Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Rural Health System Growth, Financial Forecasting, and Data Governance with Jason Hinkle

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Rural Health System Growth, Financial Forecasting, and Data Governance with Jason Hinkle · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - 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.
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  - This is Madeline with the Becker CFO and
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  - revenue cycle podcast, and I'm thrilled to be
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  - joined by Jason Hinkle, CFO of Deaconess, Illinois.
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  - Jason, welcome back to the podcast.
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  - Thanks, Madeline. Thanks for having me. I'm looking
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  - forward to another great discussion today.
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  - Yeah. Same. But before we begin, for people
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  - who haven't caught our our previous discussions,
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  - do you mind sharing just a little bit
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  - about your background in health care and more
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  - on Deaconess Illinois, with our listeners?
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  - Absolutely. So, Jason Henkel, CFO for Deaconess Illinois.
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  - Been here for almost a year, as of
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  - next week.
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  - So,
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  - my health care career started, in Chicago actually,
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  - which is very different than Southern Illinois.
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  - Started with Advocate Health,
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  - and then moved over to Loyola Medicine, which
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  - is part of Trinity Health, and then have
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  - the opportunity to come down here and really
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  - learn a whole lot about just the you
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  - know, obviously there's similarities between just being in
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  - the healthcare system, but there's certainly some nuances
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  - to, to rural healthcare.
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  - And we've got four hospitals,
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  - in Southern Illinois, with Deaconess Medical Cent... Deaconess
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  - Illinois Medical Center in Marion, Illinois is our
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  - flagship hospital,
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  - in the region.
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  - Two of those hospitals are critical access hospitals.
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  - And so we have strong affiliation partnerships,
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  - with Deaconess health system as well as with
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  - affiliate hospitals
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  - in the region, but Deaconess Illinois is a,
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  - stand alone health health system.
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  - No. Thanks for breaking that down. I appreciate
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  - you sharing just a little bit more about
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  - your background too.
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  - You know, and and as you noted, you
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  - said you've been in the role for
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  - around a year.
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  - So could you share basically how your growth
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  - strategy
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  - has evolved
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  - these last twelve months,
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  - maybe kind of what you're looking towards now
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  - that we're headed into 2027?
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. So we had a really great...
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  - We're wrapping up our fiscal year end right
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  - now. And so,
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  - our discharges
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  - grew 34%
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  - from f y twenty five to f y
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  - twenty six.
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  - So it's been a phenomenal year, from from
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  - that standpoint.
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  - And so with that kind of growth,
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  - it changes the question from how do we
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  - get more patients to how do we care
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  - for them in the right place.
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  - And so we do expect that growth to
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  - continue into f y twenty seven, but we
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  - do expect it to level off some from
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  - the, you know, leaps and bounds that we
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  - took,
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  - this last year.
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  - So that focus is making sure that we
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  - have the right capacity and care settings to,
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  - keep pace.
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  - And so we're bringing on oncology to our
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  - main campus in Marion, next month actually.
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  - So that means being delivered about how we're
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  - gonna use that space and rather than just
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  - adding square footage, to other areas.
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  - We're also,
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  - expanding our outpatient surgical capacity with an ASC
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  - in the community.
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  - I know a lot of systems are moving
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  - that direction. I think,
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  - it's an appropriate procedures,
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  - to get a lower cost, more convenient setting
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  - for patients
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  - and hospital capacity stays open for patients who
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  - need more of that inpatient care. And then
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  - the last piece is just building the network
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  - of affiliate partnership... Hospital partnerships,
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  - that we've built and, you know, we're... As
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  - I mentioned before, affiliated with Deaconess Health System.
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  - And so
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  - that network gives our patients better continuity of
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  - care supported by a shared epic platform with
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  - Deaconess Health System. It also makes us better
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  - operators, we can share best practices from our
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  - sister facilities and we share what is and
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  - isn't working in our region. And so,
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  - you know, no no rural hospital should have
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  - to figure it out alone. And our network
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  - means better continuity for our patients and a
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  - constant,
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  - exchange of what is and isn't working without
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  - reinventing the wheel of, you know, how we're
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  - operating things in Southern Illinois.
