Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: Adrienne Moore, Senior Vice President of Finance at Banner Health

Release Date: December 2, 2025
Host: Alan Condon
Guest: Adrienne Moore, SVP of Finance, Banner Health

Episode Overview

In this episode, Alan Condon interviews Adrienne Moore, Senior Vice President of Finance at Banner Health, a nonprofit integrated health system based in Phoenix, Arizona. Their discussion centers on the current financial trends shaping the healthcare industry, with a focus on regulatory changes, Medicaid funding, challenges and opportunities in rural health, Banner’s strategic investments in workforce and innovation (especially AI), and the health system’s long-term growth outlook.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Adrienne Moore’s Role and Banner Health at a Glance

• Adrienne oversees operational finance for hospitals/ambulatory divisions and corporate functions like forecasting, budgeting, and cost accounting.
• Banner Health operates in six states, running over 33 acute care hospitals and more than 500 locations.
• As an integrated delivery network, Banner provides both "care and coverage" (00:33-01:14).

2. Top Financial Trends of 2025-2026

Regulatory Environment and Medicaid Cuts

• Banner is tracking over 100 regulatory items affecting providers, patients, and members, with Medicaid funding being the most pressing (01:42).
• There's acute anxiety about cuts to Medicaid and ACA (Affordable Care Act) subsidies, which “will impact care and coverage on a national scale” (01:49).
• “The most vulnerable populations are going to take the most significant cuts… The numbers… the CBO has done a report in May projecting 13.7 million people would lose coverage… more recent numbers bring that down to just about 10 million. But still, those are just staggering numbers.” (02:17-03:12)
• Concerns include:
  • Increase in the uninsured
  • Deferred care and crowded EDs
  • Declines in chronic care management
  • Health impacts beyond vulnerable populations

Proactive System Preparation

• Banner, like other systems, is waiting for legislative clarity but investing strategically to offset downstream effects of coverage losses (04:25).

3. The $50 Billion Rural Health Fund: Challenges & Potential

• The federal fund is viewed as a potential mitigator for rural health challenges especially across Banner’s six states (04:25-05:00).
• Workforce emerges as the top challenge, particularly for rural providers. Adrienne stresses that nonprofit providers like Banner reinvest revenues into the community (05:25).
• Smart use of the fund could include:
  • Tech investments as “workforce extenders” (telehealth, AI, equipment)
  • Alignment between urban and rural centers for seamless care delivery
  • Non-clinical investments, e.g., housing and education to attract/retain staff (06:07-07:18)
• Notable quote:

  “We don’t have enough care providers in this country to serve the population today. So there’s always a need for us to create more workforce through education, opening up additional GME slots and nursing programs. And really I don’t think there’s a role in healthcare that doesn’t need additional investments in education.” (06:55)

Urban-Rural Partnerships

• Urban centers as specialty "hubs," supporting rural facilities via telemedicine and transfer protocols (07:48).

  “Specialty recruitment is easier in urban centers… urban centers can act as a hub and spoke center to provide specialty access through telemedicine and also transfer services…” (07:49-08:22)

4. Banner Health’s Excitement for the Future

Workforce Development

• Banner trains 80% of Arizona’s nurses and over 1,600 physicians annually.
• Committed to sustained workforce investment, surpassing traditional funding (08:58).

  “Right now we train 80% of the nurses in Arizona and more than 1600 physicians every year. We have invested above and beyond what our traditional funding sources cover and we are committed to ensuring a workforce for our communities.” (08:59-09:20)

Innovation and the Role of AI

• Banner is experiencing a “confluence of events” of “headwinds and innovation… an opportunity to transform healthcare.”
• Banner is actively investing in AI as a workforce multiplier with a bifurcated strategy:
  • Leveraging established partners for ambient clinical listening (reducing documentation burden).
  • Building proprietary generative AI platforms for business processes.
• AI considered both a workforce supplement and a growth catalyst (10:14-11:09).

  “Our strategy is bifurcated… leveraging established partners for things like ambient listening that can reduce clinical burden… also selectively developing AI with the right partners where we don’t already see an established leader in the space and we see a need that we can meet.” (10:16-10:40)
  “We see it as a workforce multiplier because we’re an industry that’s really dependent on people and that isn’t going to change.” (11:03)

5. Growth Strategy: Market Expansion & Sustainable Investment

• Banner is in rapidly growing markets and “will have to continue to invest in growth to support those communities.”
• Growth is planned “across the entire care continuum,” leveraging their IDN status for care and coverage.
• A focus on sustainable, long-term investments to support these ambitions (11:42-12:16).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Medicaid and ACA Cuts:

  “To see 10 million people lose coverage by 2034 is very concerning.”
  (Adrienne Moore, 02:55)

• On Workforce Investment:

  “We train 80% of the nurses in Arizona and more than 1600 physicians every year.”
  (Adrienne Moore, 09:00)

• On AI as a Workforce Multiplier:

  “AI can augment our workforce. We see it as a workforce multiplier because we’re an industry that’s really dependent on people and that isn’t going to change.”
  (Adrienne Moore, 11:03)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:33 – Adrienne Moore introduces Banner Health's scope and her role
• 01:42 – Top regulatory trends: Medicaid & ACA cuts
• 04:25 – System preparation for funding changes
• 05:25 – Potential impact and opportunity with the Rural Health Fund
• 07:48 – Bridging urban and rural healthcare through innovation
• 08:58 – Workforce and training investments
• 10:14 – Banner’s innovation focus and AI strategy
• 11:42 – Long-term growth: markets, care continuum, sustainable investments

Conclusion

This episode offers a clear-eyed account of the challenges and opportunities facing large health systems like Banner Health amid regulatory upheaval and industry transformation. Adrienne Moore’s insights spotlight the dual imperatives of adapting to funding cuts while proactively investing in the workforce, technology, and market growth. The ongoing commitment to innovation—particularly through workforce development and AI—is painted as both a necessity and an opportunity for meaningful, long-term transformation in healthcare delivery.