Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Rebekah Le, CFO of Legacy Community Health

Transcript

Rebekah Le, CFO of Legacy Community Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker CFO
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  and revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to
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  be joined today by Rebecca Lee, chief strategy
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  and finance officer for Legacy Community Health. Rebecca,
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  thanks for joining me. Yeah. Thank you, Maddie.
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  It's, great to be here with you, especially
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  right before the holidays. I know it. And
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  happy holidays to you. But before we begin,
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  do you mind just sharing a little bit
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  about yourself with our listeners,
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  and more about Legacy Community Health?
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  Yeah. Sure. Well, you've mentioned my name and
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  my title. So what I'll say is I've
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  had the privilege and honor of serving as
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  the chief strategy and financial officer at Legacy
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  for about eighteen months now. And what a
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  ride it's been.
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  I can honestly say,
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  that Legacy Community Health and the work that
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  we do is so amazing.
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  We are the largest federally qualified health center
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  in the state of Texas.
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  We've been doing this for over forty years,
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  serving the greater Houston area in Southeast Texas
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  with over 60 clinics. And,
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  we're getting really close to about 200,000
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  unique patients. So, it really is an honor
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  to be here with you today and sharing
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  a little bit more about myself and legacy.
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  Wonderful. Well, I appreciate you, diving a little
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  bit deeper there. And to kick us off,
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  do you mind just sharing obviously,
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  the health care industry is an ever evolving
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  one. And so with this in mind, could
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  you share some of the broader challenges you're
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  keeping a close
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  close eye on right now and why these
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  are so important for you to keep that
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  that financial,
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  eye on?
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  Yeah. You know, I think it's interesting times
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  that we find ourselves in. And
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  with our focus on health care being a
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  right, you know, rather than a privilege,
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  I think some of the things that we're
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  seeing, you know, like HR one or some
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  of the more legislative things or things that
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  we're keeping a close eye on, ensuring that
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  we can follow that, make sure we understand
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  how it impacts the communities we serve. In
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  addition to that, when we step outside of
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  more of that legislative front and we think
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  about broader challenges in the industry,
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  it's things like cybersecurity
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  and, you know, making sure that we're protecting
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  privacy and and really managing all the challenges
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  in this increasingly electronic world,
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  that we need to keep our eye on
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  and ensure that legacy is at the top
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  of its game when it comes to cyber
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  and privacy.
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  Mhmm. No. Definitely. Some good points there. And
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  could you also share with us just a
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  little bit in terms of how legacy is
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  kind of, you know, deciding right now where
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  to invest in in its revenue cycle?
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  You know, we everywhere I go,
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  every conference, every conversation
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  starts with, you know, the two letters AI.
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  And so I think that's a great part
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  place to start, you know, when we're thinking
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  about where legacy is investing in revenue cycle.
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  We actually implemented Epic a couple of years
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  ago, and so that's really been an enabler
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  for providing more data,
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  being able to leverage things like business intelligence.
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  And as we think about how to continue
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  to optimize in that that realm, we're looking
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  at things that are gonna allow for better
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  indexing. We're gonna be looking for things that
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  are really focused around cash management
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  and allowing for
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  more of the behind the scenes electronically driven
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  reconciliations
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  and allow our team members to really elevate
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  and help us focus in on
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  focus more on denials,
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  focus more on how we can ensure that
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  every penny that we can harvest and bring
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  back into the organization, we can. So for
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  revenue cycle, it's really gonna be about data
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  centricity
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  and leveraging all the technology and tools that
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  are increasingly becoming available.
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  Yeah. I mean, to your point, there are
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  so many tools out there right now. How
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  do you kind of sift through the ones
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  that are going to work best for your
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  organization?
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  I mean, because there's just so much.
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  Yeah. As a, federally qualified health center and
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  being on Epic, we're actually a a connect
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  partner. So that actually gives us a broader,
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  partnership across,
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  multiple FQHCs.
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  We're able to talk through that together and
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  see what's really working best with our instance
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  of Epic.
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  So a lot of it's gonna be around,
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  you know, what fits best and, you know,
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  what's gonna be the best return on investment.
