The Shift: RCM Talks

The Shift: RCM Talks

by Bill Eikost, Valerie Barckhoff, & Heather Dunn

Management Careers

Season 1

From Point Solutions to Platform Strategy

Revenue cycle leaders are facing a rapidly changing technology landscape. In this episode, Bill, Heather, and Valerie discuss why health systems may need to rethink their reliance on AI point solutions and consider a more platform-first approach. The conversation covers Epic Agent Factory, AI governance, vendor strategy, internal build capabilities, and the importance of aligning technology decisions with long-term operational goals.

Putting the Patient Back at the Center of Revenue Cycle, Part 2

In Part 2 of the conversation with Evan Martin, the group dives deeper into AI, automation, and process redesign in revenue cycle. Evan shares how ZoomCare is exploring autonomous coding, ambient AI, AI agents, and smarter back-end workflows while keeping the focus on building technology on a solid operational foundation. The discussion also challenges leaders to stop automating broken processes and instead ask whether the process should exist at all.

Putting the Patient Back at the Center of Revenue Cycle, Part 1

In this episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, Bill, Heather, and Valerie are joined by Evan Martin, Vice President of Revenue Cycle at ZoomCare, to discuss how revenue cycle can directly shape the patient experience. Evan shares how his team is rethinking billing, payment plans, financial assistance, cost transparency, and operational workflows to better meet patients where they are while improving performance across the revenue cycle.

Building the Revenue Cycle of Tomorrow

In this episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, Bill, Valerie, Heather, and Andrew discuss what it truly means to redesign the revenue cycle for the future. The conversation explores why healthcare organizations must move beyond simply automating broken processes and instead rethink workflows, workforce models, front-end strategy, and the role of AI in creating cleaner, more proactive revenue cycle operations.

Medicare Advantage: The Fine Print Patients Need to Understand

In this episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, Bill Eikost, Valerie Barckhoff, and Heather Dunn are joined by Sarah Dekutowski to unpack the growing challenges surrounding Medicare Advantage plans. The conversation explores how patients often choose Medicare Advantage without fully understanding the long-term implications, including narrowed networks, prior authorization requirements, limited access to care, and the difficulty of returning to traditional Medicare with supplemental coverage. The group also discusses why provider education, community outreach, and patient advocacy are becoming increasingly important as more beneficiaries age into Medicare.

Not If, But When: Cyberattack Readiness for Revenue Cycle

In this episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, the team dives into one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges: cybersecurity preparedness. Joined by Jennifer Fortin, Revenue Integrity Director at Cape Cod Healthcare, the conversation explores what really happens when systems go down and why “just going to paper” is rarely enough. From communication breakdowns to compliant billing issues and months of manual recovery work, this episode highlights the lasting revenue cycle impact of a cyberattack. It’s a candid discussion packed with hard-earned lessons and a clear message for revenue cycle leaders: preparation cannot wait.

Small Habits, Big Culture: Practical Leadership for Revenue Cycle

Revenue cycle is high-pressure work—and the expectation to “do more with less” can push even the best teams toward burnout. In this episode, Bill Eikost, Heather Dunn, and Valerie Barkoff have a leadership-focused conversation with Kevin McDaniel- Chief Strategist at WindRiver Strategies and author of You’ve Been Upgraded. Together, they unpack how leaders can shift from simply “getting through the day” to creating real well-being at work—starting with taking care of themselves. Kevin shares actionable ideas for building culture, including meaningful encouragement, leading with kindness, and intentionally connecting with team members as people. If you have a leadership position right now, this one will leave you with practical ways to energize your culture and keep your people (and yourself) sane.

RCM Roundtable: What's coming in 2026?

In this more casual, free-flowing episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, the team trades “magic wand” ideas on what they’d change to put healthcare- and revenue cycle- on a better trajectory, from technology investment to payer/provider dynamics and the growing patient-balance burden. They dig into practical ways providers can rebuild leverage and collaboration—like simply asking payers what providers could do differently (and being surprised by the answer).

For the Greater Good: Collaboration as a Revenue-Cycle Strategy

In this episode of The Shift: RCM Talks, Bill Eikost, Valerie Barckoff, and Heather Dunn are joined by special guest Travis Gentry, CEO of Hyve Health, to discuss how data collaboration can reshape provider revenue cycle performance. Travis shares his path from engineering and early healthcare IT work—including building one of the first patient estimation tools—to his current mission: helping providers pool claims and remits to create a normalized, “forest-level” view of payer behavior. The group digs into why providers and payers often “talk past each other,” and how siloed patient accounting definitions make it hard to see systemic issues or hold payers accountable at scale. They also explore the idea of a provider-focused “data co-op” that enables faster trend detection, stronger negotiating leverage, and more evidence-based payer conversations. The conversation closes with an update on evolving CMS price transparency requirements and why the spirit of transparency often gets lost in complicated execution.

From Conflict to Collaboration: Improving Payer Relationships Through Collective Action

In this episode of The Shift RCM Talks, Bill, Valerie, and Heather are joined by Katie Adams and Robert Boos to explore how provider collaboration can fundamentally change payer relationships. The discussion dives into: Why revenue cycle and managed care leadership belong together The power of aggregated, third-party data in payer negotiations Practical steps any organization can take to build collaboration—even without a formal committee

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