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  - What would you say are some of the
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  - the largest financial challenges
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  - that you feel are facing hospitals and systems
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  - right now, and and how are you guys
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  - at Deaconess Illinois kinda working to tackle that?
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  - Yeah. I think a lot of our risk
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  - is on the revenue side, not just in
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  - expenses. So the payer mix is shifting under
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  - us, and we can't afford to just plan
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  - once a year for that.
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  - We're already seeing a patient's move from Medicaid
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  - to self pay, and we expect that to
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  - only continue as the federal Medicaid changes take
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  - effect.
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  - And also just changes to the state directed
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  - payments program,
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  - you know, have, you know, have impacted us
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  - and will continue to,
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  - and rural providers are dependent on that funding.
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  - And so,
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  - as far as kinda how we tackle and
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  - plan and adjust in real time, we're working
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  - on moving towards rolling forecasting instead of a
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  - static budget. So this really lets us to
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  - project and move as fast as the industry,
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  - inevitably
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  - does move.
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  - So, you know, so often that you you
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  - finish a budget, and by the time you're
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  - actually starting to report against that budget, 12
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  - different things have changed and, you know, you're
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  - like, well, we're gonna have this variance for
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  - the rest of the fiscal year. And so,
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  - we're implementing,
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  - you know, through strata the the process to
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  - really reforecast
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  - every quarter, but,
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  - finance leaders can really make changes in real
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  - time as we're adding new physicians or adding
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  - new service lines or new initiatives. We can
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  - get those reflected and really see where we're
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  - anticipating landing, by the end of that fiscal
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  - year. We're also focused on initiative tracking, and
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  - so I think I alluded to this in
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  - our last conversation, but we track initiatives across
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  - the enterprise monthly.
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  - So we don't just wanna focus on just
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  - the the each department's income statement. We really
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  - wanna keep it action oriented
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  - of what are we doing and reporting on
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  - is what we're doing working, or do we
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  - need to go identify other areas that we
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  - can tackle to kinda close that gap,
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  - financially.
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  - And then a lot of this just depends
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  - on giving leaders numbers that they can trust.
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  - And we really put a huge emphasis,
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  - on data governance, which I'll kinda touch on
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  - that a little bit later in our segment.
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  - And then strategic pricing
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  - supplies expenses have gone through the roof, and
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  - so we actually, just aligned to the new
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  - GPO
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  - this last July. And so
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  - we expect some, significant savings from that. And
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  - the goal is for rural regions like ours
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  - to get the same purchasing leverage as many
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  - of the larger health systems would.
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  - You know, being a rural hospital shouldn't mean
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  - paying more for the same gloves and and
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  - implants as,
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  - those in a more suburban area.
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  - Yeah. And you you touched on the data
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  - governance. So I'm assuming that means, you know,
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  - I was gonna ask you basically where some
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  - of the areas that you're placing those biggest
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  - bets,
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  - right now and into next year. Would that
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  - be one area?
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  - Yeah. Definitely.
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  - It... I I I... I've kind of talked
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  - about it a lot more in the, kind
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  - of lessons learned area, but that's really where
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  - we're putting a huge amount of resources.
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  - And really our approach to this is not
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  - having it just siloed to ITs in charge
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  - of data governance. It's really an enterprise wide
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  - because you have so many... So much data
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  - across the organization coming from your EMR to
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  - your,
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  - HR systems. And and so often, those systems
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  - aren't talking to each other. So if you're
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  - trying to answer a question of, you know,
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  - what's my case mix index? Right? You... Depending
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  - on what system you go to or what
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  - team you go to to or what report
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  - you go to,
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  - sometimes you may get a different answer. And
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  - so we're really working across the whole organization
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  - to align on what are our definitions,
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  - where's the data coming from, who's actually responsible
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  - for maintaining that data. And it's not just
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  - someone in IT or finance, like, this goes
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  - all the way down to the operational leader
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  - level
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  - of saying you're the owner of this
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  - specific metric
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  - and making sure that we're validating
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  - that
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  - it's accurate, it's coming from the right systems,
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  - and it's all ultimately aggregating to the same
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  - data lake
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  - that, you know, as we look to expand
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  - into more different AI capabilities,
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  - if we're not putting the right data
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  - into into those models and agents, we're ultimately
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  - gonna get bad. We're gonna get really quick
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  - responses, but we're gonna get quick responses with
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  - that with that information.
