Tracy Moyer, Executive Vice President and CFO of Penn State Health

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Conversation with Traci Moyer, Executive Vice President and CFO of Penn State Health
Host: Madeline Ashley
Guest: Traci Moyer, EVP & CFO, Penn State Health
Release Date: October 31, 2025
Duration: ~10 minutes of core content

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Episode Overview

This episode spotlights Traci Moyer, newly appointed Executive Vice President and CFO of Penn State Health. The conversation covers Traci’s background, her vision and immediate priorities as CFO, strategies for organizational growth, the ongoing evolution of the healthcare CFO’s role, and advice for those considering a career in healthcare finance. Traci also shares updates on Penn State Health’s leadership team and the highly anticipated Epic EMR rollout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Traci Moyer’s Background & Role

• Tenure: Over 21 years at Penn State Health, specializing in enterprise transformation across finance, labor management, revenue cycle, and supply chain ([01:11]).
• Scope: Oversees financial operations for a $4.7 billion integrated academic health system spanning 29 Pennsylvania counties.
• Leadership Experience: Played a key role as Interim CFO before promotion to permanent CFO in October 2025 ([06:30]).

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Top Financial Priorities at Penn State Health

1. Workforce Optimization

• Focus on efficient and effective staff deployment to expand into new markets and enhance patient access.
• “We are working to optimize our workforce…to grow into new markets and be as efficient as possible and provide access to our patients.” — Traci Moyer ([02:17])

2. Asset Utilization & Capital Deployment

• Ensuring current physical assets are maximally utilized before investing in further infrastructure.
• Emphasizes wise capital spending to support strategic growth.

3. Revenue Diversification & Market Presence

• Expanding and diversifying revenue streams.
• “We want to expand our market presence into places maybe we aren’t yet providing to the communities that need us.” — Traci Moyer ([02:17])

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Growth Strategies & Excitement for 2026

• System Expansion: Focus on serving new and existing markets (e.g., Berks, Cumberland, Lancaster counties) with community-specific approaches ([03:22]).
• EPIC EMR Implementation: Launching in late October 2026 to unify health records and enhance system efficiency.
  • “One of the key things that we’re working on is the install of our EPIC EMR. We go live Halloween of next year.” — Traci Moyer ([04:13])
• Medical Group Unification: Integrating providers and subspecialists across regions to improve access and create “true systemness.”

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Leadership & Organizational Stability

• Continuity and Stability: Committed to leveraging access to capital and strategic partnerships to empower teams.
• “Standing still is not an option based on the market as it sits today.” — Traci Moyer ([05:08])
• Finance Team Optimization: Sustained focus on process improvement, especially with the upcoming Epic rollout as a “game changer” ([05:08]).
• The finance team has followed a robust optimization roadmap since 2022.

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Evolution of the CFO Role in Healthcare

• Tech Alignment: CFO must now be closely aligned with the CIO due to the centrality of technology in revenue cycle and back-office operations.
  • “The CFO role has to be more heavily aligned with the CIO than it has in its past…everything is technology driven.” — Traci Moyer ([06:48])
• Regulatory Vigilance: Federal and reimbursement dynamics (e.g., Medicaid, Pennsylvania state-directed payments) present significant industry headwinds ([06:48]).

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Advice for Aspiring Healthcare Finance Leaders

• Broaden Skillsets: Avoid siloing; gain exposure to different finance areas (e.g., planning, reimbursement, operations).
  • “Keep your eyes wide open and take on opportunities to get yourself exposed to multiple lanes in healthcare finance…” — Traci Moyer ([08:09])
• Career Opportunities: Multifaceted experience leads to more growth and leadership options.

