Does the access field lack upwardly mobile managers?
May 1, 2002 4 minutes read
Does the access field lack upwardly mobile managers?
Top-level jobs said hard to fill
Is there a shortage of top-level access services professionals who are willing to relocate for a better job? Some industry leaders, who wonder if the preponderance of women in the field may be a factor, are posing that question.
Demand is increasing for health care managers — including those in the access field — who can help their organizations increase revenue collection, says Eric T. Holzer, CPC, an executive search manager for the health care division of Houston-based Richard, Wayne & Roberts. "[Those managers] play a vital role, and that is only going to increase in the future as economics get tighter and hospitals have to get paid."
But Holzer says his firm has conducted four searches for access directors in the past few months and is having difficulty finding qualified people for those positions. It’s taking between one and five months to fill the jobs, he notes, and sometimes the positions have been open a couple of months before his company takes over the search.
A new director-level position he is seeking to fill focuses on admissions and registration consulting, financial consulting, and insurance verification, Holzer adds. "The position is located in the New England area, and my client is looking to pay the right talent between $80,000 and $100,000."
Sometimes the jobs never get filled, he says. "They may promote somebody from within and put the responsibility elsewhere. It depends on the quality of candidates we get."
Jack Duffy, FHFMA, director and founder of Integrated Revenue Management in Carlsbad, CA, says he is aware of more than one senior middle management position in access that has remained open for months at a large California health care system.
"Where are our people?" asks Duffy, who has many years of experience in access management. "One of these positions is system director for access, a job with a salary close to or over six figures. Have we created an immobile population? I think there should be 25 people vying for that job."
There is a limited number of leaders in the access field who have the knowledge base and experience to be successful in a large health care system, suggests John Woerly, RHIA, MSA, CHAM, a longtime access director who is now a manager with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Indianapolis.
Many of those well-qualified professionals already are in "an ideal situation," based on personal or family needs or work environment, he adds.
Woerly says one of the reasons he has moved into the consulting field is because it allows his family to remain in one location while he travels. When he left his most recent access management position, Woerly notes, he had opportunities for advancement in the field that would have meant relocating his family.
"I wanted my children to finish high school in one place," he says. "If they were younger, I would want to be home; but at 17 and 19, they don’t need me as much as they need the stability of surroundings and schoolmates."
Duffy and Holzer say the fact that women hold most of the positions in the access and patient accounting fields may be making it harder to fill top-level jobs. "Typically, it is more difficult to encourage women to relocate because of whatever commitments they’ve made," Holzer adds. "The majority of the time [those commitments] have to do with family."
An advanced degree, good experience, movement through larger organizations, and a willingness to relocate are factors associated with job advancement, Duffy notes. "Are we incredibly constrained in terms of people willing to meet those conditions?"
"I think we have a bias toward folks who want to be an access manager in one organization until they are ready to retire," he says. "If that’s a characteristic, the ability to have an executive track [in access] is going to be highly constrained."
For those who are interested in moving up the access ladder, Holzer says that the ability to help a health system improve its bottom line is likely to be more prized than a master’s or even a bachelor’s degree.
"Some who are not degreed are the best in the market," he adds. Many organizations are primarily looking for "somebody who’s bright enough to make the upfront process run smoother."
In other cases, Holzer says, the lack of a degree is a deal-breaker. "Every hospital system is different. They handle it in different ways, but this is a skill set that is in demand. It’s difficult to find these people, and it usually requires a move."
Specific achievements, rather than generalized job descriptions, will catch the attention of organizations seeking top-level access professionals, he notes. Those might include, he adds, such indicators as, "I’ve increased upfront collections from this to this in this amount of time," or "I’ve decreased patient wait time from this amount to this amount by doing this."
There are thousands of business office professionals with the same duties and responsibilities, Holzer says. "When someone reads, Responsible for billing, registration, collections,’ that’s not saying anything about you."
"My suggestion for anyone putting together a resume is to add quantifiable accomplishments," he adds. "Words like team player’ don’t mean anything. What means something is what you have done for your medical facility and what you can do for me if I am a hiring authority."
[For more information, contact:
- Eric Holzer of Richard, Wayne & Roberts. Telephone: (800) 364-7979, ext. 7297, or (713) 358-7297. E-mail: [email protected].
- Jack Duffy of Integrated Revenue Management. Telephone: (760) 476-0077.
- John Woerly of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Telephone: (317) 977-1171.]
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