The University of Texas Medical Branch's recent MAP Award win is a testament to the great work its revenue cycle has done to keep pace with the growth of the health system, CFO Jamie Bailey told Becker's.
The Galveston-based system was one of 17 providers to receive the Healthcare Financial Management Association's 2024 MAP Award for high performance in revenue cycle. It was one of four integrated health systems to receive the award.
The MAP Award recognizes providers that have excelled in meeting industry standard revenue cycle benchmarks, implemented best practices embodied in HFMA's Healthcare Dollars & Sense initiatives, focused their efforts on improving price transparency, and achieved outstanding patient satisfaction. Recipients are also industry leaders and share proven strategies with their colleagues.
"I think one of the major keys to having a high-performing revenue cycle is the relationship between revenue cycle and operations," Mr. Bailey said. "A lot of things get termed with 'these are revenue cycle functions' or this is a 'revenue cycle issue.' However, many of the things that the revenue cycle function itself is actually working through are operational issues that matriculate down into revenue cycle."
Without a great relationship with the clinical operators and physician leadership, there's only so much a revenue cycle team can do, he said.
"Whether or not that's looking at prior authorization, patient scheduling, those are operational things that need to be streamlined in order for the back-end revenue cycle function to work appropriately," he said. "That's where I feel like we've done a fantastic job. Our VP of revenue cycle, Emily Goertz, has a great relationship with our mission and the clinical operators and that has helped tremendously."
The importance of building relationships is something Mr. Bailey learned from his previous role as CFO of Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine. He joined UTMB in April as executive vice president and CFO.
Mr. Bailey said he views those performing finance functions as customer service providers. Working with customers — whether internal or external — revolves around their relationship with their missions: patient care, research, education, etc.
"We are only going to be as good as our relationship with the missions," he said. "I tasked our team with being customer service providers. I learned a lot of that at Baylor College of Medicine. That was my first academic medical center experience. The physicians, the faculty, the researchers, they drive everything. They're really the operations."
Having those relationships is important to explaining financial dynamics and how to make the best financial business decisions, he said.
"That's been the biggest thing for me: building relationships and making sure people understand where we're coming from and what we're aiming to accomplish."