Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to
have you. An exciting conversation today about reimagining
revenue cycle leadership, and I'm so
excited
to be joined by doctor John Policondriota,
CEO of South Florida Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.
John, thanks so much for being here today,
taking some time for us. No. This is
wonderful. I've been looking forward to this. I
love what you guys do, and thanks for
thanks for having me on. Yeah. It's great
to have you. If you wanna just start
off with a little bit of an introduction
to yourself and and your work in health
care. Yeah. Absolutely.
I've spent my career at the crossroads of
science, health care, leadership, and patient care, and
I've tried to make a career out of
trying to just connect the dots on how
we run health care and how can how
we can reimagine it.
As you stated, I am currently the CEO
of South Florida Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. We
are a comprehensive
musculoskeletal
group that's become one of the largest leading
groups, in in our region.
And we have a full continuum model. So
we have sports medicine, joints, spine, hand, foot,
pain management,
rheumatology,
physical therapy. So anything you could think of
from an MSK perspective, it's all under one
coordinated system of care. And individually, for me,
my path has been a little bit unconventional.
I actually started in biochemistry.
I earned a PhD in biochemistry,
went back to school, completed master's in finance,
public health, accountancy, and data science. And I
I think that all that education and my
training,
and over the past decade, it just allowed
me to look at health care through different
lenses. And, you know, it's not just a
single industry. It's an ecosystem that needs, you
know, great minds and great people working on
it to make it better. And what really
drives me is that ability to try to
change things, transformation.
It's, you know, helping people think differently, helping
people think about growth or access or culture,
to not only deal with how health care
is today, but shape the future of it.
And you've mentioned connecting the dots there in
your intro, and I'm so excited that you
did that because I think we'll we'll be
connecting a lot of dots today in our
conversation.
In a recent webinar with Beckerson NextGen, you
described revenue cycle management as both a
a sword and a shield. Right? That's what
you called it. Protecting organizations from denials and
audits while also funding growth and innovation if
we translate it to practice. Right? Can can
you expand on this framing just a little
bit and just sort of share how it
shapes your leadership priorities
today at your organization?
No. Absolutely. And I just think it's easy
to fall into a trap that when you
start thinking about rev cycle,
you think of it as just this back
office function that it's just this defensive thing.
And and there's some truth there,
because true. It does plug leaks leaks. It
does avoid denials. But that's not the whole
story. I mean, I I my philosophy and
how I think it should be is that,
you know, a healthy rev cycle
doesn't just protect your organization. It actually empowers
it. Right? So if you think about
needing an engine that funds innovation. Right? You
want to
buy the latest technology. You want to invest
in data infrastructure. You wanna incorporate AI. You
wanna add positions or specialties or locations. I
mean, all of that depends on disciplined cash
flow.
So when I was describing it as both
a shield and a sword,
I actually meant it literally. The shield is
there to protect you from financial erosion. Right?
It you know, Rev Cycle can help with
denial, with audits, with compliance issues.
But the sword gives you the ability and
agility to invest, to grow and to compete
because you need that cash flow. And where
does cash flow come from? It comes from
Rev Cycle. So at SFO, at South Florida
Orthopedics,
I don't treat rev cycle or our rev
rev cycle department as just a billing department.
I actually
treat it as a business intelligent hub. You
know, I I try to really connect operations
and clinical workflow with rev cycle. My rev
cycle leaders are at the same table with
operations,
same meetings where they're at the table with
IT, with clinical staff
because I truly believe that rev cycle isn't
just the end product. Right? You don't just
do a service and then rev cycle collects
the money. I actually think rev cycle
can be the feedback loops that tells an
organization
how well is the system performing end to
end.
And you talked a little bit about this
process just now and the importance of some
of these aspects to try and and change
the perspective on this a little bit. Right?
Yeah. I'd love to go dive into that
a little bit deeper. What are some of
those steps that you think are critical for
leaders to really
do and and take this reposition
seriously to be able to say, okay. This
is not just the back office function. This
is actually a a strategic
lever that we can pull to be able
to grow as organizations. What are some of
those steps that you think are important for
for leaders to understand, hey. This needs to
happen first?
Yeah. I I think there are a couple
key moves that leaders can make and but
the foundation is it has to be intentional.
Right? It doesn't it just won't happen if
you don't put effort and intention into it.
So there's there's three things that I really
try to think about
to show intent. So the first is I
elevate rev cycle.
So I like I said, I I bring
my rev cycle leaders into all the meetings.
We talk about strategy together.
I don't have rev cycle just reacting to
volumes or just reacting to denials.
They're actually in the table with my providers,
with my operations, with my strategy people, helping
us think about how to grow the organization.
Okay. So besides elevating it, then the second
part is education. And what I meant by
education is just company wide education.
Again, clinicians, front office, operators.
When people realize
how
rev cycle or documentation or coding
workflow decisions affect revenue integrity or affect how
cash comes into the organization,
all of a sudden people understand that we're
all partners
chasing a common goal, right? Common vision. That
we're all partners in financial health. That no
one here is a passive participant. That we're
all on the same team. And then the
last thing I like to do throughout the
organization is just make data visible.
Transparency of data dashboards.
I truly believe, you know, as a scientist
at heart that data drives behavior. Right? So
if you could show real time dashboards, real
time data and be open about what it
is, what it means, what we're good at,
what we're not good at,
all of a sudden teams start understanding
the story behind the numbers. All of a
sudden engagement increases, accountability
increases.
So if I had to kinda just summarize
it, you know,
what I what I try to do for
the organization is I'm not chasing dollars,
but I'm trying to manage performance proactively.
