need it, closest to their home,
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  and still be able to provide
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  what they need even if they don't have
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  the financial means. And and part of that
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  is a responsibility on our revenue cycle to
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  educate patients about what that's going to look
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  like as they embark on their clinical journey
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  with us. And this revenue cycle at Novant
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  Health takes that very seriously. The relationship with
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  the patient,
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  is not only clinical, but it's also, from
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  a revenue cycle perspective, a financial one.
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  Understanding costs, understanding options to help them afford
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  their care is very important to us. And
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  so price transparency,
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  being able to give them estimates upfront, have
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  a conversation with somebody about
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  options for payment plans,
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  interest free payment plans, how long we can,
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  put them on a payment plan for, what
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  that really looks like, I think provides a
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  peace of mind to our patients
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  that allows them to go through their clinical
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  journey with a focus on their health and
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  not so much a focus on, the, you
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  know, the financial impact sometimes health care can
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  have.
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  Mhmm. How are you thinking about growth over
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  the next twelve months?
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  Growth, within revenue cycle is we are,
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  starting to have,
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  additional hospitals come into the Novant Health System.
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  And, really, revenue cycle is capacity management. Right?
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  We are highly focused on doing things like
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  including,
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  RPA, automation, process efficiencies,
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  workflow redesigns.
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  We use Epic as our EMR, and we
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  are leaning very heavily into making sure that
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  all of the enhancements that we can possibly
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  take within our Epic instance are turned on
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  and functioning and are usable.
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  And I think that's gonna help us to
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  absorb the capacity as Novant Health continues to
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  grow and to bring affordable care to our
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  patients, where it's most convenient for them without
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  having to increase costs.
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  That's been our focus, over the last year
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  is sort of lining up the technology,
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  lining up additional
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  resources for our teams so that we can
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  meet that capacity demand.
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  Mhmm. And, the last question I had for
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  you is how are you using AI in
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  your revenue cycle?
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  I think the most exciting
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  AI initiative that we are working on is
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  really around voice AI.
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  You know, it's funny. I ordered a pizza
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  from Domino's the other day, and, I I
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  was talking to voice AI, and it didn't
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  dawn on me until the way that it
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  was repeating it back to me. I thought,
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  oh my gosh. This must be voice AI.
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  It sounds good. It is so much better
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  than phone trees and some of the other,
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  you know, voice automations that used to exist
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  in the past. It's very conversational.
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  The fact that we can have learning modules
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  so that it understands the typical questions patients
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  are gonna ask, it learns over time,
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  I think is remarkable.
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  And it's also consistent
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  and consistently handling calls in a way that
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  we would want our patients to interact with
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  our health system. So I'm really excited about
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  about voice AI.
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  I think you can use it in many
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  spaces, not just,
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  to interact with patients to get them quickly
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  scheduled, to get them quickly to,
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  a physician's office if they have a question,
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  to answer their billing questions, answer benefit questions.
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  It really kind of open up opens up
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  the art of possibility of what are other
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  ways that we would love to talk to
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  our patients, but are maybe constrained by
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  having to have a person answer the phone
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  or to call them back. So this could
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  be twenty four seven access to information that
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  our patients need at any time, any place,
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  anywhere,
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  to have that conversation and then to elevate,
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  to another party if they need to. But
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  I'm I'm really excited about the opportunities that
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  VoiceAI is gonna bring to our revenue cycle.
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  Thank you so much for your time today,
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  Heather. It's been a pleasure speaking with you,
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  and I look forward to talking with you
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  again soon. Great. Thanks so much for having
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  me.