Ask a Revenue Cycle Leader is a new series featuring insights from health system and hospital revenue cycle executives nationwide. Becker’s poses questions on the most pressing issues — from payer relations and automation to workforce and patient experience. We welcome responses from all revenue cycle, finance and reimbursement leaders.
Question: What is one book every revenue cycle leader should read and why?
Editor’s note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Beth Carlson. Chief Revenue Cycle Officer at WVU Medicine (Morgantown, W.Va.): “The 12 Week Year” by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Revenue cycle strategic plans don’t always survive contact with constant payer shifts, regulatory changes and tech disruption. This 12-week-year method enables teams to execute shorter cycles of improvement and pivot quickly without losing momentum. The approach helps revenue cycle teams stay aligned and focused amid operational noise while building agility and resilience into their culture.
Jason Metcalf. Vice President of Internal Revenue Cycle at CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): One book is tough. There are so many. I would say that I was always taught “leaders are readers and readers are leaders.” We have to always be reading something.
The one book this week would be “Crucial Conversations” (by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler). I share it regularly with new leaders and teams. It provides great tools to help leaders navigate through critical conversations they need to have with their teams, peers and superiors.
Wisdom is provided on how to keep conversations safe, so that those involved do not move toward silence or violence and to ensure that communication continues to flow for mutual understanding. It starts with the heart and challenging stories we tell ourselves when interpreting others’ communication. It can change one’s life. This book is invaluable in the professional environment, but it is also helpful at home.
Stephen Rinaldi. Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer at UNC Health (Chapel Hill, N.C.): I strongly recommend “The Effective Executive” by Peter F. Drucker as the single most valuable leadership book for finance and revenue cycle leaders who want to start delivering results. I consider this step one on a reading journey to better leadership. In an environment full of endless demands, Drucker’s five practices — managing your time ruthlessly, focusing on contributions over activity, building on strengths, concentrating effort on the vital few priorities, and making bold principled decisions — provide the framework to drive improvements in operating cash flow. This 1967 classic is written with no-nonsense prose and without ideological baggage, making it the book that finance executives read and reread because it consistently delivers the highest return on time invested.
Next question: What are you thankful for as a revenue cycle leader this year? If you are interested in responding please send responses to Andrew Cass at acass@beckershealthcare.com.
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