Dr. Jason Greenberg, Chief Client Officer at Ventra Health

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: In-Depth Conversation with Dr. Jason Greenberg

Release Date: June 20, 2025

Introduction

In a compelling episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, host Laura Dardo engages in an insightful dialogue with Dr. Jason Greenberg, Chief Client Officer at Ventra Health. Dr. Greenberg brings a wealth of experience from his dual roles in clinical practice and healthcare administration, offering a comprehensive perspective on the pressing challenges and emerging trends within the U.S. healthcare landscape.

Guest Background

Dr. Jason Greenberg is a cardiac anesthesiologist with extensive experience managing large medical practices. His career trajectory includes leading a substantial group of approximately 90 physicians within the Sutter system and serving as chair of both the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Committee on Practice Management and the ASA Advanced Business Meeting. Currently, at Ventra Health—a national revenue cycle company—Dr. Greenberg oversees operations that support around 450 medical practices across all 50 states, encompassing roughly 18,000 physicians and managing about $5.5 billion in collections. This unique vantage point allows him to address a broad spectrum of issues affecting healthcare providers nationwide.

Current Trends in Healthcare

Dr. Greenberg identifies three primary trends currently shaping the healthcare environment:

1. Labor Crisis

   The ongoing labor shortage in the medical field is a significant concern, particularly affecting specialties such as anesthesia and radiology. Issues like provider shortages, rising labor costs, burnout, and retention challenges are at the forefront. Dr. Greenberg emphasizes, “The labor crisis... has been a big issue and is really front and center to a lot of the work we’re doing” (02:22).

2. Utilization of Providers

   There is a noted underutilization of medical providers, exacerbated by the shift towards ambulatory care and procedures conducted outside traditional operating rooms. This trend, coupled with the labor shortages, intensifies the strain on available healthcare professionals.

3. Declining Reimbursement

   A critical issue highlighted by Dr. Greenberg is the decline in reimbursement rates for providers. Factors contributing to this trend include payer behaviors, cuts from government and commercial insurers, and legislative impacts such as the No Surprises Act. These elements collectively reduce providers' leverage in renegotiating contracts. Dr. Greenberg remarks, “Declining reimbursement... is creating challenges and a lack of leverage for providers to renegotiate contracting” (02:22).

Additionally, Dr. Greenberg briefly touches on a leadership gap within the medical field, suggesting that addressing this issue is crucial for future progress, though time constraints prevent an in-depth discussion during the episode.

Strategies for Navigating Declining Reimbursement

Laura delves deeper into the issue of declining reimbursement, seeking actionable strategies for providers. Dr. Greenberg offers several recommendations:

1. Advocacy

   Active involvement in advocacy is paramount. Physicians can influence policy and payer behaviors by participating in state, local, and national organizations. Dr. Greenberg cites the reversal of anesthesia payment limitations as an example of successful advocacy: “There was a big pushback by advocacy organizations... and because of that, I think the insurance company kind of made a turn and pivoted on their initial plan” (05:11).

2. Efficient Revenue Cycle Management

   Optimizing the revenue cycle is essential for maximizing provider payments. Implementing robust, data-driven revenue cycle processes can help ensure that providers receive the compensation they are due. Dr. Greenberg underscores the complexity of the revenue cycle, noting that “getting paid is really complex” and emphasizes the importance of having efficient systems in place (05:11).

Recent Achievements

Reflecting on recent accomplishments, Dr. Greenberg expresses pride in his team’s efforts to optimize the revenue cycle amidst a challenging environment. He highlights their focus on capturing accurate provider payments through meaningful, data-driven strategies: “I'm most proud of the work that we have done to really optimize revenue cycle in this really challenging environment” (09:42).

Future Focus: Embracing Technology and Automation

Looking ahead, Dr. Greenberg is enthusiastic about integrating new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), into the revenue cycle process. He anticipates that automation will revolutionize the field by creating more efficient, less error-prone systems: “The ability to infuse new technology kind of into our revenue cycle process... is huge” (11:00). This technological advancement promises to address existing challenges and enhance overall revenue cycle management.

