Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Performance and Innovation in Healthcare Finance with Jason Hinkle

Transcript

Driving Performance and Innovation in Healthcare Finance with Jason Hinkle · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  When it comes to today's RCM, we know
• 0:02
  the challenges,
• 0:03
  complexity of claims, talent shortages,
• 0:05
  low funding, and lagging tech.
• 0:08
  That's why we built MedMetrix.
• 0:10
  We have the expertise and advanced tech to
• 0:13
  give you that edge on your revenue cycle.
• 0:15
  We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your
• 0:17
  yield, a partner who's on your side because
• 0:20
  they've been operator side, who knows your battles
• 0:23
  and will make sure you win from start
• 0:25
  to finish, end to end. MedMetrix,
• 0:28
  be exceptional.
• 0:30
  This is Madeline with the Becker CFO and
• 0:32
  revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to be
• 0:34
  joined today by Jason Hingle, CFO of Deaconess
• 0:37
  Illinois, a member of Deaconess Health System. Jason,
• 0:41
  thanks for joining me. Madeline, thanks for having
• 0:43
  me. I'm looking forward to our conversation today.
• 0:45
  Me too. So, Jason, before we start, for
• 0:48
  our listeners, do you mind just sharing a
• 0:50
  little bit about your background in health care
• 0:52
  and more on Deaconess, Illinois?
• 0:54
  Absolutely. So I had a a little bit
• 0:55
  more of an unconventional,
• 0:57
  entry into the the health care space. So
• 0:59
  I started my career,
• 1:01
  after finishing my master's of accounting, at the
• 1:03
  University of Tennessee,
• 1:05
  working in at
• 1:07
  in Atlanta.
• 1:08
  Mainly focused on health care clients and actually
• 1:10
  went and worked in the rental car industry,
• 1:12
  afterwards for about four years
• 1:15
  and really felt a calling to come back
• 1:16
  to the health care space. And as as
• 1:19
  folks know who work in health care, really
• 1:21
  having a a purpose and meaning behind the
• 1:23
  work that we do every day. So had
• 1:25
  the opportunity to to jump back into the
• 1:27
  health care health care space on the provider
• 1:29
  side,
• 1:29
  working at Christ Medical Center, with Advocate in
• 1:32
  Chicago,
• 1:33
  then took the opportunity to become a regional
• 1:36
  director of finance, with Loyola Medicine, which is
• 1:38
  part of the Trinity Health. I'm also in
• 1:41
  Chicago. And then in October,
• 1:44
  had the incredible opportunity to come join, Deaconess,
• 1:47
  Illinois
• 1:48
  located in Marion, Illinois, where we operate
• 1:50
  four hospitals in the Illinois market,
• 1:53
  two of which are critical access hospitals.
• 1:56
  So I currently,
• 1:58
  steer the financial operations for,
• 2:01
  those four hospitals as well as our clinic
• 2:03
  operations
• 2:04
  in the market.
• 2:06
  What a cool background. I appreciate you sharing
• 2:08
  that. Thanks so much, Jason.
• 2:10
  So I'd like to dive right in. And
• 2:12
  as you said, you know, you you've been
• 2:13
  in the industry for a few years now,
• 2:15
  and it is an ever changing one. So
• 2:17
  could you share maybe some strategic priorities that
• 2:20
  you think, you know, are demanding your most
• 2:22
  attention right now while we're seeing so many
• 2:25
  shifts?
