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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Blake Evans, System Vice President of Revenue Cycle at Rush University System for Health
00:15:52
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- [00:00]
A
This is Andrew Kass with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Blake Evans, the new system vice president of revenue cycle at Rush University System for Health. Blake, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast.
- [00:12]
B
Great to be here, Andrew. Thank you.
- [00:15]
A
Before we begin, why don't you tell us a little bit more about your background?
- [00:18]
B
Yeah, a great, great story, I would say, Andrew. I always say healthcare found me. I didn't find health care. When I graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington. I wanted to be a consultant. And I could not find a job in the consulting industry. And so instead of doing nothing, I went back home and I worked at a coffee shop that I had worked at in high school. And a lady comes in, and we start talking. She said, hey, you should be doing something differently than what you're doing. I said, you're right. I have a college degree and, you know all these things. And so she offered me a job at a community hospital there in northwest Indiana. And I started off literally working at a front desk and registration as a team lead. And from there, my career just really took off. I went from being a team lead to a supervisor, supervisor to manager, and then eventually went on to be a director. And I grew really fast in that environment. And it was one of those things you kind of grow to a point you can't grow anymore. And so I decided to go to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is a part of Ascension Health, as a director of patient access. And from there, I had the opportunity to go into consulting finally. So about after a year and a half so at St. Vincent, the opportunity came up for me to go into consulting. So I went and worked at Crow llp, which had a consulting healthcare arm. And I was with them for about eight years. And just an incredible experience traveling all over the country, working with healthcare organizations from end to end. Revenue cycle, not just patient access, but end to end. And also having the ability to sit in. In a couple of interim leadership areas as well. So that was very fun and exciting. And then I think, like most people, Covid happened, right? And you kind of sit down and say, okay, well, what's going on? You reassess things. And it was a really good opportunity. We have young kids, my wife and I, and so I decided to look for something a little bit more stable. I'll. I'll call it. And found the opportunity at Rush as an AVP of patient access. And then within the last three months or so, I have stepped into the new role as System Vice President for revenue cycle. So exciting journey.
- [02:30]
A
Very exciting journey. And congratulations on your new role. And so how have the first few months been in that role?
- [02:37]
B
Yeah, it's been, you know, you can't prepare sometimes for the type of transition. It has been a lot. I can definitely say it's been exciting. Every day is a little bit different. But even with that, I would say before I took on the role, I was really intentional about how I want to spend really, this first three months or so. And I've tried to post some of that journey on LinkedIn and kind of just be very transparent and what I wanted to accomplish. I think you can be in a rush when you get into new roles to immediately go in and say, okay, what can I fix? What can I change? All of these things. But I think one of the things that consulting taught me is that you always need to assess first, really understand what's going on so you can really understand what you're trying to fix. And so we. I took that same approach, and in the last 90 days or so, I've met with over 70 leaders across our organization, both within my team across the revenue cycle, but also key stakeholders. I met with everybody from the CEO down to some of our frontline staff. And so that. That has been very beneficial in terms of just getting insight into, you know, what problems are we really trying to fix and what are the areas of opportunity. Yeah.
- [03:48]
A
And so what do you think has been the most rewarding part so far of your new role and what has been challenging?
- [03:55]
B
Yeah, you know, great question, Andrea. I would say every new role will come with its own set of challenges. Right. So if you were coming in fresh to a new organization, you have the challenge of trying to learn the environment, the politics, and all of those things. I think my challenge going into this role, or what I perceive my challenge to be, was a little bit different in that I was going from a position of being a part of the team. Right. At a high level evp. But then some of the individuals that I work with now, I went from being their peer, now I'm their leader. Right. And that comes with its own set of challenges. And I would say what I anticipated to be like the greatest challenge of kind of going through that process has probably been one of the greatest rewards. I think I have just been really impressed not only with my. My coworkers peers, the individuals that I lead, but also sometimes you go into a role and the person who's leading you will tell you, hey, you have to do it this way. Or here's how I want you to do it. And I have gotten none of that. Right. Our cfo, our coo, they have given me the opportunity to kind of build and move along things the way I perceive it should be moved, as well as my team. They have come alongside me and pretty much, Blake, whatever you need. Right. And so that has been both refreshing. I think I had anticipated that more as a challenge, but it's probably been most rewarding just to kind of see how people have come alongside of, you know, building something new and fresh.
