Ahead of the Patient Financial Services online event, taking place November 14th, we had the opportunity to sit down with Clint Anderson, Senior Director of Revenue Cycle at the Rural Healthcare Group, to learn more about his career journey, current priorities for the team, and what he’s looking forward to discussing at the upcoming meeting.
Tell us about your career journey and how you came to work in the healthcare industry.
I knew that I wanted to work in healthcare while in college, so my job search was focused exclusively in the industry. I was able to get a role with Vanderbilt University Medical Center after graduation with an internal consulting team they had at the time. After that, I moved into revenue cycle. I enjoyed the junction of finance, analytics, operations, and healthcare all rolled into one, and I’ve stayed in the revenue cycle ever since, albeit in different roles and different organizations.
In your current role as the Senior Director of Revenue Cycle at the Rural Healthcare Group, what are some of your main priorities, and as we look ahead to 2024, what would you say are some of the challenges that you are either currently, or will be facing?
Currently, my main priority is building our revenue cycle platform. We are a very young company, and we are scaling up rapidly through acquisition. Therefore, I am responsible for building a revenue cycle platform that addresses our current volume, but is also ready to accept new volume in a short time-span. For 2024, we will continue to address the “scaling” issue, focus on processes that can be automated, and consider when to hire additional full-time employees.
We’re really looking forward to having you participate in our Patient Financial Services meeting on November 14th, where you are joining the panel on reducing billing errors that are resulting in denied or delayed reimbursement. What is one area related to the topic that you’re specifically looking forward to discussing with the panelists and audience members?
I am very much looking forward to hearing how other organizations are addressing the growth in denials that we have seen throughout the industry over the past several years. Are they brute forcing their solutions by adding more people to push back on insurance companies? Are they hyper-focusing on process improvements? Are they restrained in taking steps forward due to costs or labor constraints? Are they looking for cutting edge (AI/ML/Automation) technologies to assist them in addressing their denials? We’ve seen a few insurance companies come out and say they are going to reduce the number of codes that require prior authorization, but that at times appears to be just a gesture to keep the “heat” from DC off the insurance industry, rather than a substantial step in the right direction. What are others doing that is creative and different than what has been done in the past?
Clint, thank you so much for sharing your background with us – we too are looking forward to hearing from the panelists and audience on creative solutions they have implemented to reduce denied or delayed reimbursement – a critical issue for the industry!