Because I believe if I if I manage
performance appropriately and elevate rev cycle and and
provide the education of transparency, the dollars will
ultimately come. Right? The dollars will be the
end product. I don't need to chase dollars
on the front end. If I manage performance
proactively,
the dollars will come. And that's truly when
I think Rev Cycle transforms from a cost
center into a growth engine.
And I wanna come back to that data
piece because again, not only is it, at
hard for you
and in your background Yeah. But I think
it's so crucial. And is data the true
enabler and sharing that data, making it visible,
sort of the true enabler to to align
folks,
to align people and culture with those efficiency
goals and really making that connection?
I mean, I I believe so. I think
data is the tool
that changes a conversation
from
thinking about what is right versus who is
right. Right? So without data, without you know,
people have ego. Right? People have
their their perspective, their own individual
lens of what they believe is true, which
they they deserve that right to have that.
But what I think data does, it's the
normalizer. Right? It just changes the conversation to
what is, not what you think is. So
I love data because it takes ego away,
it takes bias away, it takes personal agenda
away.
And it we can have we start having
true conversations about
what do we need to do to to
drive the organization forward, and here's the data
that backs it. So without being transparent with
data, with non with not educate
educating people on what the data means, I
think you miss a huge component of engagement.
I think you you miss a huge component
of trust. And I think that's when organizations
kinda stumble or people feel siloed.
Yeah. And I love that you mentioned that
because I think it is a true builder,
and it can be a true builder of
culture in an organization
to be able to have those levers and
see, okay. This is actually working, and this
is driving success for the organization, which is
so key. I I wanna touch a little
bit on on patient access here as well.
It's
certainly more than ever part
of growth strategy. People recognize it as part
of growth strategy. And you've also talked about
it in that same next gen session, with
Becker's.
You've talked about without timely, you know, trusted
access investments in facilities or technology can can
really fall flat. Right? It it's really key.
How have you approached access models within your
practice, and and what advice do you have
for leaders there too that are trying to
expand
or or scale,
on on-site with with locations while avoiding inefficiency?
Yeah. No. You're absolutely right. I I think
access is no longer just an operational
keyword. Right? I think access is is growth
strategy.
And if you think about this, you can
have the best positions,
the most advanced technology, the most beautifully designed
facilities. Right? But if patients aren't getting in,
if patients aren't being seen when they want,
it doesn't matter. Right? None none of that
beautiful bells and whistles matters.
So what I try to incorporate, again, going
back to the data perspective is, you know,
I I spend a lot of time
educating and utilizing
analytics and technology to forecast
kind of
the the supply and demand of how we
run our business.
And once I start getting the data and
educate people on the data, it opens up
how we
address availability
and how do we match the right patient
with the right specialist at the right location
at the right time. All of a sudden
things become our decision making process becomes quicker
and faster. You know? And then again, it's
about designing access around the patient need, not
around the provider convenience. Right? And I love
my docs. I love what we do. But
access to me is about what the patients
want. So in that perspective,
how do we make it easy for patients
to get in? How do we make it
convenient for referring providers to send us patients?
Right? So goal in my perspective, and I
think many would agree that we're getting to
the point it's it's twenty four seven access.
Right? People don't just get hurt Monday through
Friday, nine to five. People don't wanna talk
to us just not during the day. People
have jobs. People have families. Right? We need
to somehow be able to provide twenty four
seven access
to patients.
Now how do we do that? Well, think
about all the digit digital technology that's out
there. We can now book online. We can
now send text reminders.
We can now allow portals where patients can
complete paperwork online. They can communicate with us,
at any time during the day or night,
through chat box or whatever you have. They
can pay bills online. The goal is how
do you support patients before they even walk
through the door?
And then one piece of advice I would
say for leaders is when people talk about
growth, when people talk about access,
it's usually they they talk about addition. They
they need to add square footage. They need
to add providers.
My advice to those leaders are, for me,
the first step of it of growth, the
first step of,
adding access is actually subtraction.
Think about ways in your org in your
organization where
the patient hesitates,
where the patient is waiting, where there's a
cancellation,
where patients get bounced around. I think if
you can solve those friction points, if you
can take away those errors, all of a
sudden you'll you'll have this unknown capacity you
never thought you knew. Access will improve. Growth
will grow. And you hadn't and you haven't
even added any square footage. So I so
that first step, I think, is addition through
subtraction.
John, it's so fantastic to have you. I
think we connected the dots very well
here to a lot of different topics and
a lot of different conversation markers here. I
wanna open the floor to you. Anything else
we didn't cover? Any final thoughts that you
would like to share?
No. I wanna I wanna thank you for
your time. And, again, I'll I'll just end
with this. You know, health care
changes all the time and and we know
that going into it. And I think leaders
sometimes get stressed and tired and burnout, which
is which is all real. But I think
the one thing about
transformative periods is that it can also be
incredibly exciting.
You know, what what I love more about
transformation is I'm realizing it's, you know, it
doesn't necessarily happen in the boardroom or on
spreadsheets.
It's taking the time to have conversations like
this or had taken the time to, you
know, talk to patients in the hallway, spend
time in the clinics, talk to people that
actually care about doing things better. And all
of a sudden, things get more accessible.
Health care becomes more human. It becomes more
impactful. And again, I think this is a
great time to be in health care. So
I and I wanna thank you for your
time as well.
Visibility and communication across the board. I like
it. Yeah. That's it, man. John, again, thanks
so much for being here and your insights
today. It's great to have you. Oh, thanks
for having me. Absolutely. And we also want
to thank our podcast sponsor, NextGen Healthcare. You
can tune in to more podcasts from Becker's
Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.