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  - Yeah. Yeah.
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  - And so... Yeah. I guess
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  - from the past few months that you've been
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  - in this world, the last year,
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  - what's a lesson that you wish
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  - maybe more CFOs were talking about? What's something
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  - that you feel is is not being discussed
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  - enough right now? Yeah. I think it's just
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  - that the data governance is, a strategy issue.
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  - It's not an IT project. And so Yeah.
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  - Sometimes all these systems don't agree and, you
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  - know, there's duplicate work and debatable definitions. And
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  - so, you know, fewer people talk about the
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  - less glamorous part about implementing AI, which is
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  - ensuring that the underlying data that feeds the
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  - AI models
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  - is accurate.
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  - So
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  - we've launched a enterprise wide data governance office.
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  - And so,
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  - as I said, every metric is,
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  - you know, has a specified owner
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  - and a clear process for how it's defined,
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  - calculated, and maintained. And so, you know, this
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  - gives us consistency. So wherever you go in
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  - the organization, a given metric uses the same
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  - definition and is calculated the same way.
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  - Internal,
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  - decisions, so leaders spend their time
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  - acting on the numbers instead of debating them,
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  - gives us more accurate,
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  - data prefer external accountability.
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  - So whether that's to regulators,
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  - governing bodies, or other external stakeholders, and really
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  - just puts us in a in a position
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  - to be ready to continue to expand our
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  - our AI footprint across the organization.
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  - Yeah. Anything else you feel that CFOs are
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  - not really, diving into or you wish you
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  - were hearing more around?
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  - I think probably that the the piece we
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  - talked about with the the rolling forecasting, I
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  - think, in a lot of ways, I think,
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  - you know, a static budget is is
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  - becoming a bit archaic.
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  - And I think the... Largely the reason people
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  - haven't moved to that is because it's... It
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  - historically has been so,
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  - time consuming to to go through what's often,
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  - like, a three or four month budget cycle.
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  - To do that
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  - several times a year was kind of limiting.
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  - And so I think now that we have
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  - tools
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  - that are sometimes AI is embedded into those
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  - budgeting softwares and then, you know, also using,
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  - AI softwares like, you know, Copilot and Claude
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  - and and and those types of things to
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  - kinda streamline that process. And it kind of
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  - is gathering all that information,
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  - over time.
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  - I think you're more able to
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  - to have a more robust process around
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  - updating that in real time and measuring to,
• 11:13
  - you know, more recent data and saying, okay,
• 11:16
  - where where do we actually think we're gonna
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  - land the year? Because I think so often,
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  - we get into these month end calls and
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  - the same variances we had the previous month
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  - are the same ones we were reporting against
• 11:25
  - this month because,
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  - ultimately,
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  - something changed from our assumptions that were used
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  - in the in the original budget. And until
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  - we read... You know, redo an annual budget
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  - next year, we're gonna have that variance. And
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  - so, I think it just gives us a
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  - lot more visibility, you know, where we actually
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  - think we're we're gonna land for the year.
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  - Yeah. I feel like there are so many
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  - things that that aren't being discussed enough in
• 11:46
  - health care just in general, but I feel
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  - like from the finance lens, it's always interesting
• 11:50
  - to hear kind of what you're thinking about
• 11:52
  - there. So I appreciate you sharing those examples.
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  - Well, Jason, again, it's always a pleasure getting
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  - to chat with you. I'm,
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  - super appreciative of your time and really looking
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  - forward to seeing all the great things you
• 12:04
  - do and chatting again soon.
• 12:06
  - Sounds great. Thanks, Madeline. Looking forward to seeing
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  - you in November at the Becker's conference. Yes.
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  - And we hope to see all of our
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  - listeners there too. Thank you so much, Jason.
• 12:14
  - Thank you.