Don Dadds, vice president of revenue cycle services for Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare, has more than 10 years of physician office and hospital revenue cycle management experience.
At OSF HealthCare, Mr. Dadds also spent more than five years doing merger and acquisition work for the 11-hospital system. He is a former licensed nursing home administrator for the health system.
Mr. Dadds 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 for a healthcare system?
Don Dadds: The opportunity to contribute to a positive patient experience and contribute to the financial support of our organization to build for the future.
Question: What is the biggest challenge you're facing as a revenue cycle leader?
DD: The state of Illinois provides many unique issues including the lack of a state budget for multiple years. Our Medicaid population has grown over the past several years and this area is a big challenge for us currently. Also, the ever-changing landscape to meet, payer needs and federal regulations requires us to be more creative, flexible and agile to meet our system's financial needs.
Question: What is one of your goals this year?
DD: To develop tools that will better allow us to monitor the patient experience and how what we modify in revenue cycle impacts the patient encounter. Also to further develop a fully-integrated revenue cycle within our organization.
Question: What is one thing you'd do to improve the revenue cycle process?
DD: To make the process of patients understanding their coverage easier and more straightforward for them. In the ever-changing world of payer and employer plan coverage, as well as traditional Medicaid and managed Medicaid, the complexities are challenging enough for those who work in revenue cycle but even more so for our patients. It impacts how they register, how to explain coverage clearly, what services are covered, what is in-network, what the appropriate copay or deductible amounts are. Unfortunately, patients can get caught in the middle as a result of the many options and complexities available and can end up with an unexpected out-of-pocket charge if they don't know what to expect. To be able to have our patients with a clear understanding of coverage before they need care would positively impact the patient experience as well as our overall revenue cycle.