Leadership in Healthcare

In the latter part of the conversation, Dr. Greenberg addresses the importance of leadership within the medical community. He encourages physicians to take active roles beyond clinical duties to influence the healthcare system positively. His advice includes:

• Getting Involved: Even with increasing clinical demands, physicians should seek opportunities to engage in leadership roles within their organizations or professional associations.

• Developing Leadership Skills: Dr. Greenberg advocates for enhanced leadership training during medical education to prepare physicians for administrative and advocacy roles. “We haven’t had a huge amount of leadership training... so I'd love to see us, as physicians, spend more time in medical school and residency, developing our leaders” (12:42).

He shares his personal journey as an example, illustrating how taking initiative and embracing opportunities outside traditional clinical roles can lead to significant impact within the healthcare industry.

Notable Quotes

• “The labor crisis... has been a big issue and is really front and center to a lot of the work we’re doing.” (02:22), Dr. Jason Greenberg
• “There was a big pushback by advocacy organizations... and because of that, I think the insurance company kind of made a turn and pivoted on their initial plan.” (05:11), Dr. Jason Greenberg
• “I'm most proud of the work that we have done to really optimize revenue cycle in this really challenging environment.” (09:42), Dr. Jason Greenberg
• “The ability to infuse new technology kind of into our revenue cycle process... is huge.” (11:00), Dr. Jason Greenberg
• “We haven’t had a huge amount of leadership training... so I'd love to see us, as physicians, spend more time in medical school and residency, developing our leaders.” (12:42), Dr. Jason Greenberg

Conclusion

The conversation with Dr. Jason Greenberg offers valuable insights into the multifaceted challenges facing healthcare providers today, particularly regarding labor shortages, provider utilization, and declining reimbursements. Through advocacy, efficient revenue cycle management, and embracing technological advancements, providers can navigate these challenges effectively. Furthermore, fostering leadership within the medical community is essential for driving systemic improvements. Dr. Greenberg’s expertise and proactive strategies provide a roadmap for healthcare professionals aiming to enhance their practice's sustainability and impact.

Transcript

[A]

This is Laura Dardo with the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Jason Greenberg, Chief Client Officer at Ventral Health and chair of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Practice Management, as well as chair of the ASA Advanced Business Meeting. Dr. Greenberg, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[B]

Great to be here, Laura.

[A]

Now I'm looking forward to our conversation because I know you've got such a great perspective on so many of the issues that healthcare providers are having today across the board. You know, both challenges on the clinical side as well as revenue cycle, administrative and more. But before we dive into our broader discussion, can you introduce yourself and tell us just a little bit about your background?

[B]

Yeah, sure, absolutely. So I'm a actually cardiac anesthesiologist and trained in different parts of the country for that and went into private practice for several years and found myself towards the end of that leading a large medical practice of about 90 physicians in the Sutter system. And it was during that time that I really started to better understand some of the challenges that, you know, not only anesthesia practices are facing, but medical practices are facing in general. And at the time I also really got involved with the American Society of Anesthesia Anesthesiologists, which is our advocacy organization as well as kind of pivoting in my career to join Ventra Health, which is national revenue cycle company that really focuses on facility based physicians. We focus on anesthesiologists, emergency medicine physicians, radiologists, hospital medicine and several other adjacent specialties. And in that role I've really had the opportunity to really see what's going on around the country. We cover about 450 practices in all 50 states, encompassing roughly 18,000 physicians and about 5.5 billion in collections. So that's my background and role and kind have a pretty unique view of.

[A]

Medical practice that's amazing to hear and truly inspiring. What a vast network that you're working with right now and have an impact across the country. So I'm excited to dive right in. I think first and foremost I'll start broadly, what are some of the trends you're watching currently? What's top of mind for you?

[B]

