Avoiding Leadership Mistakes when Adopting Automation in your Revenue Cycle - the Five Questions to Ask Yourself!
Valerie F. Barckhoff, MBA (she/her/hers)
Principal at Windham Brannon, LLC and CEO/Co-Founder at SHOAR
I recently read a leadership article written before the pandemic, "How leaders decide: Three lessons to learn from one of the U.S. history's bloodiest days." In the article, the author, Greg Bustin, recounts the Battle of Little Bighorn and the mistakes made by the arrogant General George Custer. For those unfamiliar with Custer's Last Stand, General Custer was ordered to "round up" the Native Americans peacefully following buffalo herds in Montana - though the army labeled them "hostiles." Custer had sights on running for president and believed a successful mission would get him there. Custer was greatly outnumbered by the Native Americans, led by the well-respected leader, Sitting Bull. Even though Custer had enough evidence to realize that the Native Americans had likely seen and prepared for the Cavalry, he proceeded with the original plan of attack. As Custer was shot and killed, the army fell apart. The rest is history, as they say.
Bustin shares three leadership lessons that are applicable today as Revenue Cycle Leaders mobilize to help their organizations incorporate Innovation and Automation in their Revenue Cycles.
Lesson 1: Listen to the voice of experience, not your ego
Lesson 2: Collect facts and assess conditions before making critical decisions
Lesson 3: Lead people in the right direction, or risk desertion
The future of the Revenue Cycle is automation - period, end of the story. Revenue Cycle operations will look markedly different in five years than they do today. And the skillset of leaders will look vastly different with Automation at the core of what we are expected to do.
The biggest risk that I see for organizations is Custer-like egos. Most are unaware that they have egos. The ego emerges as unwilling to innovate and falling back on old business strategies. These leaders may still be throwing out the acronyms RPA and AI - but dig deeper, and you find that they are parroting their vendors who have convinced them that RPA comes through vendors automation. Let me ask you a simple question, why would you let a vendor convince you that they are how you automate, allowing them to reap the benefits of a more efficient process?
The second risk is a failure to understand what true Innovate and Automation look like in the revenue cycle before making a decision. I will caveat this sentence by saying that time is of the essence. You do not have the luxury of making a long, drawn-out decision on an RPA platform partner, but you need to know how RPA works and how it will benefit your organization. Screen-scraping is not automation! RPA allows you to build a Digital Workforce that will mitigate two critical risks in my mind. The first is the rising cost of labor - the revenue cycle cannot afford to bear the burden of increased wages for a long period. The second is improved cash and net revenue performance. For years we have accepted revenue cycle leakage as a part of our business. We can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to revenue cycle inefficiencies. Imagine building a Digital Workforce that does work the way you want when you want!
The final risk is leading your people, and your organization, in the wrong direction. I have often said that a pilot that was able to fly the MD-80 may not be the same pilot to fly your 777. You may have a charismatic Revenue Cycle leader, but they may no longer be equipped to lead your organization, given our new reality. As a Revenue Cycle leader, try to become educated on RPA Platforms and how successful organizations adopt automation. As a C-suite leader, ask yourself if you have the right Revenue Cycle leader. Do they understand automation? Do they have a plan to adopt and scale automation? And do they have a plan to help the organizations transform with automation?
Bustin ends his article with five questions leaders should ask themselves - and I'll repeat them here:
- Where are the gaps in your knowledge and experience that may be skewing your perspective?
- What's your process for proceeding with a decision in the face of data that suggests you shouldn't?
- How might your ego be clouding your decision-making?
- If you found yourself in a tough spot, who are the key people you'd call for help? How would they respond?
- Will your "troops" follow you? Should they?
SVP, Client Engagement at EnableComp
1yExcellent write-up, Valerie. Some good takeaways for all of us in this one. “ego clouding decision-making?” I see it happen all the time. We should be more cognizant of it in our business.
Visionary Healthcare Executive | Igniting Growth, Financial Performance & Digital Transformation in Healthcare
1yFantastic article!
Nice article and some really true statements. I would also challenge the revenue cycle innovation and automation industry to properly advocate and protect some of these sentiments. We are more than 5 years into the automation trend and we are still holding up things like claim status as the holy grail of automation use case. We are taking the drawn out process to evaluate a true automation partner because so many out there are failing to understand what that truly means to a healthcare organization. Our partner will redefine business practices, our management and leadership structure, and the revenue cycle workforce. We will be a cheaper, efficient, more accurate, and less risky revenue cycle operation that will create a seamless patient experience much closer to the delivery of care. We're going to get this one right... we're just waiting for the right partner to prove they can do it with us.