• 2:26
  Yeah. I think, you know, everyone in health
• 2:28
  care understands, you know, the the margins that
• 2:30
  we operate at are are already ray razor
• 2:33
  thin, and the headwinds that we are currently
• 2:35
  seeing and then certainly the ones that we're
• 2:37
  looking at ahead of us, in the years
• 2:40
  to come
• 2:41
  are just only tightening that margin. So I
• 2:44
  think where a lot of, you know, my
• 2:45
  team's focus and my focus is right now
• 2:47
  is on identifying every opportunity we can across
• 2:51
  the organization,
• 2:52
  across every level for where can we find
• 2:54
  opportunities to improve our efficiency,
• 2:58
  reduce costs, drive growth in the markets that
• 3:01
  we're in. And I think a lot of
• 3:02
  that comes back to really challenging our frontline
• 3:04
  leaders to help us in identifying ways we
• 3:07
  can improve margins. I mean, I always tell
• 3:09
  our leaders, you're the CEO
• 3:11
  of your
• 3:13
  your area. Right? So if you're over pharmacy,
• 3:15
  you're the CEO of pharmacy. So you're gonna
• 3:18
  see things that I may not see on
• 3:19
  a spreadsheet or I may not may not
• 3:21
  hear about in in,
• 3:23
  one of one of our meetings. And so
• 3:26
  really giving those leaders the opportunity to bring
• 3:28
  those ideas forward. And so that's something that
• 3:30
  we've really put a huge emphasis on
• 3:32
  and specifically in the last several months of
• 3:35
  challenging those leaders to identify those initiatives
• 3:38
  and put them on a on a system
• 3:40
  wide tracker that we've created
• 3:42
  in order to really you know, it's it's
• 3:43
  it's their methodology for showing the work that
• 3:46
  they're already doing to improve operations,
• 3:48
  and we really build that into our budget
• 3:51
  cycle.
• 3:52
  Mhmm.
• 3:53
  I have to ask you. I'm so curious
• 3:55
  because at the beginning of the podcast, you
• 3:57
  said, you know, you
• 3:58
  kinda dabbled in different industries. You were in
• 4:00
  the rental car industry for a little bit,
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  and you're just now talking just about the
• 4:03
  importance of of leadership and owning, you know,
• 4:06
  the area that you oversee.
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  How did how did that experience that you
• 4:10
  had kind of shape how you work today
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  as a CFO? Because I would say, you
• 4:15
  know, rental car industries, industries like that, they're
• 4:18
  they're, you know, so customer serving. They're always,
• 4:20
  you know, thinking about the customer, other people.
• 4:22
  So how how do that kinda shape your
• 4:24
  role now? I think it's I think it's
• 4:26
  exactly that. I think it's, you know, in
• 4:27
  enterprise,
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  I have a lot of great things to
• 4:30
  say about that company. And and one of
• 4:31
  them is impeccable
• 4:33
  focus on customer service. And and we we've
• 4:36
  preached the same thing. But another another piece
• 4:38
  of that is,
• 4:39
  at enterprise, everyone's compensation
• 4:42
  from a branch manager onward is it's a
• 4:44
  fixed a fixed rate, and everything from then
• 4:47
  on is based on a percentage of your
• 4:48
  bottom line. So everyone across the organization
• 4:51
  is incentivized
• 4:53
  to really hone in on the,
• 4:55
  how their operation's running because it directly impacts
• 4:59
  their own compensation. And
• 5:01
  I will say Deaconess is the first system
• 5:03
  I've been a part of that really has
• 5:04
  incorporated some of that into our own model.
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  This last year was the first year of
• 5:09
  the implementation where part of our frontline leaders'
• 5:11
  compensation plan is based off of their performance
• 5:15
  of their respective areas
• 5:17
  to budget. So it really gives our frontline
• 5:19
  leaders a skin in the game of how
• 5:22
  if if your departments win, if you're operating
• 5:25
  at at a at a really great level,
• 5:27
  you feel that personally. I think that's something
• 5:29
  enterprise
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  really did great, and I think Deaconess is
• 5:33
  is doing the exact same thing of of
• 5:35
  really giving,
• 5:36
  people, you know, personal incentive beyond just their
• 5:39
  own role and expectations around their role to
• 5:42
  perform at a high level.
• 5:44
  Yeah. And in your role as a finance
• 5:46
  leader now, how do you make sure to
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  partner with different areas like clinical and operational
• 5:51
  colleagues to kind of drive, you know, sustainable
• 5:54
  performance that we need to see? Yeah. I
• 5:56
  I think, you know, Jack Welch talks in
• 5:58
  one of his books and, it's called winning.