Yeah, what's interesting about the trends in medicine and a lot of this I would say are particularly focused on anesthesia. But really many of these trends are broad. In a lot of the specialties that we focus on, I think the first one is our labor crisis and we talk a lot about this and we've talked a lot about it in the United States and the economy in the last few years, but certainly in medicine and amongst physicians and providers, this has been a big issue and certainly in the anesthesia specialty realm as well as I would say, radiology, where we really have a lot of labor cost inflation, provider shortages, burnout issues, retention. This is a big issue out there and is really front and center to a lot of the work we're doing. The other major trends, I would say that continue our poor utilization of some of our providers, and I would call that out in anesthesia, just with the growth of kind of different sites where procedures are done outside the operating room, kind of the move in general in the medical environment towards ambulatory spaces. There's really, you know, when you combine the labor crisis with utilization issue, it exacerbates the problem. And then finally I would, I would call out being a major issue out there, declining reimbursement for providers. And this is all around this, this happens to do with payer behavior, some of the cuts we're seeing from some of our government insurances as well as our commercial insurers, and then implications of things like the no Surprises act, et cetera, out there, which are really creating challenges and a lack of leverage for providers to renegotiate contracting. So those would be the major things I'd see out there. There's a lot of meat on the bone there, Laura, on all those topics. I do want to say one other thing, which is I also think that we have a leadership gap in medicine, and I don't know if we'll have time to talk about that today, but certainly that's out there. But I think labor crisis, utilization and reimbursement are the three things on top of mind.

[A]

For me, that makes a lot of sense, you know, and across the board, again, very meaty topics to dig into. And, you know, I wanted to press just a little bit more into the declining reimbursement aspect of it. I know that's not something that obviously healthcare providers can really have control over as much as they would like to. So from your perspective, what do you see happening? What can, you know, providers do in order to plan for this future where, you know, there may still be declin or flat reimbursement while expenses rise? How do you see some of the different groups that you're working with begin to think about the future?

[B]

Yeah, I think actually providers do have a decent amount of control over this. I mean, certainly there's a feeling that you don't have control. Right. We're dealing with very large organizations, whether it be the government, large insurance companies. So there is, there's certainly a feeling that way. But I would, I would, I would argue that we actually do have quite a bit of influence on that. Number one, I would say that just in general, getting paid is really complex. The revenue cycle is incredibly complex. And when you break down the revenue cycle from the beginning all the way to getting your payment and following up on it, there are, you know, 50 to 100 different functions that need to be done to make sure that our providers get paid. So the system is complex and no, anything I say is kind of layered on that aspect. But there's really a lot of issues leading to downward reimbursement. So besides the complexity of getting paid, commercial behavior is certainly an issue out there. And I think people have heard about it in the lay press certainly recently with unfortunately some of the things that have happened in some of the major insurance companies out there. I'll call out the specific issue with anesthesia and the move to try to limit anesthesia timing for payment. And that was an issue that I think was addressed and reversed. But certainly the, that's just the tip of the iceberg. CMS reimbursement and declines are heavy out there. We have Medicare sequestration every year. Again this year a significant over 2% decrease in provider payments on Medicare due to statutory budget obligations. Again, nsa, which is the no Surprises act, pushing both payer rates down from inability to contract and then also just pushing them down from reimbursement in the era of the NSA for any out of network claims. And then I would also throw in there some of the quality payment program and MIPS programs, which really are adding quite a bit of administrative burden and penalties to physician groups. And so to answer the second part of your question, what can be done? I think a huge piece of this is advocacy. We saw with as that example, that recent anesthesia limitation on the amount of time that could be charged for anesthesia services, that there was a big pushback by advocacy organizations to highlight the issue in the press. And because of that, I think that the insurance company kind of made a turn and pivoted on their initial plan. And so I think us as physicians getting involved in advocacy, fighting for physician payment, fighting for fair payment is really key in terms of, you know, the CMS reimbursement that's a little tougher. I mean, that lies with Congress, it's, you know, above quote, or many of our pay grades. But again, advocacy is huge here. And you know, with I would say the, the new bill out there, there's implications again on CMS reimbursement. You know, getting involved with your state and local and national organizations, becoming aware of the issues is half the battle. I feel like most physicians, I wouldn't say most, many physicians are not aware necessarily of the issues. Becoming familiar is key. The nsa, again, getting involved with your state and national organizations is key here and being part of the process and doing what you can to make it right. So there are a lot of things I think physicians can do. The other thing I would just call out is get paid for what you're owed. And part of that is getting, of course, good and efficient revenue cycle. And if you can get a revenue cycle process that works for you and has excellent metrics, then you're really going to be able to squeeze as much as you can out of it.

[A]

That's excellent advice and thank you so much for setting me straight on that. I love that and I really appreciate the very clear things that clinicians and organizations can do because you're right, I mean, control the controllable. And I appreciate, you know, you spelling that out so well. Now I'm curious, you know, if you think back for the last six to 18 months or so, what are you most proud of? Is there something you can share, a project or initiative that really has gone well?

