← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
When it comes to today's rcm, we know the challenges, complexity of claims, talent shortages, low funding and lagging tech. That's why we built MedMetrics. We have the expertise and advanced tech to give you that edge on your revenue cycle. We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your yield. A partner who's on your side because they've been operator side, who knows your battles and will make sure you win from start to finish, end to end. Medmetrics, be exceptional.
- [00:30]
B
This is Madeline with the Becker CFO and Revenue Cycle Podcast. And I'm excited to be joined Today by Ian McDonald, CFO of Union Health and Terre Haute Ann. Thanks for joining me.
- [00:41]
C
Yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
- [00:44]
B
Yeah. So before we kick things off, do you mind sharing with our listeners just a little bit more about yourself, your background, and more on Union Health?
- [00:52]
C
Yeah, well, so as you said, I'm Ian MacDonald, the CFO here at Union Health. I'm fairly new to the system. My background, I was at the University of Utah for about the last 15 years. I'd say I came into finance through a little bit different trajectory than is probably common for CFOs. I kind of came in from a IT background and a data background. And so the kind of. The way I view finance is a subset of data science, which I think is becoming a little more prevalent in the kind of the financial world as analytics and finance combine. But unions, at a really interesting point in its history, we've just acquired through a COPPA Regional hospital, Terre Haute Regional Hospital. And so coppa, I wasn't familiar before I came here, but it's a certificate of public advantage. And essentially that's just us guaranteeing that. Although we have a near monopoly over the local area, we're agreeing to make sure that it's in the best interest of the local area. So that, that, that's brought a lot of kind of interesting elements to this. And then I'd say the other thing that's really interesting about this system right now is we're simultaneously going through a epic rollout and a workday rollout this year. So all that's happening all at once. So really a transformational time right now.
- [02:31]
B
Yeah, I mean, goodness, you guys are definitely busy and I'm excited to dive into some of those things, so appreciate you breaking that down. And first thing I do want to get to, though, obviously, you know, as you mentioned, do you kind of have a different background from, from Maybe some other CFOs in the industry? Just with that, it lens. So could you share maybe some financial trends or shifts you're keeping a close eye on right now and why that is so important to you?
- [02:57]
C
Well, sure, anyone that's listening to this is going to cringe slightly when I say it. But the prevalence of artificial intelligence and how much that's going to impact analytics and finance I just don't think can be overstated right now. I think everything from kind of block and tackle accounting functions to all manner of revenue cycle are going to be impacted. I think there's a lot changing on the, in the compliance arena too. And so keeping up with this shifting regulatory environment and then the shifting technology environment, you're kind of in this interesting technology race with, with other healthcare industry partners, payers, hospitals, providers. All of them are being impacted in ways that are difficult to anticipate by this really, really rapidly changing technology landscape. And so what's interesting, I think is the interplay between those interactions. Not only is it difficult to see what will happen as a second third order impact of these technology shifts within a domain, but then where it gets really interesting is the cross domain where you have these massive shifts in, in multiple domains simultaneously, all kind of driven by the same core technologies.
- [04:36]
B
And my thought here too is, you know, there's obviously so much going on in technology and advancements that we're seeing from the CFO seat. Where are you finding it like best to invest in certain technologies versus others? I'm sure there's just so much going on you guys have to keep up to date. How do you decide what's best to invest in?
- [04:57]
C
That's a great question. I would say that really if there was ever a moment to pause and think about the fundamentals, this is it. And so it's all about thinking through what information do we need to render sensible decisions and how do we get the support to our operations that, that we need. And so I think there's, we're really at a moment where there's the shiny new thing across all these services and all these bespoke software solutions and all these grand promises. And so the important thing is there's find the signal in all of that noise and say what really matters, that if you take a principled approach, that is what will guide you then to sensible decisions.
- [05:52]
B
Yeah, that's some good advice there for sure. I'm sure that resonates with a lot of our listeners. I do want to pivot a little bit now and talk about growth and even just a little bit of last year, as you mentioned in the beginning of the podcast, union acquired Terre Haute Regional Hospital. I believe that was December 13th of 2025. And for listeners that might not know, that was a HCA healthcare facility. So. So could you kind of just share with me how things are looking right now in that space? Any updates you can provide? What's that kind of looking like for you guys?