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  And one of the things he talks about
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  is is that
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  a budget is never gonna be useful if
• 6:05
  your if your leaders don't act aren't part
• 6:07
  of that process and don't buy into the
• 6:09
  budget from the front end. And I'm a
• 6:11
  believer of that. And I've worked places where
• 6:13
  we don't even have a departmentalized budget. It's
• 6:15
  just very much a high level budget. And
• 6:17
  so when things go off the rails, it's
• 6:19
  where where are we where's the issue at?
• 6:21
  And so I think, one, having those departmentalized
• 6:24
  budgets, but also
• 6:26
  making those leaders part of that process. And
• 6:28
  I'm not saying that they're,
• 6:30
  you know, determining their supply run rate and
• 6:32
  and layering in all those kind of very
• 6:35
  intricate,
• 6:35
  details of a budget. But having those leaders
• 6:38
  part of that process
• 6:40
  able to speak to what was included in
• 6:42
  their budget, and they're signing off alongside our
• 6:44
  finance team saying, this is a realistic yet
• 6:47
  and and aggressive but achievable budget,
• 6:50
  and
• 6:51
  they understand what was kind of included in
• 6:53
  that budget. And
• 6:54
  as we go through the fiscal year,
• 6:57
  they're part of that process of helping to
• 6:59
  explain those variances to budget and coming up
• 7:01
  with their action plans for if we kinda
• 7:03
  do go off the rails, helping to be
• 7:05
  part of those, creating those initiatives to get
• 7:08
  us back on track. And so I think
• 7:10
  that's really where that partnership between the I
• 7:13
  I think so often there's just a disconnect
• 7:16
  between the finance teams and the clinical teams.
• 7:18
  And, I always say there's a three pronged
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  approach. Right? Like, we have to provide the
• 7:22
  right tools to those frontline leaders. We then
• 7:24
  have to train them on how to use
• 7:26
  those tools. And then that third step, which
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  I think so often falls between the gaps
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  is
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  we have to hold the hold leaders accountable
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  to to the goals that we've set, assuming
• 7:37
  that we give they gave them the right
• 7:38
  tools and train them on how to use
• 7:40
  them to be effective in their roles.
• 7:42
  Yeah. Because at the end of the day,
• 7:44
  it's important for you all to lean on
• 7:45
  each other to ensure a strong organization. Now
• 7:47
  you guys need each other.
• 7:49
  Absolutely. At one one cannot exist without the
• 7:51
  other. Definitely. Amazing.
• 7:53
  And that kind of piggybacks into my next
• 7:55
  question. So when thinking about, you know, big
• 7:57
  decisions in health care, what would you say,
• 7:59
  you know, major decisions today require CFOs kind
• 8:02
  of to think beyond that traditional financial management
• 8:05
  and maybe act more as like a enterprise
• 8:07
  strategist, if you will?
• 8:09
  Yeah. I think we we definitely have taken
• 8:12
  more of a role in in the, you
• 8:14
  know, past several years at at being at
• 8:16
  these tables of those strategic decisions of, you
• 8:19
  know, what service lines do we want to,
• 8:21
  you know, delve into? You know, what what
• 8:24
  is our what do our communities need? But
• 8:26
  also,
• 8:27
  you know, in addition to, is there a
• 8:28
  community need there, and are we providing that?
• 8:31
  Ultimately, we have to make sure that our
• 8:33
  our health system is around for years to
• 8:35
  come to continue to provide the excellent care
• 8:37
  that we do to our patients. So I
• 8:39
  think having a seat at that table on
• 8:41
  those discussions,
• 8:42
  same thing goes with with capital. You know,
• 8:44
  everyone wants the latest and greatest technology,
• 8:47
  but making sure that when when we put
• 8:50
  it down on paper, is the return there
• 8:52
  that, yes, we're providing the care that our
• 8:55
  patients need, but we're also
• 8:57
  going to,
• 8:58
  you know, generate the the the volume and
• 9:01
  growth that we anticipate.
• 9:02
  And then the second piece of that is
• 9:04
  actually following up on that and just saying,
• 9:06
  hey. Great. We have a pro form a.