- [05:23]
A
Yeah. And, you know, building on your consulting background, are there any other ways that that has helped you prepare for this role or ease the process of starting this new role?
- [05:34]
B
Yeah, you know, the assessment piece has been one, but then two, you know, I really did try to sit down and write down, like, okay, what are those key things that I want to make sure that are accomplished? So outside of those, those one on one meetings. Right. I wanted people to be a part of what I call our vision. Right. What we're going to build and do. And so one of the things that we did within these first three months or so is that we had a vision workshop where I pulled in all of our manager level up and we had a whole day session where one, we got a chance to get to know each other because some of the leaders hadn't had a chance to kind of have that exposure. But two, we talked about, you know, what are our challenges? What do we want to accomplish those things? And that was incredibly helpful, Andrew, in just terms of getting that buy in getting that support and getting a better perspective of kind of where we want to go together. So that. And then I think the other thing that's been really good is just around the communication with our broader team and just ensuring that they knew, like, I was very transparent with them either. Here's exactly what I'm doing these first 90 days. So you don't have to wonder, you don't have to guess what's going on. Here's exactly what we're doing. And we reinforce that every single month during our town hall meetings. Yeah.
- [06:43]
A
And so what are some of the, you know, the biggest challenges you're facing? Biggest headwinds as a revenue cycle leader?
- [06:50]
B
Yeah, I think our challenges are not unique. I think it's challenges that most revenue cycle leaders across the country would probably share. And I'll give you three. One, there's a greater need to align, consolidate, ensure your team is aligned. I think one of the goals of my role as the system Vice president is that we had two separate revenue cycle teams across our system. And one of the real focus of this role is to bring that revenue cycle team under one team. Right, and one group. And so that's one headwind that we kind of, if you would call it, grab the bull by the horns. We really have focused in on that over the last 90 days. In addition to that, we have EPIC as our EHR system. And so a part of what we're doing too is consolidating our EPIC environments into one single service area. And so I couldn't have planned the timing of this any better. The single service area consolidation planning is going on right now as I've taken on this new role to kind of condense and consolidate our team as well. So that'd be one headwind. I think. You know, it could have been a challenge, but I think it has really aligned in terms of timing and what we're doing. I think the second thing, you know, I've been trying to participate in a few industry conferences. One most recently was the Beckers conference here in Chicago. And as you walked around the room, almost every vendor had something around automation, AI, all of those things. And I think that's one of the things that we're seeing that the payers are using more to adjudicate claims, deny claims, things like that. And I think on the revenue cycle side, it's imperative that we focus in on automation in terms of not just replacing staff. And I don't look at it that way. I look at it as our ability to scale what we're doing and to make things more efficient in what we're doing. And I think that's one of the things that we have started to embrace here in the revenue cycle at rush and sharing it more from a position of how can automation make our lives easier versus looking at it as a threat that has got to replace me. That's not what we're working to do. So that's the second one. And then I think the third thing that I would just share. And this is not unique, it's just we are seeing more denials from our payers. You know, things like bundled payments, things. We have a transplant program here. It's kind of difficult to get payment on things, bundled payments. We're seeing issues there. And so it's the ability to use data is what I call it. And we learned that in consulting as we're being data driven. Right. Let the data point you to where the issues are, but it's also reinforcing partnerships So I would say in the last three months, we have had to work with our external governmental affairs group a lot more. We've had to work a lot more with our contracting team. We have to work a lot more with our finance department internally just to make sure we are able to address all of these headwinds that are coming along.
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A
Yeah. And on the other side of the coin, what are some of the top trends that you're following right now?
- [09:57]
B
Yeah, I would say really some of those headwinds that I mentioned, those are some of the trends I'm seeing as well. But I would also say some of these policy changes that we're hearing, and that's why I mentioned the external governmental affairs, you know, our ability to, one, understand what the policy changes were. And then two, how do we react quickly in partnership with some of those other departments that I mentioned, to ensure that, you know, one, we still create a good financial experience for our patients, but then, two, we are getting compensated for the great work that our care providers are providing to our patients.
- [10:31]
A
And so what are you most excited about right now in health care?