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  So for right now, we're heavily focused in
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  on where is someone by name, by position
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  or role, having to touch pieces of paper,
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  whether it's adding value or not. And so
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  that's gonna be our first area of focus.
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  Yeah. No. Definitely. And, again, amid all of
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  these industry challenges and changes that we're seeing,
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  could you share with our listeners how you're
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  really keeping your finance team resilient and engaged
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  right now? Essentially, what's that secret sauce to
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  success for you?
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  So as I was reading that question and
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  thinking about the secret sauce, you know, I
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  was really thinking about just our blend between
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  mission and business. Yeah.
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  You know, when you go out to one
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  of our clinics, it's not hard to feel
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  the mission and the passion with which we
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  operate.
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  And we actually really encourage all of our
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  teams, no matter what their daily role is,
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  is to really get connected to that mission.
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  So when we're making a decision, when we're
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  navigating a challenge, we are doing it
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  we can actually put a face with that.
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  Right? We can go out. We can see
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  the pregnant women we serve. We can see
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  the children that we serve. We can see
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  the seniors,
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  anybody that's out there receiving services from us.
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  And so our finance team really embodies that.
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  And so that goes a long way in
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  maintaining that resiliency.
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  We have had some challenging times. Right? Health
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  care is not an easy industry, and it,
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  you know, continues to be a challenging world.
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  So what we've really focused on with our
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  finance teams is really also data centricity,
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  that there's power in the story that the
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  numbers tell us. And that if they can
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  be a part of helping us tell that
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  story quicker, faster, better,
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  that it really does have these very specific
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  health care related outcomes, community related outcomes. And
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  we really see that embodied in how they
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  operate.
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  Yeah. And I mean, you you touched on
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  at the beginning of the podcast. You've been
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  in your role here for about eighteen months.
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  You know, just in general, could you share
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  maybe how the CFO role is evolving beyond
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  just finances and maybe some of the most
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  important leadership skills that finance leaders can hone
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  in on right now?
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  The two that jump out to me the
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  most is
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  really being a storyteller.
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  You know, as a little bit of a
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  joke here, you know, I remember one time
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  I had
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  someone tell me, hey. You're a CFO. You
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  must really love numbers. And I kinda joked
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  and I laughed and I said, well, I
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  don't know about love numbers,
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  but there's a story to be told. Right?
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  And sometimes the numbers are part of that
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  story. And so I really think being a
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  storyteller and in order to be a storyteller,
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  you have to understand what's going on. You
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  have to be able to see the pieces,
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  how they fit together, you know, who's in
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  that story,
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  and then really go forward with genuine curiosity.
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  So when I think about leadership skills, I
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  think it doesn't matter what your technical expertise
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  is or your background. If you go into
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  anything with genuine curiosity,
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  you're gonna come out
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  much more engaged,
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  much more collaborative,
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  and much more aligned in what you're gonna
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  do going forward. And so I think that
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  blend between strategy and finance, being focused on
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  the future,
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  but not losing touch with the current reality,
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  I think is
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  really what's allowing CFOs overall to evolve beyond
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  the financials and really begin
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  to harvest and harness those broader leadership skills.
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  Yeah. The financial the the numbers are important,
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  but there's such a bigger story to be
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  told here. So, yeah, some strong insights there.
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  Final question for you. As as we mentioned,
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  it it is near the holidays,
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  right around the corner, and we're heading into
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  2026.
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  Anything you're particularly
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  excited about right now at your organization or
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  just for the future of healthcare?
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  You know, when I think about, you know,
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  the holidays, when I think about what we're
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  able to do,
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  we also have a couple of new clinics
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  opening up next calendar year and so we
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  are not sitting still. So amidst whatever challenges
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  there are, there is a massive need to
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  be met. And so we're really excited
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  to just continue that reach,
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  all throughout the greater scenario in Southeast Texas.
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  Well, that's so great to hear. Well, Rebecca,
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  it has truly been such a pleasure getting
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  to touch base with you and talk a
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  little bit, wishing you a wonderful holiday, and
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  I look forward to connecting again sometime soon.
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  Thank you, Maddie. It's been a pleasure being
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  here. Thank you.