Healthcare Financial Management Association

Tell us a little bit about in terms of what Northwell Direct does.

What does the whole product kind of look like? And I think you had mentioned in a recent interview with HFMA around, you know, it's not, there's parts of it that you have and then parts of it that you've kept separate.

And tell me about kind of the decision process there.

And then also explain around the network.

Compliance audit efficiency and a new learning experience from HFMA.

But first, the latest in healthcare finance news.

This is HFMA's Voices in Healthcare Finance podcast for September 21st, 2026.

Hey, everybody.

This is Nick Hutt of HFMA's content team speaking with Katie Gilfillan of our policy analysis team.

We are discussing one of the biggest looming provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, at least for the health care industry, and that's the Medicaid work requirement.

Starting January 1st, 2027, in 43 Medicaid expansion states, most adults in the expansion population, meaning people who were not traditionally covered by Medicaid prior to the Affordable Care Act, must demonstrate that they are working, looking for work, volunteering in their community, or furthering their education for at least 80 hours per month.

We'll be back in a moment.

Existing vendors currently have an enormous advantage.

An HFMA-linked survey of 233 health systems found 80% believed established vendors or companies partnering with established vendors had a significant advantage over new AI vendors.

70% were more comfortable sharing data with existing partners.

Now, that's very understandable.

So it's a real culture of learning, supporting each other, And I think that helps us have stability and not a lot of turnover in the organization.

I think a challenge for some smaller and medium-sized organizations is that they may not have the same layers involved with the hospital.

And so how have you gone about cultivating an environment where your top performers feel like they are learning, developing, and then progressing through the organization?

I'm really a big one for everyone has a learning and an educational plan every year.

And we don't have everything available at our fingertips because of our size.

And so that's where working in partnership is really important.

And so looking at our professional organizations, the Health Financial Management Association, the American Organization of Nurse Leaders, and the ACAG for the American College of Healthcare Executives and taking advantage of things that are already established out there and, you know, really budgeting to have our leaders go through some of those things.

Yeah, invest back in the leaders.

While AI adoption has scaled, 68% of organizations claim or report that they're using two or more AI models in their workflows today.

And that's up from 39% last year per MGMA and HFMA and some other organizations.

And that's huge adoption, right? But there's still this hype versus reality.

There's still this fear for providers of, is it going to force me how to practice and change how I practice? And There's a paradigm shift of what NextGen has done to evolve the workflows and our technology and our platform to really help ease that and overcome those barriers to work with you.

And talk a little bit about, you've been a lifelong lear- leader, a lifelong learner.

You also serve as president of the HFMA Minnesota.

How important is that lifelong learning? I think you went back for a graduate degree.

Uh, you also, you have leadership roles outside of healthcare or outside of at least your system.

But- It keeps me growing and keeps me really learning.

Um, as a leader, I think that one really important piece of that is I don't want people to confuse leadership with ha- with having all the answers.

So while I, you know, participate in, in present in HFMA and other associations and I've received my, you know, master's degree in Healthcare Administration, that doesn't mean that I have all of the answers, and I'm continuously learning with my teams and with those around me.

Really being a servant leader and helping direct, set direction, create clarity, and develop people to trust them to do meaningful work is really at the core of my, my leadership and what I strive for.

Welcome to the HFMA Talk podcast, the podcast for NHS Finance.

Today, we'll be bringing you an episode in our new mini series exploring finance career stories.

Throughout the series, we'll be chatting to finance colleagues from different roles and organisations across the country about their career journeys, the opportunities they've embraced, the challenges they've overcome, and the lessons they've learned along the way.

We hope

you enjoy this episode.

My name is Lisa Robertson and I'm a senior policy manager here at the HFMA.

And I'm delighted to be joined today by Catherine Phillips, Herth Cooper and Craig Marriott.

And thank you so much for joining me today.

[on-hold music] How a landmark trial concerning technology and children could change the way we all work.

This is HFMA's Voices in Healthcare Finance podcast for September seventh, twenty twenty-six.

[on-hold music] Hello, everybody.

This is Nick Hutt of HFMA's content team, speaking with Cathy Stoll of our policy analysis team.

We are discussing a new report on the No Surprises Act, specifically the independent dispute resolution, or IDR, process for settling out-of-network payments owed by insurers to providers.

This analysis was published in Health Affairs in late August by healthcare policy experts with Georgetown University.

[on-hold music] We'll be back in a moment.

A landmark trial against Meta could change the way all of us communicate through technology.