CEO of the Year, Transforming Business: Accretive Health - Emad Rizk, M.D.
“My past work on both the payer and provider sides has given me insight into the strategies needed to bring true alignment between these entities to drive increased efficiency and improved patient outcomes,” he said. Helping Customers Succeed in an Evolving Environment The dramatic changes underway in healthcare are requiring Accretive Health and its customers to think and act in new ways. “While these changes are varied and complex, what they all have in common is that this is the first time the patient is acting as a true consumer,” Rizk said. “Healthcare has historically been a B2B sector, and now it is transitioning to a more B2C dynamic.” A prime example of this is in the area of price transparency. The growth of high-deductible health plans, which place increased financial responsibility on the patient/consumer, is creating confusion about reimbursement and coverage. At the point of care, providers need to have more information to help clarify a patient’s health coverage and determine what their out-of-pocket costs will be. Accretive Health has geared its offering to address that need. The company has developed the technology to calculate and break down an accurate, understandable estimate of what a patient’s procedure or care will cost before it is delivered. “We use our proprietary analytics to give the consumer visibility into what their cost will be,” said Rizk. “This improved transparency is good for both patients and providers, helping to forge positive and enduring patient-provider relationships built on openness and trust.” Another area in which Accretive Health is helping providers evolve is the increased focus on quality outcomes and patient engagement. “Our revenue cycle management approach has had to evolve quickly – ahead of our customers,” Rizk noted. “Over the past 18 months, we made a major shift in our focus from back-end payer reimbursement tasks to front-end patient and provider-focused processes and intelligence. “ One exciting result of that shift in orientation is the development of a new patient “app” that Accretive Health plans to introduce in the beginning of 2016. “This user-friendly smart phone app is designed to help improve patient engagement and the overall experience of receiving care,” said Rizk. “It will streamline the process for patients, giving them a window into what they can expect at each point in the delivery of their care. So instead of a patient being pulled through the process, they can feel empowered and informed as they move through the process.” Rizk noted that when Accretive Health combines innovative tools like this with the operational infrastructure, the company already has everything in place to engage patients in the post-service phase of care and providers experience significant added value. “This is a true paradigm shift for our business, in which our staff engages with our customers’ patients
not just on billing issues, but also on matters of patient engagement and the patient experience,” Rizk said. “In that way, our services can contribute directly to better outcomes and our customers’ success.”
While keeping its eye on the healthcare horizon in to stay one step ahead of what its provider customers will need moving forward, Accretive Health is also looking inward for continuous improvement.
Overall, said Rizk, Accretive Health is helping its clients be more prospective than retrospective – in terms of revenue cycle management, price transparency, and data aggregation. “That single shift in perspective helps provider organizations exercise control in an environment that often seems out of control these days,” he said.
“We are focused on operational excellence and operational rigor,” Rizk said. “It’s all about delivering consistent results for our customers.”
Vision for Future Success So what does the future hold for Accretive Health? According to Rizk, the company is on a firm pathway to executing its strategy and is laying a solid foundation for future growth. “The overall selling environment for our services is improving, as health systems recognize our value proposition,” Rizk said. “As a result, our pipeline is the most robust I’ve seen since joining the company in 2014.” New offerings, like the patient engagement app rolling out next year, are helping lay the foundation to scale and grow the company. “In this dynamic environment, Accretive Health will continually be bringing new services to our customers,” Rizk said. Accretive Health is well-positioned in the revenue cycle management space, where providers are increasingly looking for help to meet the data analysis requirements of the new reimbursement models. “We are a collaborative operating partner with the scale and expertise to drive such analytics,” Rizk noted. “Our methodology is built on more than a decade of business intelligence experience and a collaborative business model in which we act as an extension of our customer’s organization.” Rizk noted that for hospitals and health systems, complexity in the revenue cycle process continues to increase, most recently with the introduction of the ICD-10 coding system for reimbursement of medical services. Meanwhile, the shift to valuebased reimbursement is adding administrative costs for these providers. Accretive Health’s value-based reimbursement offering focuses on that administrative piece of the challenge – at both the initial point of patient registration and the post-care payment processes. “Those two administrative processes are critically important for hospitals – they are the first and last impressions that a patient will take away from that encounter with the provider,” Rizk said. “We partner with hospitals and health systems to implement proprietary methodologies and relieve those administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on their core mission: delivering high quality care.” The transition to a value-based reimbursement model is a challenge for all providers, but creates special obstacles for ambulatory and physician practice settings. Rizk noted that Accretive Health has solutions for these providers as well. “Leveraging our scalable, proprietary technology and shared services, we are able to make the transition to a value-based model more affordable and manageable for smaller practices with tight budgets and limited staff,” he observed.
When summing up his company, Rizk said he believes his organization has “the right people in place, executing the right operating model that is perfectly attuned to what providers need today – and tomorrow. Our workforce has the expertise and the entrepreneurial spirit to seize this opportunity to play a significant role in improving America’s healthcare system.”
Executive Profile: Emad Rizk, M.D. • President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Accretive Health • More than 25 years in healthcare • Previously served as President of McKesson Health Solutions • At Deloitte Consulting, served as Senior Partner and Global Director, Medical Management/Pharmacy • Current board member of the National Association for Hispanic Health, Accuray, Inc., Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., and the Managed Care Magazine editorial board • Author of The New Era of Healthcare: Practical Strategies for Providers and Payers. • Named by Modern Physician as one of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives in the U.S.” in 2013, the fifth time he has been recognized by this publication • Modern Healthcare has listed him among the “Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” • Lecturer at Wharton, Harvard, MIT, Columbia and the Kellogg School of Management
Accretive Health, Inc. – At a Glance • Founded in 2003 • Headquartered in Chicago • URL: www.accretivehealth.com • Operating together, Accretive Health partners with hospitals and health systems to reduce administrative costs, enabling providers to focus on their core mission: delivering high quality care • Delivers revenue cycle management, physician advisory services, and value-based managed services • Supports and strengthens provider operations by deploying collaborative operating model and proprietary technological solutions • Customer base has expanded to nearly 100 hospitals and health systems spread across the country. Many are faith-based, non-profit hospitals or teaching institutions, including many of the top-rated healthcare systems in the US. • Manages more than $17 billion in net patient revenue
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