- [10:35]
B
Yeah, I'm excited about the future, Andrea. I think one of the things that I would say is that we at Rush, we have a unique opportunity. And I think any organization going through a transition, it's almost like a renaissance period where people are just thinking differently, they are embracing automation, they're looking for new opportunities, people want to grow. And so I think from my seat, I'm just excited about the future and how we're going to approach it. I think, you know, when we have kind of set out these first 90 days, I'll mention this again. During that vision workshop and all that, we consolidated not only that feedback, but we also did a survey with all of our frontline team. Right. To get a sense of those same questions, we pulled all of that together. And really, in the last week or two, we've been able to communicate effectively our new vision, our new mission, our new strategic initiatives. And it has been received with great, great excitement. And so that makes me excited about the future. And I think, you know, our long term strategy is that we want to be one of the best revenue cycle organizations in the country. Right. Revenue cycle teams. But how we get there and how soon we can get there is going to be dependent on how we measure and time it out. And so my approach is we'll look at things, you know, kind of every three months. Okay. What are we going to do the next three months? The next three months. And I think that that has really helped us to get a lot of traction approaching it that way. Yeah.
- [11:59]
A
Now, to kind of continue the talk about the future, how are you thinking about growth either personally, professionally, or as an organization over the next 12 to 24 months?
- [12:10]
B
Yeah. You know, one of the things I would say in my experience, people want good leadership. Right. They want somebody to help mentor them, to guide them, things like that. And I think at this point right now in my career, that's kind of where more of my focus is, how can I help people coming under me, how can I help support them, how can I help build them up? While always, I think it's always going to be a part of me, you know, what's next for me and all those things. Now, I'll say that three months into a new role, Right. I'm not actively thinking about what's next, but what I will say is, how can I help people coming behind me, you know, and coming alongside of me to help build them to the next level as well. So I think if they can be successful, obviously I'll be more successful. So that's on a personal note. I think growth for our team, again, is how do we hone in on the talents and skills that we have internally while working with other vendors, partners who may bring a level of expertise that we don't have internally, and then also identifying where there are gaps to help us to grow more efficiently.
- [13:10]
A
And on the subject of leadership, what is the best or most important leadership advice that you've received in your career to date?
- [13:18]
B
Yeah, you know, I think you're always learning something new in leadership, so it's hard to narrow it down to, like, the best thing. But what I will say is sometimes there is an unreasonable expectation that the leader has all the answers. And what I've. And I don't know if somebody's told me this, I've just kind of come to know this is that you don't. You don't have to have all the answers for everything, but you do have to be willing to one listen, you have to understand who can answer it for you. And you have to be willing to say, okay, based off the information that I have today, here's the best decision for right now. And I think that that has really separated me in my career in terms of just the ability to make a decision, even when I don't know what that answer is. So that would be the advice I would give to any leader. Be confident in making decisions based off the information that you have right at that moment. And Then I did share just kind of reflective. Top three things in this first 90 days that I would share with anybody is that, first off, people want to be a part of your vision. They want to be a part of what the future is going to entail, especially if you're going to be making changes that will impact them. And so I think that has been something with a great amount of intention, but it's also proven to be very successful in our first 90 days or so. It's just kind of, hey, how do we get people involved? And that's that vision workshop, the listening sessions, the survey that we did. 2. I would say a lot of times it's challenging for people to absorb and to react to too many things at one time. So we really tried to hone in. Okay, what's our greatest focus right now? I read a book called the One Thing, right? So if you had to wake up in the morning, say, what's the one thing I'm going to focus on? Focus on, and make sure that I feel successful in getting that accomplished, kind of taking that mindset to our team of focusing in on, you know, kind of one, two things at a time that's been successful. And then the third thing, I would just say, for any leader, you cannot communicate enough. I'll tell you as much as I think I communicate well, there are still sometimes that there is discrepancies or people heard you say something differently. So it's important, one, to communicate often and early to people, but then also make sure that your people who are supporting you as a leader, people under you, are reinforcing that same communication. So we've done things like having, like, even FAQ documents, things like that, just so people are saying the exact same thing to our frontline team. So that's what I would leave to any new leader.
- [15:41]
A
All right, well, that's all the questions I have for you. Thank you for your time, Blake. I really appreciate having you on the podcast, and best of luck as your new role progresses.
- [15:49]
B
Thanks for having me, Andrew.