A person behind the performance: Katie LeBlanc
Katie LeBlanc is vice president, revenue cycle, at Banner Health, a health system based in Phoenix, Arizona. Kodiak Solutions recognized Banner Health with its 2023 Revenue Cycle Performance Award, presented at Kodiak’s 2024 Healthcare Virtual Symposium.
Katie LeBlanc is vice president, revenue cycle, at Banner Health, a health system based in Phoenix, Arizona. Kodiak Solutions recognized Banner Health with its 2023 Revenue Cycle Performance Award, presented at Kodiak’s 2024 Healthcare Virtual Symposium.
Please meet one of the many people behind the performance.
Age
49
Tenure with organization
Started in May 2024
Reports to
CFO
Number of direct reports
Five
Number of care sites reporting revenue
32 acute-care facilities and more than 400 service locations
Annual revenue cycle budget
$264 million
Number of revenue cycle FTEs
2,974
Work modality
Hybrid
Patient accounting system
MS4 for acute; NextGen for ambulatory
Number of revenue cycle vendors
More than 30
Fully outsources revenue cycle or in-house revenue cycle team
In-house
Cross-department relationships
Office of the CFO
Biggest external revenue cycle challenge
Payer behavior. In 2023, we encountered increases in clinical denials, errors in payment processing, and changes in reimbursement policies. These challenges create more administrative work and costs for our organization. It also places more of our revenue at risk. Denials, payor payment delay tactics.
Solution to external challenge
Coordination with managed-care team and payer contacts. It's important to establish collaborative working relationships with both your managed-care team and payers. We take this seriously and continue to look for new ways to collaborate with our payors. This enables our organization to develop solutions to address problems.
Biggest internal revenue cycle challenge
Cost control. Healthcare organizations must effectively manage costs to continue to drive margin.
Solution to internal challenge
Continue to invest in our talent, select the right vendor partners and leverage technology to elevate productivity.
Describe your organization’s relationship with payors in one word
Improving
Favorite revenue cycle KPI
Cash relief of AR (accounts receivable). This is a good indicator for determining if you are resolving more of your AR in cash as opposed to adjustments. It can be a signal that your revenue is becoming more or less valuable.
Least favorite revenue cycle KPI
Initial denial rates. Initial denial rates are a good indicator of additional work your revenue cycle team is responsible for. However, it is not a good indicator of how much of your revenue is at risk. Often times initial denials can be misleading. We've received initial denials and payment in full at the same time!
How automated is your revenue cycle?
Modestly. We've leveraged robotics to handle repetitive manual tasks. However, with the technology available today, there is more opportunity for us to leverage automation to complete more complex tasks.
How clinically integrated is your revenue cycle?
Average for the industry.
If you could change one thing about the Healthcare revenue cycle, it would be...
Misaligned incentive between providers and patients that ultimately lead to unnecessary administrative tasks and often create a negative patient financial experience.