Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Bahar Bazmi, Chief Revenue Cycle Officer at WVU Health System

Transcript

Bahar Bazmi, Chief Revenue Cycle Officer at WVU Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
• 0:21
  - to pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
• 0:26
  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
• 0:30
  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
• 0:32
  - around growth, financial sustainability,
• 0:35
  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
• 0:41
  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - This is Madeline with the Becker CFO and
• 0:53
  - revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to be
• 0:56
  - joined by Bahar Basmi, chief revenue cycle officer
• 0:59
  - at WVU Health System in Morgantown, West Virginia.
• 1:03
  - Bahar, thanks so much for joining me.
• 1:05
  - Thank you, Maddie. It's great to be here
• 1:07
  - with you today.
• 1:08
  - Well, I am so excited to have you
• 1:10
  - on, and I can't wait to dive into
• 1:11
  - our conversation. But before we do, do you
• 1:13
  - mind sharing with our listeners just a little
• 1:15
  - bit more about your background in health care
• 1:18
  - and more on your current role?
• 1:21
  - Sure. I've been in health care for my
• 1:24
  - entire career. In the past thirty years, I've
• 1:26
  - had
• 1:27
  - the pleasure to work at,
• 1:30
  - several large health care systems
• 1:33
  - in roles in finance,
• 1:36
  - in IT,
• 1:38
  - and in revenue cycle.
• 1:40
  - Also had a great experience in private equity
• 1:44
  - backed health care as well as global health
• 1:46
  - care. So, really,
• 1:48
  - I've come full circle back to a provider
• 1:50
  - network.
• 1:52
  - Amazing. And can you share a little bit
• 1:54
  - more about WVU Health System for listeners that
• 1:56
  - might not know much?
• 1:58
  - Sure. WVU Medicine
• 2:00
  - is a very large academic
• 2:04
  - medical,
• 2:05
  - system... Health care system here in West Virginia,
• 2:08
  - also in Pennsylvania,
• 2:09
  - Ohio,
• 2:11
  - Maryland, and growing.
• 2:13
  - We are
• 2:14
  - dedicated
• 2:15
  - to,
• 2:16
  - providing
• 2:18
  - exceptional health care,
• 2:20
  - especially in rural communities.
• 2:23
  - And, we have, you know, perhaps the most...
• 2:28
  - We serve those patients who need us the
• 2:30
  - most.
• 2:32
  - I appreciate you, giving that background there. So
• 2:35
  - let's dive in. You've been with the system,
• 2:38
  - keep me honest here, since late April.
• 2:41
  - And so as you step into your role,
• 2:43
  - I... You've been there for a few months
• 2:45
  - now, but what would you say your top
• 2:47
  - two to three priorities
• 2:48
  - have been?
• 2:49
  - And where do you think the system when
• 2:51
  - you first started maybe needed some improvement to
• 2:53
  - the revenue cycle
• 2:55
  - team? Sure. Sure.
• 2:57
  - Yeah. In my five months tenure here so
• 3:00
  - far,
• 3:01
  - you know, my first
• 3:02
  - job was to really listen, to understand where
• 3:06
  - revenue cycle at WVU Medicine stands today.
• 3:10
  - And coming out of those first ninety days,
• 3:13
  - I was able to formulate
• 3:15
  - a a plan,
• 3:17
  - really focusing on three areas. One is really
• 3:21
  - optimizing our
• 3:22
  - revenue cycle workflows.
• 3:25
  - We have, you know,
• 3:27
  - redundancies
• 3:28
  - and unnecessary
• 3:29
  - work that, we're looking
• 3:31
  - to,
• 3:32
  - eliminate.
• 3:34
  - And,
• 3:35
  - you know, in doing so, we are also
• 3:39
  - making sure that we're really thoughtful partners with
• 3:41
  - our providers in that workflow. Revenue cycle is
• 3:44
  - not just a billing shop. It's really,
• 3:48
  - working with our physicians
• 3:50
  - in clinical documentation
• 3:52
  - and making sure that we are
• 3:55
  - tracking with them,
• 3:57
  - every day. So really looking at optimizing our
• 4:00
  - workflows end to end.
• 4:02
  - The second area that we've really focused on
• 4:04
  - is
• 4:05
  - accelerating
• 4:06
  - our technology
• 4:07
  - and automation.
