Payer Mix, Not Encounters: The One Number To Track

Payer Mix, Not Encounters: The One Number To Track

COMMUNITY HEALTH COLLECTIVE — PAYER MIX EPISODE (EP. 34) Host: Jill Steeley Payer Mix, Not Encounters: The One Number To Track Most health center leaders are watching the wrong number. They track encounters - visits up, schedules full, providers slammed - and call it progress. But here's the thing: more visits won't make your health center sustainable. In this episode I tell the story of a CEO I coach who sent me his encounter count like a monthly report card, proud and rising, until I asked him to pull his payer mix by revenue instead. That one shift changed everything. Encounters are a vanity metric. Payer mix is the real one. Revenue is decided by who you serve, not how many visits you do. I walk through the math on what one insured patient is actually worth, why Medicare is the most overlooked and most stable payer you've got, and the intentional plays to grow your insured lines - employer outreach, referral engines, and showing up in your community. And I take on the discomfort head-on: watching your payer mix isn't choosing money over mission. No margin, no mission. At PureView, focusing on insured patients the whole time I was CEO is exactly how we ended up serving more uninsured patients, not fewer. This one's for the CEO who's working harder every month and watching the revenue stay flat. Highlights: * Why encounters are a vanity metric and payer mix is the number that tells the truth * The back-of-the-envelope math: how 1,000 insured patients compounds into roughly $2 million in new annual revenue * Medicare as the most overlooked, most stable payer line - and the two moves to capture it (attract them, and stop under-billing the ones you already see) * The intentional plays to grow payer mix: self-funded employers, referral engines, and community presence * The reframe: no margin, no mission - margin is what funds the uninsured patient, not the other way around * Your one-thing-this-week homework: pull your payer mix by revenue and ask if your commercial and Medicare lines are growing, flat, or shrinking Quotes from the episode: * "He really was watching and monitoring the wrong performance indicator." * "Piling on encounters when your panel isn't insured just means you're busier on your way down." * "The lever here isn't more. The lever is who." * "We took an $800,000 deficit to millions of dollars in reserve and dropped our grant dependency from 62% down to 17%. Our mission didn't shrink, it grew - because the margin is what funded it." MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE • Revenue Diversification Guide - email me at jill@jillsteeley.com [jill@jillsteeley.com] with Revenue Diversification in the subject line and I’ll send you my free guide. • CEO Bootcamp — Jill & Steve Weinman’s program for health center leaders navigating strategic and financial decisions, where revenue cycle is a recurring topic. http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/www.fqhc-ceo.com [http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/] • Work with Jill — Email jill@jillsteeley.com or schedule a call at http://www.jillsteeley.com/jillsteeley.com [http://www.jillsteeley.com/] to talk through where your revenue cycle is leaking. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to: • Subscribe so you never miss an episode • Leave a rating and review • Share with a fellow health center leader who needs to hear this message Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!

Scaling Doesn't Fix Problems - It Multiplies Them

Community Health Collective Podcast Episode #33 Scaling Doesn’t Fix Problem - It Multiplies Them Hosted by: Jill Steeley ―――――――――――――――――――― EPISODE OVERVIEW Every health center leader wants to grow - the second site, the new service line, the bigger patient panel - but far fewer talk honestly about what scaling actually does to an organization. In this solo episode, Jill Steeley makes the case that scaling doesn’t add, it multiplies: it takes your current operations, culture, finances, and leadership and runs all of it through a copy machine. Drawing on her own turnaround story - a health center that couldn’t recruit a single physician in five years and later had to turn providers away - she walks through why the first question is never “how do we grow,” but “is what we have right now worth multiplying?” She covers the leadership-bench trap, why systems have to scale before sites, how payer mix has to stay front and center, and the one gut-check question to run on your operation this week. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: • The story behind a five-year recruiting drought - and how fixing the organization, not the pitch, turned it into turning providers away • Why scaling multiplies everything you already are - your operations, culture, finances, and your dysfunction - instead of simply adding to it • The first question to ask before you grow: is what we have right now actually worth multiplying? • Why growth opportunities show up at the worst possible moment - and why two wobbling sites are worse than one • The leadership-bench trap: why you can’t scale past your team, and what mergers and inherited leadership add to the problem • Why you scale your systems before your sites - and the difference between real scale and a more expensive version of the same grind • How to keep payer mix front and center so you grow toward health, not just volume • A one-question gut check to run on your operation this week KEY TAKEAWAYS “When you scale a health center, you are not adding a site. You are multiplying everything you already are.” “You didn’t scale the organization. You scaled the number of fires and kept the exact same number of firefighters.” “The health centers that grow well are the ones that put the infrastructure in before the growth - not the ones scrambling to bolt it on after they’ve already said yes.” “Build something strong enough to last, and then grow it on purpose - not by accident, not because an opportunity showed up and you panicked.” MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE • CEO Connect Bootcamp — Jill & Steve Weinman’s program for health center leaders working through scaling and other strategic and financial decisions | www.fqhc-ceo.com [http://www.fqhc-ceo.com] • The Untrained Leader Problem & the Island of Competence — earlier episodes on why developing leaders has to keep pace with the organization (Episodes 27 and 29 [https://jillsteeley.com/podcast]) • Past episodes on revenue cycle & technology - the infrastructure that makes real scale possible | www.jillsteeley.com/podcast [http://www.jillsteeley.com/podcast] • jillsteeley.com - schedule a call [https://calendly.com/jill-v7c/30min]to talk through whether you’re ready to scale, or email jill@jillsteeley.com CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to: • Leave a rating and review • Subscribe so you never miss an episode • Share with a fellow health center leader who needs to hear this message Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!

