New GRMC CFO Michael Metts in the lobby of the hospital.
By Mary Alice Murphy
Chief Financial Officer Michael Metts started the job on Jan. 18, 2016.
"I arrived in Silver City the Friday before, so I could begin to get acquainted with the area," Metts said. "I was looking forward to coming to the hospital. When I interviewed I found that everybody is very interactive, so it was possible for me to get engaged quickly. I felt very welcomed at the hospital."
When asked about his goals, Metts said, during his day-long interview, he found a process in which everyone in the hospital was involved, "particularly in leadership."
"A lot of the interaction the day of the interview matched the value of where I wanted to be at this point in my career," Metts said.
"I am in week 3, and I see challenges with a lot of opportunity," he continued. "Two exciting areas of opportunity include structuring the revenue cycle with: 1) electronic billing and editing prior to claims being submitted to payers for reimbursement, and 2) developing contract modeling within the updated Meditech software to allow for analysis and follow-up on discrepancies between actual payments received by the payers and the existing contract rates."
"At this time in healthcare, a hospital must be efficient in collecting cash by utilizing software to its advantage, and GRMC will greatly improve its efficiency over the next year post go-live of the planned initiatives." The MediTech 6 conversion is greatly supportive of the hospital needs, Metts added. "The future will assist in reallocating staff to focus time in many areas, such as collections vs. time spent managing the existing billing process, which is manual and labor intensive. This all equates to improved accuracy and cash flow."
Metts also noted "the hospital has contracted with Jacobus Consultants, which has been engaged to support improving functionality within the revenue cycle." HeG