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- [00:00]
A
This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker CFO and Revenue Cycle podcast. And I'm thrilled to be joined by Rob Chestnut, CFO of LMH Health. Hey Rob, thanks for joining me.
- [00:11]
B
Thanks for having me, Madeline.
- [00:13]
A
So, Rob, do you mind, before we get into the discussion, just sharing a little bit with our listeners about yourself, your background and a little bit more about LMH Health.
- [00:23]
B
Sure. So first of all, I'm actually a native of Lawrence, which is where the hospital is located, and I was born in this hospital, which is kind of interesting. So I've been a financial professional for almost 40 years and I was actually on a board of trustees with LMH Health for 11 years before I joined as CFO last May. So it's been an interesting journey for me having a financial background, but not necessarily in the hospital system until just recently. But LMH Health is, we are 174 bed hospital here in Lawrence, Kansas. We sit probably about 30 to 40 minutes outside the greater Kansas City area. And we also have, we employ about 160 providers. So that's primarily all of the providers in their service area, with few exceptions. So we really do have a full, a full complement of health services here to serve not only Douglas county, which is where Lawrence is, but sort of the surrounding areas.
- [01:36]
A
So I have to ask you, that is so cool that just, you know, right at the beginning when you said you were born in the hospital, I mean, I've actually spoken to a few CFOs that have been born or, you know, grew up right next to the system or hospital that they serve. Now. Can you talk about just like that, that Full circle life movement and what it means to you to work there?
- [01:56]
B
I think what it means, I have an appreciation for how important healthcare is to a community. We're an outstanding community hospital and I think sometimes people sort of take that for granted and they don't realize how hard it is to do that, to provide quality care and employ all the physicians we do and do all the things that we do on a daily basis. So it does mean a lot to me. And I sit here in this podcast about 20ft from the front door and a day doesn't go by for me that I don't see at least a dozen people that I know that walk through these doors. So it is personal for me because these are my friends and family and, you know, in the greater community. So it is important and it really is a great intrinsic motivation for me to keep going every day.
- [02:48]
A
Yeah, that's really cool. Thank you for sharing. So, Rob, I want to dive in. You know, you've been in finance and healthcare share and you know, you've seen a lot. I'm sure the industry has just been evolving and changing. It always is. But I would be so curious to hear maybe two to three trends that you're currently following and why these trends are specifically important to you.
- [03:10]
B
I think, first of all, it's no surprise that the most recent, you know, changes or changes that are about to happen in government programs, including Medicaid, is the number one trend we're looking at for LMH health specifically. It's probably not going to have a gigantic impact on us. Our Medicaid population in this community is relatively small, but a lot of it is, what impact does it have on our community partners in mental health? And, you know, we have an FQHC here in town that is really reliant on Medicaid to help them serve the population here in Lawrence. So we pay close attention to that because I think, as you know, it's a community as far as the way that the hospital works with mental health groups and other social services in the community. And if those things begin to not be able to do what they have to do in the community, then the hospital kind of becomes the last stop, whether it's in the emergency room or in other places. So we're really focused on that and seeing how we can help work with our community partners. I think secondly, on the technology side, deployment of artificial intelligence is really big, sort of not only helping in clinical areas to help our physicians and other providers, you know, save some time for themselves and what we can do in coding and other things to help create more efficiency, but also on the whole revenue cycle and what it's doing in what we see, you know, with commercial payers using artificial intelligence and other things, you know, it's just. It is going to be a big impact across all of healthcare. I think over the next five or 10 years, it'll be gigantic. And then finally, I think just the whole commercial payer landscape. We have commercial payers in the market just like everybody else does. We have Blue Cross of Kansas, we have Blue Cross of Kansas City, we have United Healthcare, Aetna and what the dynamics are and how they're seeing our market and what they're doing. Because with price transparency, we track that pretty closely now as far as we can see a lot of what's happening in the market. So we pay very close attention to that.
- [05:49]
A
I appreciate you sharing those trends and you know, I would Also just be curious to hear too, maybe some of the things that you're most excited about at LMH Health, maybe even over the next two to three years, things that you're looking towards, you know, just. Yeah, any, any plans?
- [06:08]
B
Sure. So we just finished. Over the last two weeks, we did a ribbon cutting on, on our new cancer center. It's a $15 million project, which another great thing about this community here in Lawrence is that more than half of that cost was, was our foundation contributed money toward that. So we had big donors in town that were willing to, to invest in our hospital. So about 8 million of that, 15 million was from, from foundation gifts. That is really big for us. It really expanded our oncology with, you know, infusion rooms and just the convenience to the community because we want to make sure that as many people as possible in our service area can get services here at the hospital and they don't have to drive somebody out someplace else to get that. And then kind of on that theme also, you know, expansion, we are expanding and building a second cath lab. We're also looking at a new heart center. Again, very donor driven. We've already raised a significant amount of funds in the foundation to start that expansion. And I think it's just important to see what commitment our community members have to our community hospital. Without that, we couldn't do what we do. And then I think finally we are working very hard right now on just what is the total patient experience across all elements of our healthcare system. And what I mean by that is really measuring what's happening first touch the first person that comes in, in admissions. And what is that experience like, what is it in billing, what is it in follow up? I think ultimately that's where it all begins and ends, which is how do you make sure that you have the best patient experience you can? Because without that, you're not really serving the community to what you can do the best.
- [08:15]
A
And I would just also be curious to hear, again, we touched on this at the beginning, but again, you were born in the hospital, so you've seen it grow over the years as its cfo. What does growth mean to you there and where do you expect to see it in the next few years?
- [08:30]
B
I think for us it's going to be service line growth, oncology with the new cancer center, cardiology with the new heart center. We do have a very, very robust orthopedics practice here in our community. We employ about 23 providers in orthopedics. So we have a very large regional orthopedics group. And, and part of that our growth is also going to be predicated on the fact that we have a strategic clinical alliance with the University of Kansas Health System. So that's a big system in Kansas City. So we work collaboratively with them about obviously we have patients here in Douglas county and surrounding areas that need care at a, have maybe a high acuity or a specialty that we don't have. We try to work with the University of Kansas to make those referrals, but then when that diagnosis is made or their care, they've had their protocol done at the University of Kansas, they come back to our community for any follow up or any other things. That's the key to us for growth and also just to provide the best health care.
- [09:44]
A
And in that same vein of growth and just watching the industry evolve, could you maybe share a piece of advice for some healthcare finance newcomers? Just, just one thing that you've taken with, with yourself throughout your career and, and advice you would give to people coming into the industry.
- [10:02]
B
I think probably the, the thing that is a little bit, it almost sounds a little bit against the principles of, of, of a chief financial officer, but you can't cost cut your way to prosperity yet. You have to invest in the right things at the right times to really have quality health care. I think that unfortunately, with the challenges in finances right now that are across the board in this industry, the temptation is to clamp down. The temptation is to say, you know, here's a service line that we really can't afford anymore. Here's, you know, especially probably being not aggressive enough on primary care because primary care is not, is obviously not a moneymaker. And it's something that you have to invest in though, because it's most important for our community to have that access. And a lot of times the numbers don't always tell the story of what's really happening. And that, that is something, I think that is a lesson that I've learned in this industry.
- [11:13]
A
Yeah. Kind of a read between the lines situation.
- [11:15]
B
Yes.
- [11:16]
A
Well, Rob, it was so exciting to hear all the amazing growth going on at LMH Health. I truly appreciate you connecting with me and I'm excited to chat again down the line.
- [11:26]
B
Great, thank you, Have a good day.