Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Access and Innovation at BJC Health with CFO Scott Hawig

Transcript

Expanding Access and Innovation at BJC Health with CFO Scott Hawig · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
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  leaders together to unpack the most pressing issues
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  facing the industry.
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  And every year, those conversations shift in profound
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  health care executives will return to Chicago
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  for Becker's sixteenth annual meeting.
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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 today by Scott Hoeg, executive vice president
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  and CFO of BJC Health in Saint Louis.
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  How are you doing, Scott? Thanks so much
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  for joining me. Thank you for having me.
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  Great to be here.
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  Wonderful. So before we kick things off, Scott,
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  do you mind sharing just a little bit
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  about yourself
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  and BJC Health with our listeners?
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  Sure.
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  Scott Howig joining you. Glad to be here
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  again.
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  I'm the CFO of BJC Health beginning in
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  September
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  2025.
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  So I'm still relatively new here
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  at BJC. It's a 14
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  hospital,
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  $12,000,000,000
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  system based in St. Louis, Missouri.
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  Serves patients throughout Kansas, Missouri, and Southern Illinois.
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  National reputation for quality of care. So really
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  excited to be part of this team and
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  and part of the mission that they serve.
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  Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing.
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  So,
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  you know, let's let's dive in here. So,
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  you know, as you and I just discussed
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  right before we kicked off the podcast, BJC
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  Health,
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  did rebrand,
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  later last year, was originally BJC Health Care,
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  now BJC
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  Health.
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  And as you mentioned,
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  $11,000,000,000
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  organization.
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  So
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  all of this in mind, could you let
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  me know kinda how that rebranding went? I
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  know that the system merged, with St. Luke's
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  in 2024 as well. So how how are
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  things going just overall?
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  Going really well. And and specific to the
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  the branding and the name changes, I mentioned
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  the region, the relatively large region we serve
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  between Kansas, Missouri and Southern Illinois.
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  Some of our capabilities
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  draw from markets even beyond that. It was
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  important for us to
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  have, I'll say, kind of a singular message
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  on who are they were coming to see.
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  It full flows through to the culture of
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  our people, to the quality would we deliver
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  regardless of site, to the way we believe
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  we treat patients and our staff and put
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  people first.
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  And so it was really, you can say,
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  the rallying cry on identifying who we are
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  regardless of what location you come to see
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  us in.
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  Wonderful.
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  And I wanna self correct myself. I think
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  I said 11,000,000,000. You said 12,000,000,000. Correct? Yeah.
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  I see. I'm I'm trying to get you
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  to round up. Yeah. 12,000,000,000. Understood. Well, so,
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  Scott, could you share with me, you know,
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  as across your time in the industry, we've
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  seen a lot of changes in health care
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  recently as well. Being newer to the system,
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  as you mentioned at the beginning,
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  could you share with myself and some listeners
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  maybe the broader challenges that you're currently focused
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  on in health care right now, maybe some
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  things you're following closely in the industry and
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  why these trends are so important to you?
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  Yeah. I'd say top of mind that the
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  headliner for me is access.
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  We have overwhelming
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  demand for our services,
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  the acuity level,
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  the severity of the issues we're seeing in
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  our community is is rising.
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  And so,
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  to me,
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  we can talk today about regulatory
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  changes coming in the regulatory environment.
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  There's certainly a labor supply, just a number
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  of people we need,
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  physician, nurse, allied health professional in order to
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  deliver the care,
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  and the financial pressure generally that providers are
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  under. And that includes affordability
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  Mhmm. Of what our payers and patients are
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  under. But that's all under the prism of
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  rising demand. So that's why I I I
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  lead with access.
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  How can we ensure that we see everyone
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  timely? I think it drives our quality program.
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  It drives I mentioned earlier, you know, kind
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  of our view around patient satisfaction
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  and consumerism.
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  To to me, that's the one I follow
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  the most closely and I'll say tie all
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  those other tentacles back to.
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  Yeah. What are some ways that you, you
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  know, at BJC Health are making sure to,
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  bring that access to patients?
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  Yeah. One of the draws to me to
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  BJC was the wide reach it had
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  and all the different types of geographies and
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  settings and size communities that they serve.
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  I bring that up because
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  access
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  looks a little different in each of those
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  settings from a rural community
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  towards more of an urban community, how you
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  deploy primary care, what you can do virtually.
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  It all looks and feels a little bit
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  different. And I put BJC as a leader
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  in that camp
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  in terms of, you know, making sure our
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  doors are open to that access
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  and being a leader in innovation and looking
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  for new business processes and technology in order
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  to do that. And so it's new primary
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  care models.
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  It's virtual,
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  things like EICU, which the industry as a
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  whole has come around to seeing the benefits
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  of.
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  BJC and its partner Wash, you were one
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  of the early adopters of that in terms
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  of how you can bring some of that
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  critical care monitoring into our communities. So it's
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  it's innovation like that that I think put
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  BJC as a leader
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  on on opening doors to access.
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  We're seeing a lot of,
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  expansion to that systems with, freestanding
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  EDs, freestanding ERs, however you'd like to say
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  it. Is that something that has been of
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  interest at BJC Health?
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  Yeah. It is. In particular, our our what
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  I'll call is our West Region, or or
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  St. Luke's in the Kansas City market
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  was Yeah. To your point, was an early
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  adopter of that micro hospital
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  strategy.
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  Have found those to the the throughput, the
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  ability to see somebody within ten to fifteen
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  minutes. The patient satisfaction for that experience
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  is really, you know, has shown us a
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  lot and given us a lot of feedback
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  in terms of how we run ED and
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  urgent cares and that emergent type surge service
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  everywhere.
