| | DECEMBER 202419UTLOOKHealthcare Tech By Ken Hogue, Chief Revenue Cycle Office, United Health ServicesFrom Early Aspirations to Transformative Leadership:A Journey in Healthcare Revenue Cycle OptimizationMy Interest in healthcare, came at the young age of 15 years old, when working in a work-study program in high school, where I worked with the Military and in a doctor's office 10-15 hours per week while, my dad was stationed in Kings Bay, GA In the Military. After graduating high school, I worked with the ARC of Pennsylvania while attending college and assisted with grant writing, and part-time TSS worker in the Patient Care Field for individuals with Mental or Developmental Health issues, to become more independent and an advocate for the services in which they needed to reach their highest level of independence. After losing my grandmother and another very close family member, who also was a career mentor in January 2020. I was ready to heal with a new start leaving Rochester NY and NYC Job Market Area and going to Binghamton NY, to UHS. I started with the organization on March 17th of 2020, knowing that they were going to EPIC as their health EMR, and wanted to take all of my past experiences in the revenue cycle to help for a smooth and very successful go-live in the midst of a national pandemic. From the first day stepping foot in the UHS revenue cycle, I knew I was at the right place. A place that needed me, and that would be a lot of valued work to ensure the revenue cycle, would grow to a best-in-class revenue cycle system. I wanted to give it everything I had professionally, to help the community in which I moved to, became part of, to ensure that we could be a partner through the health system by revenue cycle optimization, workflows, challenges and changes. Which is exactly what I did. From my first day, it was about building relationships, advocating for the revenue cycle and sharing the large picture of how important the revenue cycle is especially during a national pandemic. Billing and coding regulations, during the pandemic, were changing so fast at first. It was hard for the management/leadership team to keep up, and keep staff engaged and focused. When you have a large diverse team, which has a very in-person culture. To go almost fully remote, was a very large cultural change. That did not happen overnight, it took persistence, rolling up my sleeve and communicating through webex, zoom, etc. To ensure that we had routine touch points with teams, where they felt valued, and still received the communication they needed and devoted resources to a dedicated online training team for our revenue cycle team members. Ken HogueKen Hogue is a dedicated healthcare executive specializing in optimization and organizational transformation to industry-leading standards. He excels in fostering collaborative relationships and creating a positive work environment, leading by example to drive success.Through this article, Ken Hogue shares his insights on overcoming challenges like remote work and regulatory changes through servant leadership and team engagement. Emphasizing continuous improvement with automation and AI, the executive significantly contributed to UHS's growth, transforming it into a top-performing revenue cycle system focused on staff development and retention.CXO INSIGHTS
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