Becker's Hospital Review

65 65 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Kaiser CFO's advice to healthcare leaders: 'Get comfortable with being uncomfortable' By Lauren Jensik K athy Lancaster is the CFO of Kaiser Permanente. The Oakland, Calif.-based health system consists of 39 hospitals and 12.5 million health plan mem- bers, with an operating revenue of $88.7 billion in 2020. Ms. Lancaster spoke with Becker's over email July 15 about her priorities and concerns for the organization in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Editor's note: Responses were edited lightly for style and clarity. Question: What are the biggest lessons you learned as Kaiser Permanente's CFO during the pandemic? Kathy Lancaster: A crisis like the pandemic requires a fast response and creates an opportunity for innovation. From supply chain to care delivery, we had to look at creative solutions to address the uncharted waters of COVID-19 to support the health and safety of our 12.5 million mem- bers, 217,000 employees and 88,000 clinicians, and our surrounding communities. Our integrated model has allowed us to redeploy resourc- es to keep our hospitals and specialty care facilities, such as cancer treatment centers, open to care for members who need in-person visits. As the pandemic began, our facilities' leaders and employees were able to double our bed ca- pacity. As COVID-19 testing became crucial in fighting the pandemic, we installed over 100 temporary facilities for testing and vaccination and built a new COVID-19 testing facility in under 60 days. Additionally, we established pro- grams to provide continuity of care for our members who lost coverage because of the pandemic. Our previous technology investments played a huge role during the pandemic. Our digital capabilities and infrastructure enabled Kaiser Permanente to continue providing care to our members in their homes through telehealth visits and mail-order pharmacy – with over 80 percent of ambulatory care visits at the height of the pan- demic being virtual. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of Kaiser Permanente's integrated model and reinforced our digi- tal organizational capabilities. It has shown us the bene- fits of being an agile, resilient system able to shift priori- ties and resources quickly to best care for our members and communities. Q: What are your top priorities for Kaiser Permanente for 2021 and 2022? KL: Our top priority continues to be the health and safety of our members, workforce and communities. We are fo- cused on ensuring members who may have delayed care due to the pandemic are getting the care they need as well as continued efforts to increase vaccination rates and treat COVID-19 patients. Another major focus will be shifting to a digital-first sys- tem. To continue providing new, innovative ways for our members to receive care in this evolving healthcare land- scape, we must invest in new platforms and tools for tele- health and member care management. We will look at new technology to support seamless digital experiences that personalize care, empower healthy living and bring technology advances into our facilities. At the end of the day, we want to continue our mission of providing high-quality, affordable healthcare and to improve the health of our members and the commu- nities we serve. Q: What are some of your biggest financial concerns coming out of the pandemic? KL: Everyone deserves high-quality, affordable care and too often it is an inhibitor to many people in the U.S. This is something Kaiser Permanente wants to continue address- ing for our members and communities. Our unique integrated care model and membership structure along with sound, consistent investments in our infrastructure, technology and virtual offerings help opti- mize healthcare and access for those we serve. As we look to the future, finding new ways to provide high-quality, af- fordable healthcare will be a continued focus. Q: What advice do you have for other healthcare CFOs? KL: For a long time, healthcare was slow to change. COVID-19 turned that standard and accelerated change. We must embrace change even though change is not al- ways comfortable. My advice would be to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it will help achieve things you never thought possible. I encourage everyone to engage and empower their teams to have a role in driving change and to take owner- ship of the opportunities ahead. Our job is to provide the support they need to advance new care models and other opportunities successfully. n then try to pick it back up. It just doesn't work that way in healthcare. I think this last year we learned all components of your revenue cy- cle are necessary when you need to make a big change like that. You can't really get the information and cycle it down to an area and hope for the best. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of communication. It takes all key revenue cycle players to manage something like this COVID-19 billing process successfully. It was difficult, but I think making sure communication all the way up and all the way down happened. You must get everybody on board because everybody has their hands in the pot when it's something like that. Everybody must be aware, and they must know what's going on to make that process successful. n

• Cover