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Organizational Updates & Outlook

• Leadership Team Finalization: Executive team newly solidified; viewed as a catalyst for advancing strategy.
  • “We officially announced today that our final executive team member will be joining us, so we’re excited about that.” — Traci Moyer ([09:21])
• Epic Transition Significance: Epic implementation set to “mold the organization and transform us into the place that we need to be going for the future years.” ([09:21])

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Notable Quotes

• “We want to make sure we’re absorbing the capacity we have before growing or building additional infrastructures and spend that capital wisely.”
  — Traci Moyer ([02:17])
• “While we continue to optimize operations and resources, we’re equally committed to pursuing growth opportunities that strengthen our system and enhance access for the communities we serve.”
  — Traci Moyer ([05:08])
• “You develop a specialty in finance…keep your avenues broad so you can grow into other positions. Opportunities are endless when you get to that level.”
  — Traci Moyer ([08:09])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |---------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 01:11 | Background & role at Penn State Health | | 02:17 | Financial priorities: workforce, assets, revenue | | 03:22 | Expansion into new regions & community-specific strategy | | 04:13 | Epic EMR rollout and scalability | | 05:08 | Leadership, stability, and finance team optimization | | 06:48 | Evolution of the CFO role and technology alignment | | 08:09 | Advice for healthcare finance careers | | 09:21 | Leadership update and excitement for the future |

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Tone

Traci Moyer’s commentary is pragmatic, forward-looking, and encouraging—balancing realism about industry headwinds with optimism for Penn State Health’s future and the opportunities available to emerging healthcare finance leaders.

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This summary captures the core discussions and practical insights from the episode, providing a clear map for listeners—even those who haven’t tuned in directly.

Transcript

[A]

@ Athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier a healthier business, healthier care teams and healthier patients. But the complexities of modern healthcare tech make it hard for you and your care teams to focus on what matters most. That's where athenahealth can help our AI native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens, streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights when clinicians need it most. That means fewer clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice can be that much simpler. With Athenahealth, see how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.

[B]

This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker CFO and Revenue Cycle Podcast and I'm so excited to be joined today by Traci Moyer, Executive Vice President and CFO of Penn State Health. Traci, thank you for joining me.

[C]

Thank you for having me here.

[B]

Awesome. So, Tracy, before we kick things off, do you mind sharing just a little bit about yourself with our listeners and more on your background in Penn State Health and obviously your new title? Excited to discuss that a little bit.

[C]

Thanks, Madeline. Sure. I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Penn State Health. I have worked at Penn State Health for 21 years. I lead a comprehensive financial operation for our $4.7 billion integrated academic health system. We span 29 Pennsylvania counties. I've been here quite some time, but prior to that I also have healthcare experience. I specialize in driving enterprise transformation inclusive of labor management, revenue cycle and supply chain optimization for sustainable growth across a multi specialty entity organization.

[B]

Wonderful. I appreciate you sharing that. So, to kick us off here, as you mentioned, you've been with Penn State Health for a while, but in early October it was announced that you were the new Executive Vice President and cfo. So first of all, congratulations.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

Could you share just maybe two to three financial priorities that you have right now at Penn State Health as you kick off your new role and how you're balancing short term stability with maybe long term growth?

[C]

Absolutely. We have a number of priorities, as you may have recognized across the healthcare industry. I would say first and foremost, we are working to optimize our workforce. We want to ensure that we're deploying staff efficiently and effectively across our health system that will allow us to grow into new markets and be as efficient as possible and provide access to our patients. We want to make sure we're utilizing our physical assets to the best of our ability. We we want to make sure we're absorbing the capacity we have before growing or building additional infrastructures and spend that capital wisely. We want to grow and diversify our revenue streams. In other words, you know, getting paid for the work that we're doing. And we want to expand our market presence into places maybe we aren't yet providing to the communities that need us.

[B]

And given you've been with the system for a while now, could you share maybe how that gives you maybe almost a leg up in your new position and kind of just how you're tackling that from a leadership perspective?

[C]

Sure. I have been with the health system for a long time. We were, you know, we were simply Hershey Medical center at one point in time. And as the system grew, we grew into Cumberland county and Lancaster county and those markets. We have populations of folks that we need to be providing services for closer to their homes. We also have a Berks county market that we want to serve differently than we do today. So we'll be working on strategies to meet the needs of those communities while we continue to serve the markets we're in.

[B]

And, you know, just piggybacking off of that. And you did talk a little bit about growth. Could you just share maybe a few things that you're extremely excited about the system right now, especially even now that we're almost at the end of 2025. It's crazy how fast this year has gone. Just what you're maybe looking forward to in 2026.

[C]

Sure. So at Penn State Health, you know, we're looking at scalability. One of the key things that we're working on is the install of our EPIC emr. We go live Halloween of next year. So we're close to a one year mark from that. We are working to unify our medical group, which, which has been. One of the things we have been challenged with is to get our providers into those markets that we need them to be present in, including the subspecialists and our continue on building true systemness, which will help us with our efficiencies.

