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.
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 |
| Department reporting structure (links to Finance, managed care, other) | 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, what would it be? | Misaligned incentive between providers and patients that ultimately lead to unnecessary administrative tasks and often create a negative patient financial experience. |