December 15 | Implementation to Impact: Revenue Cycle Lessons from Lompoc

Dustin Cheney, MBA, serves as Chief Financial Officer of Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where he oversees the organization’s financial strategy, revenue cycle operations, and long term fiscal sustainability. Dustin was appointed CFO in December 2020 after more than a decade of progressive leadership roles within the organization.

Dustin began his career at Lompoc Valley Medical Center in 2008 as a Staff Accountant and later advanced to Business Office Manager, gaining hands-on experience across finance and revenue cycle operations. In 2014, he was promoted to Controller, a role in which he provided strategic financial oversight and supported operational growth initiatives before assuming the CFO position.

With a deep understanding of community hospital operations, Dustin brings a practical, mission-driven approach to financial leadership focused on supporting patient care, staff engagement, and organizational performance. He holds a Master of Business Administration and is actively involved in community and regional economic initiatives, including service on nonprofit boards.

Professional Experience Summary

Kelly Johnson is Chief Revenue Cycle Officer – Sunrise for Altera Digital Health, a publicly traded company (Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) that provides electronic health record technology and other health information technology, connecting over 12 million consumers across 15 countries.

Prior to joining Altera Digital Health (formerly Allscripts), Kelly gained extensive Revenue Cycle experience in multiple healthcare operational and IT positions. Her efforts focused on workflow optimization and design, A/R management, cash acceleration, and revenue integrity, among other areas. Kelly has been recognized by executive leadership due to her diligence and ability to find opportunities that generated revenue and improved cash collection, making a significant long-term impact on organizations. As a Revenue Cycle Leader, she was able to do the following, as a few examples:

• Discovered over $30M dollars in regulatory, billing, and other items at one client.
• Self-pay segmentation using Altera product that improved ROI vs. Vendor, hospital savings in excess of $180K
• Found interface Pathology charging issue in excess of $375K per month and created solution
• Eliminated $14M backlog in Credit Balances with new internal automated process that eliminated most human intervention
• Created Daily Cash reporting that increased cash goal each month over the previous year.
• Developed secondary process to work “No Activity” accounts which eliminated timely filing issues and increased time to payment.
• Initiated WQ build that layered automated write-off thresholds and approval process-driven workflows that allowed staff to work efficiently.
• Developed extensive edit build-back project and denial edit build to raise clean claim rate to 96%
• Created a strategy that allowed the client to reduce denials from 40% to 4%