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  What we are able to deploy
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  to those sites
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  as a virtual basis, so consultations,
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  right, to determine what type
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  of situation that patient is having
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  is, you could say in many ways as
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  a pilot on what we think we can
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  do
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  in other locations.
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  And so, yeah, that's another good example of
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  of,
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  kind of BJC's innovation in that space.
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  Yeah. And sticking to your point about care
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  access, one more question for you. Also hearing
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  a lot of CFOs talking about, you know,
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  making sure they're providing proper care to aging
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  populations. Is this something you're also seeing?
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  It is.
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  I'm broadly say,
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  I'm in the Midwest and I came from
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  a Midwest place and
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  I'm gonna say I'm still in the Midwest
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  and,
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  aging population is something that holds throughout the
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  Midwest. And so that is the
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  a rising amount of our volume. It is
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  a rising amount of our demographic, the aging
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  of populations we serve.
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  And so,
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  it is kind of central to how we
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  think about deploying service and that consumerism,
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  if you will, for that customer.
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  Yeah. For sure.
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  You know, maybe, I mean, some of these
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  ongoing industry challenges that we're seeing,
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  what are some ways that you're working with
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  your finance team to to keep them resilient
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  and engaged? Essentially, maybe that secret sauce that
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  you might have.
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  Yeah. I I think key and I'll tie
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  that a little bit to, you know, post
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  COVID or in the middle of COVID there
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  for that part of the workforce,
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  there was a movement to hybrid or work
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  from home,
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  or work remote.
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  And so I bring that up now because
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  I think part of resiliency and part of
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  keeping them engaged
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  is a way to remind them of the
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  mission.
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  And in particular for finance staff,
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  and my
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  teams, how we can go to our our
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  sites, our hospitals, our clinics.
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  And so it could be something as little
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  as if if one of them is asking
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  for capital.
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  Do we for a specific project, do we
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  go to that site and look at the
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  current OR or the med surg floor
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  round with our care team
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  and and just hear directly from them? How
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  have they made it work? What would they
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  like to take it to?
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  Small things like that that
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  are a way of communicating
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  the mission to,
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  you know, to some of our staff who
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  are a little bit further away from direct
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  patient care, I think is critical.
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  Wrap around that, just the transparency
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  and and, you know, finding new ways to
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  communicate
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  about all the challenges we've mentioned in the
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  industry.
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  That's why Mhmm. Why you work at a
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  place like BJC because if we can't solve
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  it, who can? And so supplying in that
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  message too, I think is important.
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  And I know you mentioned at the beginning
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  of the podcast, you're a little newer to
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  your role at BJC, but how have you
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  seen the CFO role evolve these last few
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  months,
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  amid all these changes? Maybe just beyond that
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  financial numbers crunching aspect.
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  Yeah. I'd say, you know, I've been fortunate
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  in my career at at the prior place,
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  and then it holds true here at at
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  BJC as well
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  to be a hobby operator,
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  you know, a chief operating officer in training
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  as part of the CFO role. And and
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  part of it is that rounding I mentioned
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  in terms of trying to understand and and
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  spend time with,
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  each of our sites of care.
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  But a lot of it is how finance
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  decisions we can make and use finance broadly.
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  That could mean managed care and
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  and reimbursement and working with payers. That could
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  mean supply chain and how we deliver product
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  and distribution,
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  in addition to just pure finance and treasury.
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  It it's really that operator,
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  you know, kind of operator and training, understanding
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  the business.
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  In times, we provide education. So we provide
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  the finance. Why do we account for things
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  a certain way? Why do we do revenue
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  cycle a certain way? And then a lot
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  of times, we're hearing
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  feedback from the operators and helping translate the
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  business side of that. And so I that
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  that to me is probably the biggest evolution
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  in the in the CFO over the last
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  call it five to ten years.
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  Yeah. CFO definitely wears many hats. That's for
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  sure.
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  Final question for you here, Scott.
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  Just looking forward, what are some things that
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  you're most excited about right now at BJC
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  Health? Maybe any partnerships, planned acquisitions?
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  What gets you most excited at the system
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  right now?
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  For BJC Health, another draw to me was
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  the,
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  the academic and research,
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  that we do quite frankly in both regions
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  clearly through our partner with WashU,
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  at St. Luke's in Kansas City as well.
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  We do significant amount of of research.
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  I call that out as, you know, one
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  of the things where I have the most
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  optimism about because I get to spend a
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  little bit of every day hearing the new
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  innovation
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  our teams are looking at,
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  our physicians and our patient care folks are
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  looking at. Whether you say it's things that
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  have come out of genomics and what we've
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  learned as part of that process would whether
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  you say it's things we've learned about
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  how to treat cancer as an example
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  without maybe all the evasive procedures of the
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  past.
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  Super exciting,
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  of of how we've, I'll say, learned about
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  the human body over the last five to
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  ten years.
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  And it, you know, it it provides
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  a way to think about all those challenges
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  I started with,
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  how they could be solvable.
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  And in many cases, we're talking about cure,
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  not just treating symptoms. And so,
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  I think we should all be excited about
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  that.
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  Yeah. Well, it sounds like the future of
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  health care tech and the future at BJC
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  Health is is very bright. So, Scott, I
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  really appreciate you, hopping on this podcast with
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  me. And, again, know it's been a few
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  months, but congrats on the the new role,
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  and I'm excited to chat with you again
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  sometime
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  soon. Yeah. Thank you. I look forward to
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  it, and thanks again for having me.