In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Keri Bennett, director of revenue management at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.
Ms. Bennett will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "Solution Implementations, Lessons Learned, Patient Payment Integration and Patient Centered Processes in the Revenue Cycle," at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.
Question: What is your No. 1 dealbreaker when it comes to evaluating vendor partnerships?
Keri Bennett: A vendor who believes one size fits all. While many of the same principles will work across multiple clients, if you believe every organization is the same and can use the same approach, you're not listening to your clients. Without listening, it's not possible to continue to innovate.
Q: What is the biggest barrier to price transparency in the healthcare industry?
KB: I think people expect healthcare to be more straightforward than it is. In the era of consumerism, patients want a menu with clear pricing available for what each item will cost, but we as an industry haven't really clearly defined pricing for our patients. Most consumers truly don't understand how complex pricing is, even for those of us who live and breathe it.
I think that we're more like the auto industry. We can clearly define the basics: An MRI, like a basic oil change could have standard pricing, but as we move into more diagnose- and repair-type services, it's just hard to say until we get under the hood. And to complicate things further, we are limited in what we can share with the public due to our managed care agreements. This combination of complicated pricing structures and lack of information at a glance makes most pre-service pricing too complicated to do with any sort of accuracy, and when we are inaccurate, patients lose faith in the process and feel we've misled them.
Q: What's the best thing you've read lately?
KB: I recently read a Harvard Business Review article titled "How Successful CEOs Manage Their Middle Act." I'm certainly not a CEO, but I really enjoyed the idea of being thoughtful about your leadership style and what you're trying to accomplish during the middle of your tenure as a leader. I'm about two years into my role, and it made me stop and re-strategize my approach. Specifically, I have begun seeking out people who don't just tell me what I want to hear. I'm trying to hear other ideas on how to best run my shop and learn from those who are unafraid to tell me what they really think.