Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Optimism and Urgency in 2026 with Jim Molloy of Ochsner Health

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Optimism and Urgency in 2026 with Jim Molloy of Ochsner Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
The most important health care decisions don't happen
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in isolation.
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They happen when leaders come together.
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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
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3,500
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hospital and health system executives this April in
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With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit
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and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will
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share how their scenario planning for policy shifts,
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breaking through value based care barriers, and building
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clinical teams that translate new ideas into real
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world care.
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Join top decision makers in the room April
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13 through the sixteenth.
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For the agenda and event details, visit beckers
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0:45
This is Madeleine Ashley with the Becker CFO
0:47
and revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to
0:50
be joined today by Jim Malloy, executive vice
0:52
president, CFO, and treasurer of Ochsner Health. Jim,
0:55
thank you for being on with me today.
0:57
Thanks, Madeline. It's a pleasure to be here
0:59
and looking forward to the conversation.
1:03
Me too. But before we begin, Jim, if
1:05
you don't mind just sharing a little bit
1:07
about yourself, your background in health care, and
1:09
more on Ochsner Health with our listeners, that'd
1:11
be great.
1:13
Sure. I guess since,
1:14
the context here is this part of my
1:17
career, which is only,
1:19
about three years in in the making,
1:22
a little bit of background on because I
1:24
have an unusual
1:25
way of arriving to my current position
1:28
is worthwhile. I spent the vast majority of
1:31
my
1:32
career has been in health care, but much
1:35
of it was in consulting and banking.
1:39
The and the vast majority of that was
1:41
on the banking side. So a little bit
1:43
unusual for a CFO, and I will admit
1:46
that,
1:47
I've been drinking from the fire hose for
1:50
three years, but getting pretty pretty comfortable with,
1:53
the new role here. And I'd say,
1:56
from my perspective, it's it's a bit mixed
2:00
in drinking from the fire hose for three
2:01
years straight on information is a little bit
2:04
of a disadvantage, but I think,
2:06
it's been offset by coming in with a
2:08
pretty fresh perspective,
2:11
and not a lot of past really to,
2:14
burden my thinking. So it's been a great
2:16
experience for me,
2:18
and this is always planned to have a
2:20
meaningful portion of my career, and and it
2:23
is turning out to be just that.
2:25
Oh, thank you so much for sharing that
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background.
2:28
And, you know, to your point, coming from
2:31
a a a different background than just historically
2:33
health care CFO,
2:36
could you maybe share some of the things
2:38
that you've that have really stuck with you?
2:39
I mean, the industry is ever changing. We're
2:42
always seeing something new popping up. So how
2:44
are you able to quickly get on board
2:46
with that?
2:47
You know, I think taking a fresh look,
2:49
as I said, has been pretty helpful. And
2:52
a couple of the early things, you know,
2:54
noticing, especially,
2:56
you know, coming into this year and some
2:58
of the trends that are here.
3:00
I've always known that there was a big
3:02
dependence on governmental programs, but you sort of
3:05
don't realize how much those shifts are important
3:08
with the population and everything else. So there's,
3:11
you know, both a higher percentage of the
3:13
population with the aging population going into Medicare,
3:17
and other items that have regulatory risks such
3:19
as the Medicaid program,
3:22
three forty b, etcetera,
3:23
and and different things that are the result
3:25
of legislation.
3:27
You realize how important those things are from
3:29
a different perspective.
3:31
And that's probably been the most intriguing of
3:34
the things
3:34
to me or the most different from
3:37
when you're looking at it from this perspective,
3:39
the importance of it becomes
3:41
much more elevated.
3:42
Yeah. No. For sure.
3:44
And so let's let's dive a little into
3:46
that. Now that we're here in 2026,
3:49
maybe could you share,
3:51
the specific financial trends or shifts that you're
3:53
keeping a a super close eye on right
3:55
now and why these trends are so important
3:57
to you?
3:59
Sure. You know? And I think what I
4:00
talked about with the the realization
4:02
on this dependence on the governmental programs,
4:07
it it points to what's become and
4:11
probably elevated in 2026,
4:13
sort of a fundamental imbalance in the industry
4:16
between payment versus expense. And what I mean
4:19
by that is
4:20
the governmental payers are not keeping up with
4:23
inflation,
4:24
generally in any of the categories. So if
4:27
you look at because of provider
4:29
shortages and different things that we are experiencing
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in the industry,
4:34
our expenses are going up in in a
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bunch of areas along with
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even more so than regular inflation throughout the
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economy.
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So we have to deal with that on
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that side when the increases that we're seeing
4:45
on the revenue side aren't there. And, you
4:48
know, fundamentally, that's okay. It just causes a
4:51
focus for a need on change.
4:53
And we need to get more,
4:55
efficient without any question, and it's really forcing
4:58
us to do that. The the most recent
5:00
difference, I think, though, is that
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the commercial payments haven't been keeping up either
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with that,
5:06
expense inflation that we're having. So that's really
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causing a new importance on change for us
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and really make it an an imperative.