[B]

Yeah, you know, I think I'm most proud of our, and I would say this from the standpoint of kind of myself as a physician and also the standpoint of kind of the company that I work with. I'm most proud of the work that we have done to really optimize revenue cycle in this really challenging environment. It isn't easy. And anybody who says it's easy is probably not telling the entire truth. Revenue cycle is really, really complicated, and it's really complicated right now in particular. But I'm particularly proud of my own team at our company that's really spent a lot of time thinking through how can we most effectively capture what the providers are due and how can we do that in a way that is meaningful and data driven. So I'd say that to me, that's the main thing is the work we're doing on behalf of our physician groups.

[A]

I love that. And certainly a really clear way that you can help these organizations continue to find value and really get the payment that they deserve. Now, looking ahead into the future, what are you most focused on and excited about?

[B]

I'm really excited about the ability to infuse new technology kind of into our revenue cycle process and infuse, you know, automation into our, into our process. We've done a lot of that in our own company and really excited about that. I think the opportunity going forward with artificial intelligence, the ability to kind of navigate some of the challenges that are out there is huge. Our space on this will be revolutionized, I think in the future through continued ability to automate and create more regular, less error prone processes. So that to me is the future. Again, super excited about the work that we've done on that. But also I think the future is really bright for, you know, revenue cycle and our ability going forward.

[A]

That's great to hear and certainly I can imagine music to many of our listeners ears, especially given some of the challenges I know many organizations have had over the last 12 to 18 months or so and looking at how technology can be integrated into the RCM process and provide some of these better outcomes. I mean, you know, it's just essential for businesses, it seems.

[B]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[A]

Now, before we wrap up here, I do want to ask you a question about leadership within the healthcare space. I know there is a whole other conversation we could have, but when you're looking at today, you know, what advice do you give for especially physicians or clinicians like yourself who want to become leaders, who want to become better advocates and create, you know, better health care system overall going forward? What advice do you have for them?

[B]

Yeah, I love that question. And it's something that is particularly near and dear to my heart. I think that many physicians we are. Look, we went into medicine not necessarily to lead revenue cycle organizations or whatever it might be. We went into medicine to take care of patients. And because of that we have focused fully clinically, as we should and as we, you know, as we train to do. I think the increasing demand on physicians around this country to provide a certain amount of care with decreased resources has only exacerbated that inability to kind of move outside of the clinical environment. And so it's really created a little bit of a gap here in the ability for physicians to feel like they're engaged and feel like they have skin in the game. Many physicians, I feel like, feel that there are others administratively, whether in their hospital systems, wherever they're, wherever they're working, that are making decisions on what they're doing every day without their input. So my advice is get involved. And I know that's hard. And it sounds like I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth because I'm saying in one sense we've got more obligations Clinically. And in the other sense, I'm saying get involved. There are ways to get involved, you know, and on a small scale and a large scale. And I. My. My own personal story is one where I never expected that I'd be in my own situation here, you know, leading a client success team at a national revenue cycle company and working with the American Society of Anesthesiologists so heavily. But I got into that just kind of by leaping, taking a leap of faith and jumping off a cliff at some point and saying, you know, this is what's important to me. So I'd say get involved in what most interests you in your clinical environment, in your own hospital environment, in your own, you know, industry, wherever. Whoever you interface with, be honest with yourself about what. What is most interesting to you and dive into it. I think physicians have a huge opportunity going forward to really take the reins of the health care industry. I just think that we've got to. We've got to. We've got to be braver in jumping into those opportunities, and we also have to have more opportunity and training and in everything we do to do that. And, sorry, what I mean by that is we haven't had a huge amount of leadership training for these opportunities leading up to them. And so I'd love to see us, as physicians, spend more time in medical school and residency, developing our leaders, educating them on the economics of medicine and these types of things, so that when we do get out into practice, we don't feel that the barrier is so large.

[A]

Amazing. Dr. Greenberg, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. The work you're doing is extremely powerful and certainly something I know a lot of the clinicians in our audience can resonate with and truly appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.

[B]

Great. Laura, thanks so much for your time.