• 4:09
  - We have tremendous
• 4:11
  - opportunities here to leverage,
• 4:14
  - functionalities
• 4:15
  - that are coming through epic or other platforms,
• 4:18
  - and partnerships that we currently have.
• 4:22
  - And the third area of opportunity that we
• 4:25
  - are working on is really
• 4:27
  - to improve our patient financial experience.
• 4:31
  - And we have a responsibility
• 4:33
  - to...
• 4:34
  - The... You know, they deserve clear estimates, clear
• 4:37
  - out of pocket,
• 4:39
  - estimates for services we give to them, and
• 4:43
  - we're working on fine tuning that
• 4:46
  - before the service,
• 4:48
  - at the time of service
• 4:50
  - in in our organization. So those are the...
• 4:52
  - Really the three big
• 4:54
  - rocks, I'll call it, that we're working on,
• 4:57
  - for the remainder of 2026.
• 5:00
  - And, you know, just to kinda piggyback off
• 5:02
  - that, revenue cycle has been, you know, dubbed
• 5:05
  - or can be seen as a back office
• 5:06
  - function, but WVU Medicine CFO, Nick Barcelona, actually
• 5:10
  - highlighted your skills in improving this patient financing
• 5:13
  - experience.
• 5:14
  - So
• 5:15
  - how does what's happening in billing and collections
• 5:18
  - actually affect how patients feel about their care?
• 5:21
  - Yeah. I think patients, they don't separate their
• 5:24
  - clinical care from their financial care. For them,
• 5:27
  - it's one experience.
• 5:29
  - So in revenue cycle, it's really important that
• 5:32
  - we
• 5:33
  - continue,
• 5:35
  - their expectations
• 5:37
  - around
• 5:38
  - care. And I and I kind of equate
• 5:40
  - it to the sandwich
• 5:42
  - theory. I call it the sandwich
• 5:44
  - analogy.
• 5:46
  - I love that. The heart of the heart
• 5:47
  - of what we do here at WVU Medicine
• 5:50
  - is the exceptional clinical care, and that is
• 5:52
  - the meat of the sandwich. Right?
• 5:55
  - They... There's
• 5:56
  - no doubt about the quality of care that
• 5:59
  - they receive
• 6:00
  - here at WVU Medicine, and,
• 6:04
  - really, the bread is revenue cycle. We are
• 6:07
  - the
• 6:08
  - first slice,
• 6:10
  - that is really their
• 6:12
  - entrance and...
• 6:13
  - Into the system and what we do at
• 6:15
  - point of registration,
• 6:17
  - and we give them an idea of what
• 6:19
  - their
• 6:20
  - insurance will cover, what they've got to cover.
• 6:24
  - And the back end of revenue cycle is
• 6:27
  - the other piece of the bread of the
• 6:28
  - sandwich, which is really that billing and follow-up
• 6:31
  - experience. And and if we don't get those
• 6:34
  - two pieces
• 6:36
  - right and we don't,
• 6:38
  - share that information
• 6:40
  - early and often,
• 6:42
  - we can really leave a bad taste in
• 6:44
  - their mouth.
• 6:45
  - So, you know, our goal here is to
• 6:48
  - really
• 6:50
  - be a compliment
• 6:51
  - to the meat of what WVU Medicine does,
• 6:54
  - which is health care,
• 6:56
  - and make sure that they walk away,
• 6:59
  - with, you know, feeling like their financial
• 7:02
  - experience is as equally,
• 7:06
  - successful and equally palatable
• 7:08
  - as their health care experience.
• 7:11
  - Yeah. That and out... That sandwich analogy is
• 7:13
  - a good one, so I appreciate you breaking
• 7:14
  - that down there.
• 7:16
  - You've you've built your career at the intersection
• 7:18
  - of health care, finance, and technology.
• 7:21
  - Where do you see... This is the million
• 7:22
  - dollar question. But where do you see AI
• 7:24
  - and automation having the most meaningful impact right
• 7:27
  - now on revenue cycle,
• 7:29
  - especially at systems like WVU Medicine?
• 7:32
  - Yeah. I think the most immediate
• 7:34
  - impact is not
• 7:36
  - is not replacing people, but removing
• 7:39
  - low value manual work.
• 7:42
  - I view
• 7:43
  - AI as
• 7:44
  - a tool
• 7:45
  - for our team members to
• 7:48
  - really
• 7:50
  - make sure that they are focused on the
• 7:52
  - high skilled
• 7:54
  - work that they need to do every day
• 7:58
  - and allow AI to serve up those exceptions,
• 8:02
  - serve up those opportunities,
• 8:04
  - and
• 8:05
  - really
• 8:07
  - use them to the top of their performance
• 8:10
  - capabilities.