5:17
You know, and the simple things you think
5:19
about, you hear often all over the place,
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you know, bringing the right care in the
5:23
right place,
5:24
getting people,
5:25
out of the hospital when they're ready. And
5:27
as you all know, no one likes to
5:29
be in a hospital. So a lot of
5:31
the things that we have to do, fortunately,
5:34
are good for our patient population as well.
5:36
But I think the
5:38
the level of change that's required is definitely
5:41
accelerating as we head into '26.
5:44
Yeah.
5:45
And could you maybe share you know, a
5:47
lot of CFOs that I've talked to lately,
5:49
have also placed some emphasis on some of
5:51
the rural health
5:53
information fund that we're seeing kind of slowly
5:55
starting to trickle out.
5:57
Have you kept an eye on that at
5:58
all? Any any other policies that you're you're
6:01
watching closely?
6:03
Yeah. We're definitely looking at those things and,
6:05
you know, hopefully, getting involved in the conversations
6:08
that that go on and and weighing in
6:10
like I think a lot of others are.
6:13
But,
6:14
there's nothing out there, as you say,
6:17
that that that can be from the positive
6:19
perspective. There is nothing out there that's gonna
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offset a lot of the other trends that
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have not been that,
6:25
positive on the legislative side. So,
6:29
although we're keeping up to date on all
6:31
those things and looking at them on a
6:34
a a daily and monthly basis, there's nothing
6:37
out there that we're really counting on to
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have an an impact that's gonna offset some
6:41
of the general trends that we have to
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deal with.
6:44
Yeah. No. To your point, lots out there
6:47
going on. And and when you say that,
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nothing that's going to have that that large
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impact, does that mean that you have to
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then turn inward, look at yourself and your
6:56
team? How can we tackle all of this
6:57
together? What's what's your solution?
7:00
Yeah. There's no question about that, and and
7:03
that's, you know, one of the things from
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my perspective
7:07
that's gonna be different about 2026.
7:10
And
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I think one of one thing you'll
7:13
everything goes back to fundamentals, right, at the
7:16
end of the day. And the big thing
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for us are patients and people in health
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care.
7:22
So the two words we've had in our
7:24
organization
7:25
pretty consistently this year are access and experience.
7:30
The access side that relates directly to the
7:33
patients.
7:34
You know, there's too many people that don't
7:36
have and can't have timely access to the
7:38
services they need.
7:41
One thing we're doing is patient journey mapping.
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And we're doing that in a couple select
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areas and really
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following it from a a patient's perspective, every
7:51
aspect of when they enter that area to
7:53
when they get out the end. And although
7:55
we have a couple select areas picked out,
7:58
we're eventually gonna go across the entire patient
8:02
experience from the beginning of when they reach
8:04
out to the organization in any way,
8:06
to the end of their experience when they
8:08
drop the bill, but then,
8:11
even going beyond that to the ongoing relationship
8:13
that they have and making sure we see
8:15
that from that perspective.
8:17
And, you know, that ties into the experience.
8:19
I that really we're talking about our people,
8:23
and what their experience is coming into work
8:26
every day and how critical that is because
8:28
at the end of the day,
8:30
they are the ones that are delivering the
8:31
care.
8:33
Our frontline
8:35
people are the most important thing we have
8:37
in the organization.
8:38
And when you have
8:40
significant cost pressures,
8:42
worry about things like AI that the general
8:45
population has,
8:47
and these access issues, quite frankly,
8:50
with the patients being,
8:52
upset about those. Those are the people that
8:55
are gonna have to deal with that right
8:57
up right up front when they come in.
8:59
So it puts a lot of pressure on
9:01
our people, and we're making sure that we
9:03
are,
9:04
taking care of our people and,
9:07
easing that burden as much as we can,
9:09
especially this year. Yeah.
9:12
No. So important.
9:13
Now, Jim, I wanna shift gears just a
9:15
tiny bit and ask you where you're seeing
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the biggest opportunities for smart growth at Ochsner,
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you know, in the year ahead. I I
9:22
know in 2024,
9:24
you and I actually connected and, you know,
9:26
we talked about how, the system has placed
9:28
such a hefty emphasis on acquisitions in the
9:30
past. Now it's kind of looking to mold,
9:33
that creation. So that's still kind of the
9:35
case. What what does growth look like to
9:37
you now?
9:39
Yeah. And I'll I guess I'll go off
9:40
the word used in front of it because
9:42
there's a lot of different ways you can
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grow.
9:45
But when you say smart growth,
9:48
I think the smartest growth of all is
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really through increasing your efficiency.
9:54
And in in health care, the best ways
9:56
to do that, you know, as a provider
9:58
are things like length of stay reduction. You
10:01
know, I mentioned before, no one likes to
10:02
be in a hospital.
10:04
So that's another win win on both sides
10:06
for that is when people are ready to
10:09
get out and they've received the appropriate care,
10:12
getting them through quicker is gonna get someone
10:14
else in the bed. That helps us on
10:16
the access side. Right? So we have someone
10:18
else that's actually getting care when they wouldn't
10:21
if that bed was filled.