HR1 Could Move 10–25% of Your Patients from Medicaid to Uninsured—Here’s How to Plan for It

Community Health Collective Podcast Episode #32 HR1 Could Move 10–25% of Your Patients from Medicaid to Uninsured—Here’s How to Plan for It Hosted by: Jill Steeley Episode Overview HR1-the One Big Beautiful Bill-keeps coming up on the CEO Bootcamp coaching calls, with leaders asking the same question: “What are we going to do about our patients losing their Medicaid?” In this episode, Jill answers it. We’re past speculation and into implementation, and three Medicaid changes are now bearing down on health centers: twice-a-year redeterminations, new work/community engagement requirements, and a narrowing of eligibility for legally present immigrants. Underneath all of it is one financial reality - industry analysts are telling leaders to model a 10–25% drop in their Medicaid population, with the uninsured population growing by the same amount. Jill breaks down each change in plain English and gives you a six-move survival plan so the charity-care hit doesn’t ambush you mid-year. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: * What HR1 implementation looks like and which changes are landing in 2026 and 2027 * What the move to six-month redeterminations means for front-office churn and administrative coverage loss * How the 80-hour-a-month work requirements work—and why most coverage loss will come from reporting burden, not real ineligibility * Why your Medicaid managed care plans are prohibited from determining work-requirement compliance * The October 1, 2026 immigrant eligibility cliff: which lawfully present groups lose federally funded Medicaid, and what stays (emergency Medicaid) * Why a Medicaid-to-uninsured shift hits so hard when Medicaid is 35–40%+ of operating revenue * Jill’s six-move survival plan—and why cutting your way out makes things worse Key Takeaways “The danger here is usually not that people become genuinely ineligible. The danger is the paperwork. Double the redeterminations, and you double the chances for an eligible patient to lose coverage over a piece of mail.” “Same patient. Same visit. Same cost to deliver the care—with a fraction of the revenue. That’s what a Medicaid-to-uninsured shift actually does to you.” “Don’t let this surprise you mid-year. Budget charity care on purpose—before it shows up as a variance in front of your board.” “The health centers that come through this in good shape won’t be the ones that cut the fastest. They’ll be the ones that protected access and planned for the charity care instead of getting ambushed by it.” Free Resource Want help with Move 1? Email jill@jillsteeley.com [jill@jillsteeley.com] with “HR1 Plan” in the subject line for a simple worksheet to model your Medicaid-to-uninsured exposure and build charity care into your budget—or schedule a call at jillsteeley.com [http://jillsteeley.com]. Mentioned in This Episode * Episode #31 [https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149215935]—the revenue-cycle episode on verifying insurance and recovering leaked revenue (listen first if you haven’t) * CEO Bootcamp [http://www.fqhc-ceo.com]—Jill & Steve Weinman’s program for health center and safety-net leaders navigating strategic and financial decisions * Vital Interaction [https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149158294]—AI-powered patient engagement for branded, multi-language reminders and outreach at scale * Rural Health Transformation Funding [https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149177765]—covered in Episode #19; a potential funding cushion for charity care and capacity * Free planning worksheet—email “HR1 Plan” to jill@jillsteeley.com Connect & Subscribe If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to: * Leave a rating and review * Subscribe so you never miss an episode * Share with a fellow health center leader who needs to hear this message Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!