• 8:10
  - So
• 8:12
  - AI is not a,
• 8:14
  - enemy of revenue cycle. I think it's gonna
• 8:17
  - be very helpful in our space
• 8:20
  - in in many ways. And in the next
• 8:22
  - few years,
• 8:23
  - it's gonna help us shift from being
• 8:26
  - reactive
• 8:27
  - to even predictive,
• 8:29
  - in revenue cycle. You know, right... Rather than
• 8:31
  - waiting for denials,
• 8:33
  - AI should identify risks on these claims before
• 8:37
  - we're submitting them. So we're really
• 8:40
  - excited about our AI opportunities, and this is
• 8:43
  - not a set it and forget it. AI
• 8:45
  - is not something you can just turn on
• 8:48
  - like a light switch and,
• 8:50
  - you know, trust that it works. You need
• 8:52
  - to validate. You need to verify. You need
• 8:55
  - to
• 8:56
  - fine tune and make sure that the results
• 8:59
  - that it's yielding
• 9:01
  - are accurate.
• 9:02
  - So to me, it's a great tool. I
• 9:04
  - think it's gonna really help our teams.
• 9:07
  - Yeah. And and a lot of revenue cycle
• 9:08
  - and finance leaders I've spoken with have said,
• 9:11
  - similar things.
• 9:13
  - But, you know, it's just hard to predict
• 9:14
  - right now with all these different tools coming
• 9:16
  - in.
• 9:18
  - What would you say
• 9:20
  - revenue cycle success looks like to you at
• 9:22
  - WVU Medicine at the end of your first
• 9:24
  - year? You're heading into
• 9:26
  - your sixth month, but the end of maybe
• 9:28
  - this year or even your twelve months in.
• 9:29
  - What what would you say that would look
• 9:30
  - like to you?
• 9:32
  - Yeah. I think there's,
• 9:34
  - a couple elements of what success will look
• 9:37
  - like in a year. One, I think, you
• 9:39
  - know, most importantly, our patient
• 9:41
  - experience should be noticeably better.
• 9:44
  - You know, that's really a focus.
• 9:47
  - Two, I'm
• 9:49
  - envisioning that our staff become more empowered with
• 9:53
  - the right tools,
• 9:55
  - to do their jobs. I feel like, you
• 9:57
  - know, the success will be,
• 9:59
  - patients are better served and staff are more
• 10:01
  - empowered. And
• 10:03
  - with that combination,
• 10:05
  - it will
• 10:06
  - ultimately
• 10:07
  - sustain us.
• 10:10
  - No. That's some great advice there.
• 10:13
  - Final question for you here. WVU Medicine
• 10:16
  - has 25
• 10:18
  - hospitals under
• 10:19
  - its belt here, under its portfolio. So what
• 10:22
  - would you say keeps you on track? Any
• 10:24
  - advice for other revenue cycle leaders? I mean,
• 10:27
  - you are obviously a very busy woman. So
• 10:29
  - how do you how do you keep things
• 10:31
  - aligned?
• 10:32
  - I think what keeps us on track is
• 10:35
  - our,
• 10:36
  - singular process. You know? We we really wanna
• 10:40
  - make sure that,
• 10:42
  - what we do is repeatable and sustainable, and
• 10:45
  - that sustainability
• 10:48
  - continues through every acquisition, every hospital we build,
• 10:51
  - every piece of growth that we experience here,
• 10:55
  - and that's been pretty important. So making sure
• 10:58
  - that that, you know, workflow is a... Is
• 11:01
  - optimal and not,
• 11:03
  - does not have any waste is
• 11:06
  - paramount. And I think for us, you know,
• 11:09
  - we can do a little bit of rinse
• 11:10
  - and repeat,
• 11:12
  - as we continue to grow.
• 11:14
  - Yeah. Well, Bahar, again, congratulations
• 11:16
  - on your new role. I know you've been
• 11:18
  - in it for a few months, but appreciate
• 11:19
  - you taking the time to to connect with
• 11:21
  - me. And I know our listeners appreciate it
• 11:23
  - too, and I look forward to connecting with
• 11:25
  - you again soon.
• 11:26
  - Thank you.
• 11:28
  - Have a good one. You too, Mandy.