Omaha-based Nebraska Methodist Health System is turning to artificial intelligence and targeted cost-reduction strategies to address heightened expenses and streamline operations.
Jeff Francis, vice president of finance and CFO for Nebraska Methodist, said during a “Becker’s CFO + Revenue Cycle Podcast” episode that AI has become an essential tool, particularly on the revenue cycle and finance side.
“We just really see AI having the ability to take out that processing … and really turning that staff into auditors and reviewers,” he said. “It keeps the human in the loop, in the process, as well as allowing that staff to work at a higher level, working at the top of their license and being a little more challenged than doing data entry.”
Nebraska Methodist has already leveraged AI and robotic progress automation for the last seven years to help with coding, claim statusing and denial management. Mr. Francis said this has brought a higher level of functionality and helped the system to see “improved yield,” allowing employees to work on more difficult cases.
The health system is also targeting high costs through strategies such as reducing contract labor reliance — which is now below pre-pandemic levels — not automatically replacing roles when staff members exit and renegotiating supply contracts.
“Our costs are increasing at rates greater than revenue, whether you take into account just the population growth or the rates that the third-party payers are giving us,” Mr. Francis said. “[It] would be a lot more fun to focus on the growth, but [we’re] really having to focus on that cost management.”
Mr. Francis also shared advice for incoming finance leaders amid ongoing industry changes.
“It’s really being able to be that teacher helping the clinical side understand the ‘why,'” he said. “Being able to provide the ‘why’ allows all of us to work so that we can have the sufficient funds so that we can acquire the capital, we can reinvest [and] we can go into innovation that will benefit our clinicians [and] benefit our patients in the years to come.”