10:23
And it's better for us from an efficiency
10:25
perspective because the resources there, you don't wanna
10:27
have any wasted time. So it's really about
10:29
throughput when I think about smart growth.
10:33
And you have that in the hospital side,
10:34
and you have that same thing on the
10:36
clinic side,
10:37
which is really making sure that,
10:40
you're getting
10:41
that old standard again, right care, the right
10:44
place at the right time.
10:46
And a lot of that is
10:48
somewhat
10:49
a
10:51
exercise of patient triage,
10:53
but it's also making sure that you're scheduling
10:56
properly and making it easy to schedule. And
10:58
when things go wrong with the schedule,
11:00
making sure that you're able to fill those
11:02
things in, when people don't show up, etcetera,
11:06
and utilize all of our time and the
11:08
time of our people
11:09
as effectively as we can,
11:12
in serving the patients. So
11:14
that to me is the definition really of
11:17
of of smart growth,
11:20
and that that again solves access. And
11:23
I I guess the other side, when you
11:25
look at it, you can actually grow by
11:27
leveraging scale, and that's standardizing processes,
11:31
different preference I items and things of that
11:34
sort. You know, you'll hear that among use
11:36
probably the most expensive are with joints where
11:38
there's a lot of different things out there.
11:41
And the more you can get your people
11:43
trained on using,
11:44
you know, one item versus having a choice
11:46
of five when you find the best one
11:48
and getting everyone to use it, things of
11:50
that nature,
11:52
also allow us to save money and then
11:54
reinvest those savings in other areas.
11:57
Definitely. So, I mean, gotta ask. For this
12:01
this year, any anything on the books in
12:03
in terms of acquisition? Anything you're personally eyeing
12:05
as the CFO?
12:08
From an acquisition perspective, we really had, and
12:11
and I wouldn't say it's complete, but we've
12:13
had somewhat of a a time out on
12:16
that front going on because we went through
12:18
period of extreme growth,
12:21
where we'd,
12:22
increased our size, you know, doubled in a
12:24
relatively short period of time.
12:26
And what we needed to do was integrate
12:28
a lot of the things and the parts
12:30
of the organization
12:32
that we'd acquired. And we've been spending a
12:34
ton of time doing that, getting our efficiency
12:37
up, and,
12:39
getting a lot of the processes that we'll
12:40
need when we turn back to that more
12:43
external growth. So most of the growth we've
12:45
had in this interim period has been organic.
12:48
I think I'd expect unless something,
12:52
unusual or phenomenal opportunity comes up, we'll probably
12:55
be in that mode the rest of 2026.
12:58
But after that,
12:59
I think we'll probably
13:01
return to a normal mode of just looking,
13:05
for whatever great opportunities there may be out
13:07
there.
13:09
Yeah. And you can always find great opportunities.
13:11
So, yeah, definitely worth keeping your eyes peeled,
13:13
I'm sure.
13:15
So, Jim, with everything we've discussed today, you
13:18
know, just in terms of growth,
13:20
policy shifts, everything happening in health care, what
13:23
do you think is the most important mindset
13:25
that CFOs need to keep right now just
13:27
to navigate everything?
13:29
You know, two words, and and our our
13:31
CEO has used this a lot, Pete Pete
13:34
November,
13:35
that I really think are important from a
13:37
CFO perspective, especially, is optimism
13:40
is number one.
13:42
You know, entering this year, I think, with
13:44
all the legislation and everything else that's been
13:46
going on in the world, it's easy to
13:48
be negative.
13:49
But I think when we sit there and
13:52
look at it from our perspective, there is
13:54
so much opportunity out there, almost unlimited.
13:58
There are tremendous and not necessarily
14:01
the
14:02
it's more a nature of how things have
14:04
evolved versus,
14:05
the people that are involved in things. But
14:08
there are tremendous inefficiencies
14:10
in the industry.
14:11
We have a lot of opportunity to get
14:13
after those,
14:15
you know, both from our own internal perspective
14:17
and from an advocacy perspective
14:20
when looking external with our government relations people
14:23
and and and everyone else to point out,
14:25
some of these issues. But, optimism and the
14:28
only other word
14:29
I'd say, that's critical, I think, is urgency.
14:33
We do have to have a sense of
14:34
urgency.
14:35
You know, making
14:37
changing things takes time.
14:39
So you have to start well in advance
14:41
of new things, and there's been a lot
14:43
of, things that we have to deal with
14:45
already on the plate and more coming.
14:48
You know, even even AI, despite the fact
14:51
that,
14:52
if you read, it's gonna solve all the
14:53
world's problems in six months.
14:56
You know, a lot of things that you
14:58
take advantage of there require process change. They're
15:01
gonna take time, so you can't wait. You
15:03
have to have a sense of urgency,
15:05
right now in order to get to where
15:07
we need to go.
15:08
Yeah. Yeah. AI, nice to have, but not
15:11
always a quick fix. You know?
15:13
That's for sure. Wonderful. Well, Jim, thank you
15:16
so much for hopping on this podcast with
15:18
me. It's truly been so fun getting to
15:20
chat with you, and, I'm excited to to
15:23
chat again down the line. So appreciate it.
15:25
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.