← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:02]
A
R1 is the leader in healthcare revenue management, helping providers achieve new levels of performance through smart orchestration. With more than 20 years of experience, R1 partners with 1,000 providers, including 95 of the top 100 US health systems and handles over 270 million payer transactions annually. If you want to learn more about how you can transform your revenue cycle operations, Visit us at www. R1RCM.
- [00:32]
B
Hello and welcome to the Becker's Hospital Review podcast. My name is Will Riley from R1. With me today is Kevin Spiegel. Kevin is CEO at HSA Florida Medical Center. Kevin, welcome to the podcast.
- [00:48]
C
Well, thank you very much. Really happy to be here and back at Becker's.
- [00:52]
B
Good stuff. Kevin, to start us off, tell us a little bit about your role HSA Florida Medical center and some of the key priorities that you and your team are focused on.
- [01:03]
C
Yeah, I mean, first of all, I love a challenge and I'm at Florida Medical center now a little over seven months. The hospital was acquired by HSA through bankruptcy, so the environment and the community had been challenged. One of the things I'm most proud of, things that I've done, is really turning around hospitals and serving the community in the most optimal way, which I'm very proud of. This hospital historically is a 450 bed hospital, acute care, tertiary services, specializing in cardiac and stroke as well as all surgical and medical services. The economic area in Lauderdale Lakes is a little challenged. A lot of immigrants, a lot of underserved and uninsured and underinsured in the community, which makes providing high level tertiary services even more difficult. But we are committed to serve that community in the most optimal way. And some of those things I'm so proud of.
- [02:26]
B
So what's on your mind as you go into 2026? You've obviously got a bit of a unique background as well, and context around the hospital too that you're trying to deal with.
- [02:35]
C
Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been doing this a while and I've learned one thing, that every year brings new and dynamic challenges to the healthcare industry. And somehow we do get through it. Some positive, some negative. But healthcare in the United States is committed to provide services to the uninsured and the underinsured. And that's one of the things I'm most proud of.
- [03:07]
B
Got you, Got you. I'd like to talk a little bit about technology before we get into some of the more financial aspects of healthcare today. Healthcare's historically moved quite cautiously around new technologies. Is that the same with artificial intelligence technology today or does it Feel different with AI to you?
- [03:31]
C
Well, AI is certainly brand new, at least to the healthcare industry. There are so many advantages like ChatGPT and other platforms. We use a scheduling platform I have in the past that that has a predictability that can populate physicians and nurses schedules with an AI component makes it so much easier, you know, go back in time, you know, doctors and nurses would have to sit at the computer for hours and hours and hours, just scheduling people. And then when they release the schedule, people don't like it. Now you built in rules and almost let the employees self schedule. There are certain wonderful, wonderful benefits of AI, especially in healthcare because you know, with all the challenges we have to be as efficient as possible.
- [04:36]
B
In healthcare innovation. You often hear about a couple of different archetypes. Incumbents who are large established health systems payers or legacy vendors who sort of control the data and infrastructure and have scale. And you hear about insurgents, newer entrants, technology companies, startups, people seeking to disrupt established models. How do you see the future playing out around this new AI paradigm between those two participants?
- [05:11]
C
I have to tell you I'm excited about a lot of these new startups that come to the market because if they can actually disrupt some of the older things because truthfully, you know how medicine is practiced in the United States, a senior senior physician teaches younger, but then the younger guys have been taught by someone who's been doing this for a long time. And some of those, the most current technologies going forward, are they conservative? Absolutely. Are they proven? Absolutely. But it's not cutting edge. And I think that we're entering into a new dynamic in the healthcare industry that really embraces the new technologies and the new ways of doing things. And if we use the word disruptive. Yeah, I think it's disruptive, but in a positive way. Okay, I'm excited for you.
- [06:17]
B
Where's the big opportunity to do that in, in your organization?
- [06:21]
C
I think it's all over the place. Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's, you know, obviously in oncology and cancer treatments, you know, we, we focus a lot at Florida Medical center on the cardiology innovations. And I can give you one quick example. You know, we were using multiple catheters to do cardiac ablations today. New catheters, you can use one catheter for a multitude of things and it's that therefore it's more cost effective, less time under the fluoroscopy for the patient and better outcomes. And I'm more excited today than ever that a lot of these new Innovations. A lot we will see here at Becker's this week will only bring new, innovative technologies. Last year I had the pleasure of seeing so many new companies from diff, from outside of the United States coming to the US and coming with new innovative ideas that are just unbelievable. So I'm excited to go to the floor to see some of the lectures here to be with you. This is a good time to be in healthcare.
