Becker's Hospital Review

23 RCM LEADER ADVERTISINGINDEX Note: Ad page number(s) given in parentheses Impact Advisors. Impact-Advisors.com (p. 24) Why Cottage Health's revenue cycle VP looks beyond the numbers By Andrew Cass S anta Barbara, Calif.-based Cottage Health was among the 20 organizations that received the Healthcare Financial Management Association's 2026 MAP Award for high performance in the revenue cycle. But for Sandy Lood, the system's vice president of revenue cycle, one hallmark of a high-performing team is something less conventional: celebrating failures. Ms. Lood told Becker's that while financial metrics remain critical, long-term success starts with investing in employees, learning from unsuccessful projects and building an engaged team. "It's more than just results and numbers. It really comes down to how are you managing the team? How are you celebrating the team? How are you keeping your team members engaged and wanting to show up to work and making it a fun environment that people want to be in?" Ms. Lood said she emphasizes continuous learning and lean process improvement throughout the revenue cycle team. "We try really hard not to make it always be about the numbers, but obviously in revenue cycle it is all about the numbers," she said. "But we celebrate our failures. ere have been decisions that we have made that have had a negative impact on our results, and we celebrate it. It's one of those times where we're like 'OK, it wasn't the best decision, wasn't the right business partner for us, wasn't a successful project. What did we learn from it?'" She said a successful revenue cycle team will not always post the strongest financial metrics. "A very successful revenue cycle isn't always going to have the best metrics, the highest cash collection, the lowest AR days. ere are going to be ebbs and flows." Ms. Lood said she wants strong team members who have critical thinking and logic skills that are "bringing their expertise to the table to help us be our best selves." With payers constantly evolving, revenue cycle teams have to keep learning and adapting, too. at includes giving employees time for education, holding one-on-one career conversations and supporting opportunities for professional growth. "If I have a biller who absolutely really wants to go and learn coding, how can I support that biller to go and learn coding? Because now I have a coder that understands billing and I'm creating growth and opportunity for these individuals." Ms. Lood said that despite the challenges facing the healthcare industry it's an exciting time to be a revenue cycle leader. Her job, she said, looks very different than it did just a decade ago. "Ten years ago, my job was very transactional," she said. "Today, I think it's more fun because you get to have some autonomy to do things differently. We can't always be so strict on, 'I need everybody to have so much productivity day in and day in and day in.' I want to start focusing more on quality touches, having those conversations. 'What are you seeing in your accounts? How can we make your job more meaningful?' Because it's expensive to hire and we want to really have people enjoy what we do." Revenue cycle careers are rewarding, but it's not one that people go to school and get a degree in. "Folks kind of fall in here, and I think it's up to us as leaders to keep that engagement and keep that excitement going." n

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