Mark Norby's tenure at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic spans more than two decades.
Mr. Norby currently serves as Mayo's revenue cycle chair overseeing a team of more than 2,000 employees. He previously served in accounting and administration.
Mr. Norby recently answered questions from Becker's Hospital Review about his greatest challenges as a revenue cycle leader and how he would improve the revenue cycle process.
Note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
Question: What's your favorite part about being a revenue cycle leader of a healthcare system?
Mark Norby: For me, being the leader of revenue cycle for Mayo Clinic is truly an honor. The work of our team is very broad and connects with so many aspects of Mayo's medical, surgical and hospital practices. As an organization, Mayo's primary value is to put the needs of the patient first. That is true in direct patient care as well as in revenue cycle practices. Our group of employees strives to help patients with any questions or concerns regarding billing.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you're facing as revenue cycle leader?
MN: Revenue cycle leaders and their teams face many challenges, such as reimbursement and regulatory changes or technology gaps in patient accounting systems. A significant operational challenge is the increasing demand for pre-certification and prior authorization required by private or government payers. The process is manual and time consuming but necessary. The process needs to be reviewed collaboratively between payers and providers.
Q: What is one of your goals this year?
MN: One of my main goals is to improve service for our patients. One project we implemented is a simplified billing solution, which allows patients easy ways to pay their bill and/or set up payment plans. We've seen improvement in patient satisfaction after only the first month of production.
Q: What is one thing you'd do to improve the revenue cycle process?
MN: Creating a data driven process would help meet the operational challenge of increasing pre-certification and prior authorization requirements by private or government payers.
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