Stop Blaming Billing: The Real Reason Revenue Is Slipping Away

Community Health Collective Podcast Episode #31 Stop Blaming Billing: The Real Reason Revenue Is Slipping Away Hosted by: Jill Steeley EPISODE OVERVIEW Most leaders think of the revenue cycle as billing and collections - the part where you can see the money, or watch it fail to show up. But by the time a claim reaches your billing office, the win or the loss has usually already been decided. In this episode, Jill Steeley reframes where the revenue cycle actually begins: not in the billing office and not with a claim, but the moment a patient fills out their paperwork - and every single time they check in. She walks through the full cycle in plain English, explains why the front desk is the link that breaks most often, shares a sobering story about what a single unconfirmed phone number cost one health center, and leaves you with five low-cost things you can take to your team this week. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: • Why most leaders only pay attention to the last 20% of their revenue cycle — and what they’re missing • The three stages of the revenue cycle in plain English: the front end, the middle, and the back end • Why those three stages are one connected chain, not separate departments that hand off to each other • Why the weakest link is usually the front desk — and why no outside revenue cycle contractor can fix that part for you • How preventable registration and eligibility errors (a transposed member ID, a termed plan, a wrong date of birth) become denials 45 days later • The true cost of a two-second check-in mistake: staff time at every step, money aging in AR, and claims written off past timely filing • A real story of how a single unconfirmed phone number turned into a tragedy — and an FTCA claim • The wrong way and the right way to confirm a patient’s information at check-in • Five concrete, low-cost ways to strengthen your revenue cycle this week • How to answer the “my front desk is already slammed” objection — and why that bottleneck is a revenue question, not just an operations one KEY TAKEAWAYS “Your revenue cycle does not start with a bill — it starts at the front desk.” “By the time a claim hits your billing office, the outcome of that claim has usually already been decided.” “Garbage in, garbage out. If the information that goes in at the front desk is wrong, no amount of skill on the billing team is going to save that claim.” “A two-second mistake at check-in can become a permanent loss for the health center.” “Your billing team can be excellent, and you can still be bleeding revenue — because the problem was created long before the claim ever reached them.” MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE • RetroCAID (with Howard Archer) - Software that combs 365 days of your claims against state Medicaid to recover revenue you didn’t know you were owed. No EHR integration, no upfront cost, and they only get paid if you do. Listen to the full episode: https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149148176$9K to $40K Monthly: How One Software Automatically Recovers Hidden Revenue [https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149148176] • CEO Bootcamp — Jill & Steve Weinman’s program for health center leaders navigating strategic and financial decisions, where revenue cycle is a recurring topic. http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/www.fqhc-ceo.com [http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/] • Work with Jill — Email jill@jillsteeley.com or schedule a call at http://www.jillsteeley.com/jillsteeley.com [http://www.jillsteeley.com/] to talk through where your revenue cycle is leaking. CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to: • Subscribe so you never miss an episode • Leave a rating and review • Share with a fellow health center leader who needs to hear this message Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!

COO vs Clinic Manager: How to Know Which One Your Health Center Actually Needs

COO vs. Clinic Manager: How to Know Which One Your Health Center Actually Needs Hosted by: Brent Stutzman, TheraSaaS Podcast | Guest: Jill Steeley, FQHC Consultant & Executive Coach ―――――――――――――――――――― Episode Overview In this crossover episode, Jill joins Brent Stutzman on the TheraSaaS podcast for a practical conversation about one of the most consequential growing-pain decisions a practice or health center faces: do you need a clinic manager or a chief operating officer? Drawing on her own experience inheriting a clinic-manager-run health center as a brand-new CEO, Jill unpacks the real difference between the two roles, the warning signs that you’ve outgrown day-to-day firefighting, the true cost of the wrong hire, and why a fractional COO can be the lowest-risk way to test the water. ―――――――――――――――――――― In This Episode, You’ll Learn: • The real difference between a clinic manager and a COO—and why conflating them keeps leaders stuck in the weeds • Why promoting your best clinician into a management role so often backfires • How to diagnose your actual pain points before you write a single job description • The “you might need a COO if…” warning signs: staff turnover, operational chaos, stalled patient growth, and no systems • Why the wrong hire at this level is so expensive—emotionally and financially • What to actually look for in a COO, and how to vet for outcomes and culture fit, not just a clean reference check • How a fractional COO works—and why it’s a scalable, lower-risk way to get started • Why “even imperfect action is action” when burnout is the real symptom ―――――――――――――――――――― Key Takeaways “Culture eats strategy for lunch any time of the day.” “Even imperfect action is action.” “Your burnout is a big symptom of doing everything and not being willing to give up some of that control.” ―――――――――――――――――――― Mentioned in This Episode • http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/CEO Connect Bootcamp [http://www.fqhc-ceo.com/] — Jill’s program for health center and practice leaders on attracting patients, building systems, and leading strategically • Healthcare Leadership Style Quiz — Jill’s free quiz to identify your leadership pattern | http://www.jillsteeley.com/leadershipquizjillsteeley.com/leadershipquiz [http://www.jillsteeley.com/leadershipquiz] • https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149198276Community Health Collective episode [https://www.jillsteeley.com/podcasts/community-health-collective/episodes/2149198276] on fractional executives • http://www.jillsteeley.com/jillsteeley.com [http://www.jillsteeley.com/] — Schedule a call or find free resources | jill@jillsteeley.com ―――――――――――――――――――― Connect & Subscribe If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to: • Leave a rating and review • Subscribe so you never miss an episode • Share with a fellow health center leader who needs to hear this message Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!