[B]

And as you step into this CFO role, can you share how you plan to approach providing, you know, continuity and stability for the finance team and the broader organization? More so, just as you know, there's so much uncertainty right now in healthcare, just with, you know, from healthcare policy, just in general. Could you kind of dive a little deeper into how you plan to do that?

[C]

Sure. So for the broader organization, we're focused on leveraging our access to capital to empower our providers and teams to deliver deliver exceptional care. We are also looking at partnerships differently than maybe we have in our conservative past. By strategically investing in growth, whether through expanding into new markets or deepening our presence in the existing ones, we ensure long term sustainability. Really, for us, standing still is not an option based on the market as it sits today in the populations that need our care. While we continue to optimize operations and resources, we're equally committed to pursuing growth opportunities that strengthen our system and enhance access for the communities we serve. Related specifically though to the finance team, we've been on a clear path of optimization since 2022, I would say, and that roadmap is still moving forward. The implementation of epic, of course, will be an additional game changer for us. It will streamline processes, improve data integrity, and ultimately allow us to deliver even better services to the organization. Our team's well positioned to support the system's transformation while maintaining financial discipline and stability.

[B]

And I believe you've served, and correct me if I'm wrong, but as interim CFO since June, is that correct?

[C]

I did, that's correct.

[B]

Okay. Yeah. And so just over this time, I would be so curious, just also in your time in health here, could you share, I love to ask CFOs this question. How have you seen the role evolve over even maybe just the last three to five years and where do you expect it to continue to go?

[C]

I think the CFO role has to be more heavily aligned with the CIO than maybe it has in its past, primarily because everything is technology driven and revenue cycle and your back office functions are all technology platforms. So that's different than maybe it has been in the past. But in addition to that, I think we have significant federal headwinds. If I think back generationally, we've had a lot of Federal headwinds over 20 years probably, but none like we are facing as an industry. Moving forward, the federal budget reconciliation is going to be interesting across the nation. Pennsylvania primarily in the state directed payment area is one of the things that obviously all eyes are on that along with eligibility in Medicaid, those things could impact us from a payer perspective. And so we, we want to be vigilant about that and of course we evaluate them ongoing.

[B]

Yeah. And for anyone coming into the industry right now, because a few CFOs that I've also spoken with have just mentioned, you know, a tougher time maybe recruiting on the finance side for healthcare. Could you share any advice or anything you'd like to say to someone that might be considering a position in healthcare finance?

[C]

I would say keep your avenues broad and what I mean by that is what we're seeing. And this is just a sign of the times we're seeing skill sets in the finance team siloed. Because if you think about finance positions, maybe 20 years ago in healthcare, you kind of got to touch every lane of healthcare finance, right? And now as we've become systems, you develop a specialty in finance. So if you think about maybe reimbursement or planning activities, they're really siloed compared to past practice where you were doing planning and you were doing reimbursement and you were doing financial ops. And so keep your eyes wide open and take on opportunities to get yourself exposed to multiple lanes in healthcare finance that will allow you to grow into other positions. And opportunities are endless when you get to that level.

[B]

Well, that's truly some great advice there. I appreciate you sharing. Tracy, anything else you'd like to touch on today, just in terms of your new role? Any excitement behind that? Just congratulations again.

[C]

Thank you. I think one of the most exciting things for us as a leadership team, we've just solidified the executive team here at Penn State Health. I know that our new CEO is anxious to do that. We officially announced today that our final executive team member will be joining us, so we're excited about that. And the epic transition for us a year from now is going to just really solidify, I think, and mold the organization and transform us into the place that we need to be going for the future years.

[B]

Wonderful. It sounds like such an exciting time right now for Penn State Health. Traci, I truly appreciate you joining me on the podcast today, and I really look forward to connecting with you again down the line in a few months.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

At athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a healthier business, healthier care teams and healthier patients. But the complexities of modern healthcare tech make it hard for you and your care teams to focus on what matters most. That's where athenahealth can help our AI native all in one solutions. Reduce administrative burdens, streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights when clinicians need it most. That means fewer clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom lines. Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice can be that much simpler with Athenahealth. See how simpler is [e-mail].