- [07:47]
B
As you think about adopting and using some of these new technologies, whether it's on the clinical or the administrative side of your business. How are you thinking about governance and how are you thinking about governance in the C suite, particularly around new technologies like AI that are a bit different perhaps from what you've implemented before?
- [08:07]
C
I mean, governance. We are blessed that we have such a, a history. Although we did go through bankruptcy, we still have a medical executive committee, board of directors, community advisory board that is really rooted in the community in a positive way that I believe has given the hospital strength. And you know, they talk about have you flown on an airplane that went through bankruptcy? Of course, because most of them in that time period went through and you know, a lot of hospitals have closed. You know, one of the things I'm most proud of HSA is they go into communities and save these hospitals from closure and take them to the next and invest money into the local communities they serve. So I'm very excited regarding that governance, that oversight and the collaboration between the corporate, the medical staff and the community advisory boards.
- [09:23]
B
Let's talk a little bit about the financial environment. Obviously we've got quite a dynamic legislative environment and, but potentially an unpredictable one. I'm curious about how that is impacting you and pay a payer provider dynamics as well and how those are playing out for you.
- [09:46]
C
Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question because you know, one of the things of, of getting through and being a new player in the community, we participate in everything some of our neighboring hospitals are not. And I think that's an opportunity for us so those patients can come to us and be in network. Florida is challenged. A lot of doctors are trying to opt out of Medicaid and Medicare because they're, they're just poor payers. So we somehow are, you know, we're like Switzerland. We play with everybody and we don't, you know, go at a network just to prove a point or to try to increase. We're a low cost, low provider of care financially for the patients and the payers and who benefits is actually the community. And so I'm, I'M very excited about that.
- [10:48]
B
And is perhaps the environment that you're in allowing you to create a new dynamic with some of the payers around you?
- [10:58]
C
I do. I think that we're starting to get acknowledgement from a lot of the payers in the community about that. We are one of the most cost effective alternatives other than very large, very high rates of some of the large, extremely large academic medical centers in the Florida region.
- [11:22]
B
How are you seeing technology play a role on the administrative side of your operation? So we talked a little bit about payer relationships. Obviously there's more and more automation coming in in terms of how things like claims are processed and that whole process. So how is that playing out for you?
- [11:42]
C
I think we are going to have to partner yourself with real proven people that this is their core competency. Hospitals, their core competency is taking care of patients. So you know, we're going to have to partner with firms out there that that is their core competency, that they can bring efficiencies and technologies to the table a lot better than if we did it ourselves.
- [12:08]
B
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Tell us a little bit about the patient experience. What are you focused on from a patient experience perspective at the moment?
- [12:20]
C
I have to tell you that, you know, we're a joint commission accredited stroke program. And one of the things I really like is that, you know, when 911 brings the patient there, they're paralyzed half their body and recognize that COLA code stroke. Take the patient, bring the patient to the lab and, and actually remove that clot and you can actually see the patient's brain reperfuse and they get their mobility back almost immediately. It's remarkable. And to sit and talk to those patients right after and that, and how happy they are that this stroke was stopped. Sometimes it's too emotional for them, but others, they see that and then they end up going home then versus the old days when they had to then go to a nursing home and have someone else take care of them and they're actually going home on their own two feet. So there has been some remarkable things. You know, then we also find out from the patient what caused that blood clot to go to their brain. Was there some issue with their heart appendage issue or atrial fib or, or a PFO in the heart and that we can actually solve these issues for these patients. And, and, and technology has, you know, really leapfrog other things. And, but medicine has clearly benefited by AI and new technologies and, and, and again, you're going to see here at Becker's this week. A lot of different companies that are coming to the United States to share, but that has positively disrupted the environment.
- [14:19]
B
Yeah. So it all comes back to providing great clinical care for the folks in your community.
- [14:25]
C
Cost effective care that is absolutely much better than the way it was. We have to improve, you know, we have to become more efficient. And, you know, I'm, I'm more excited in my whole career today than I have been in many years.
- [14:47]
B
Fantastic. Kevin, thanks so much for talking just today. Really appreciate it.
- [14:51]
C
Appreciate you very much. You have a great, great conference.
- [14:54]
B
Thank you. You, too. Thank you.