HFMA Revenue Cycle Conference tackles issues big and small

Some of the most interesting experiences to be had at HFMA’s 2025 Revenue Cycle Conference held March 19-21 in San Antonio could be found off the stage during snack and meal breaks.

A conversation with a group of revenue cycle management (RCM) professionals really struck a chord in highlighting the dedication many of them apply to the task.

Amid a wide-ranging discussion with RCM staffers from Fort Defiance Indian Hospital, with three facilities in Arizona, they said that at least a couple of them drive a long distance to get to their jobs. Thomarita Wilson, a voucher examiner for Fort Defiance Hospital drives two hours each way to get to work, for instance

That kind of commitment to RCM could be found among speakers and attendees in about every session, with different panelists sharing their success stories or offering their expertise in how to advance the capabilities of a hospital’s RCM process.

People were generous with their time and knowledge. An early session led by two Mayo Clinic executives, Michelle Amos, manager of revenue cycle automation, and Kevin Barnes, senior director of revenue cycle automation at the Rochester, Minn.-based clinic, offered plenty of insider tips that they said worked well in robotic process automation (RPA), but could be applied to managing other tech tools used in RCM.

Among their suggestions was the idea to keep certain team roles filled by internal candidates — because in certain instances understanding the Mayo culture and operating methods can be more important than knowing the specifics of the job, one example being business analyst.

“We decided to hire people that knew our EHR and then train them to be business analysts,” Amos said. “That has proved to be invaluable because they come to the projects with very, very deep knowledge of how everything works, and they know how to ask the right questions,” she said. Mayo took a similar approach with hiring its automation program developers.

But other aspects of RPA at Mayo benefited from having contractual flexibility as part of arrangements with vendors, so that resources could be ramped up or down, depending on the organizational needs of the operation.

Not all the sessions were focused on the nuts and bolts of RCM. An unusual but productive workshop on problem-solving led by a team from a company called  Projectory grabbed the attention of conference attendees by explaining a two-part process for solution generation and execution.

The Projectory team also put a twist on the RCM trivia competition, adding a physical element in the stacking of different-sized blocks.

Keynote speaker Alison Levine, mountaineer and professional speaker, shared her stories of adventure while climbing Mt Everest. Her inspirational story of survival in extreme conditions was well received by the RCM professionals in the audience and she drew conclusions from her adventures that could be applied to leadership efforts in any organization. Levine is on of the few to climb the highest peaks on each continent and travel to the South and North Poles.

Levine’s central message gleaned from her decision to not attempt reaching the summit while just a few hundred feet from the top of Everest was to know your limits in each situation.

“Backing up is not the same as backing down,” she said.

Spoiler alert: Levine climbed Mount Everest a second time in honor of a friend who died at an early age and reached the top that time.