• 9:08
  But then after implementation,
• 9:10
  are we realizing
• 9:12
  what we thought we would from this? Or
• 9:14
  do we need to kinda take another look
• 9:16
  at our game plan? Or where did we
• 9:17
  miss it? What can we learn from that?
• 9:19
  Awesome. Some good great insight there. Alright. I
• 9:22
  wanna look to the future now too. So
• 9:24
  maybe even three to five years out. What
• 9:26
  would you say what capability or transformation
• 9:30
  will kind of separate
• 9:32
  separate, excuse me, these thriving organizations from maybe
• 9:34
  ones that are struggling right now?
• 9:36
  Yeah. I I think a lot of it
• 9:37
  is, like, thinking outside the box. And some
• 9:39
  of these some of these things that I
• 9:41
  may talk about sound may sound crazy, but
• 9:43
  I think if we go back five or
• 9:44
  ten years ago from today, health care looks
• 9:46
  very different than what it did then. And
• 9:48
  so Yeah. I think as anyone in health
• 9:50
  care knows, you know, labor is our largest
• 9:52
  expense.
• 9:53
  It's an area that almost every health care
• 9:56
  system is is struggling with of, like, how
• 9:58
  do we provide the care that we need
• 10:01
  with the right folks in place? And so
• 10:03
  are we thinking about what what technology, even
• 10:06
  beyond AI, is coming? And I I always
• 10:08
  you know, this this may sound, you know,
• 10:10
  sci fi to some people, but,
• 10:12
  I think about, like, is there a world
• 10:14
  where something like Optimus from Tesla is working
• 10:17
  alongside
• 10:18
  our clinical teams? Like, that that to me
• 10:20
  is a very real possibility of something to
• 10:23
  come in the future. And I think those
• 10:25
  health care systems that are thinking that way
• 10:27
  of, yeah, that sounds
• 10:28
  crazy to think about right now, but I
• 10:31
  I think that's
• 10:32
  AI five years ago sounded crazy to anybody.
• 10:35
  And and we're we're Yeah. You know, at
• 10:37
  every angle trying to implement that into our
• 10:39
  daily daily operations. And so I think,
• 10:42
  one, that piece of what technology doesn't exist
• 10:45
  today that we need to think about. Also,
• 10:48
  from a preventative health care standpoint,
• 10:50
  you know, how can we keep folks from
• 10:51
  even ending up in our hospital? What services
• 10:54
  can we provide? I think there's a lot
• 10:55
  of things on the market like function health
• 10:57
  that have popped up of, hey. Your your
• 10:59
  insurance isn't gonna cover these tests, but, you
• 11:02
  know, we can offer this service to to
• 11:04
  give you a heads up of some things
• 11:05
  you may need to be aware of about
• 11:07
  your own health that you can go ahead
• 11:09
  and and get ahead of. And so I
• 11:10
  think how does health care how do health
• 11:12
  care systems play a similar role in the
• 11:14
  in the communities they serve?
• 11:16
  No. It's all so true there. And, honestly,
• 11:19
  very excited to see what comes down the
• 11:21
  line in the next few years. We've already
• 11:22
  seen so much and AI is so prominent
• 11:25
  right now. So,
• 11:26
  really appreciate it. Well, Jason, it has been
• 11:28
  such a pleasure getting to chat with you,
• 11:30
  and I'm excited to connect again sometime down
• 11:33
  the line. So thank you so much for
• 11:34
  sharing your thoughts today. Absolutely. Thank you so
• 11:36
  much for your time, Madeline. I enjoyed our
• 11:38
  conversation.
• 11:39
  Thank you.
• 11:40
  When it comes to today's RCM, we know
• 11:43
  the challenges,
• 11:44
  complexity of claims, talent shortages,
• 11:46
  low funding, and lagging tech.
• 11:49
  That's why we built MedMetrix.
• 11:51
  We have the expertise and advanced tech to
• 11:53
  give you that edge on your revenue cycle.
• 11:56
  We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your
• 11:58
  yield, a partner who's on your side because
• 12:01
  they've been operator's side, who knows your battles
• 12:04
  and will make sure you win from start
• 12:06
  to finish, end to end. MedMetrix,
• 12:09
  be exceptional.