- [06:27]
C
Well, I think there's kind of two components to that. One is the. What I would say would be kind of a common thing, which is whenever you merge two systems, the ideal way to do it is to draw upon the best of both and to not impose on either, either one a certain way of doing things, you know, and so we're a not for profit, and hca, of course, is a for profit. And so going in and making sure that we learn what lessons there are to learn with our co workers that came over, we had about, I believe, 500 or so employees join union. And so learning from their wisdom, I think is a huge opportunity. And something, something we're doing. Operational stability, they're about five miles from us. And so coordinating patient transfers among both campuses. That's. We're very much in the thick of that. Making sure we're optimizing, optimizing our capacity utilization. Because we're switching to EPIC. We actually are running two different EMRs, one at regionals campus and one here. And then we're moving to then epic. So we've got Cerner here, Meditech there, and then in a year, a little less than a year, we'll be on epic. And so coordinating the records and the flow of information between these systems in the environment we're in is, is a, is a real challenge, to be frank.
- [08:05]
B
So system wide, you'll be on EPIC in less than a year. Do you have like a specific date for that?
- [08:09]
C
Yep, January 9th.
- [08:11]
B
Alrighty. Well, that's crazy to think that's less than a year from now.
- [08:15]
C
Yep. We're just, we're, we're working through it and it's a, we're all excited about it and it's a lot of work, but it's going to be great.
- [08:21]
B
Well, I gotta ask you too. I mean, you joined like you said, in October, and then you hit the ground running and then you had this merger. So what, what's maybe a lesson that you took away from this that you learned?
- [08:33]
C
I would say just the importance of trusting the teams you have. Especially, especially when you're, when you're new. But in a system this size or, and certainly larger systems, you can't do it. All yourself. You have to trust your teams. And it's kind of a micro version of what I said, learn from the wisdom they have. Right. Like, I have a very different background. I'm came from a major academic, medical. This is a community hospital here. And so really coming in and learning what works before changing things, I think is. Is an important piece of being successful in this sort of navigating this sort of environment.
- [09:18]
B
Yeah. And just for myself and for the listeners, this acquisition or this merger here, this makes the third hospital under Union Health. Is that accurate?
- [09:28]
C
That's right. We have the Terre Haute Hospital, that's kind of our flagship. Then we've got Clinton and now Terre Haute Regional.
- [09:38]
B
That's exciting. And I also have to ask this just in terms of future growth, do you see any opportunities to continue to expand? I know this is such a new acquisition, but just, you know, looking, putting that future lens on,
- [09:53]
C
I wouldn't really comment on that right now. What I will say though is EPIC and the way it is set up with Epic Connect sites, we could do a lot of good in the region by leveraging some of those advantages that EPIC affords us. And so certainly if you define expansion different sorts of ways, certainly from that angle, I see huge opportunity.
- [10:19]
B
Yeah, that's exciting. Is there anything else, you know, apart from this that you're excited about right now at Union Health, even maybe looking into to next year?
- [10:29]
C
Well, I think yes, of course I'm excited stabilized on these technologies and I'm excited to really be able to serve the community in ways that we just haven't been able to because we've been capacity constrained. And I think, you know, the community here and then in the surrounding region, we can do immense amounts of good. And so I'm just excited on. Excited to realize that.
- [10:56]
B
Yeah, no, it definitely does sound like such a great time of change. But all good things at Union Health. So again, Ian, it was such a pleasure getting to break all of this down with you. And I'm sure the listeners took a lot away from this as well. So look forward to touching base again sometime soon.
- [11:11]
C
Thank you so much, Maddie.
- [11:13]
B
Thank you.
- [11:14]
A
When it comes to today's rcm, we know the challenges, complexity of claims, talent shortages, low funding and lagging tech. That's why we built MedMetrics. We have the expertise and advanced tech to give you that edge on your revenue cycle. We're a partner who will relentlessly raise your yield. A partner who's on your side because they've been operator side, who knows your battles and will make. Make sure you win from start to finish, end to end. Med metrics, be exceptional.