Michelle Farrell Vice President of Revenue Management
Jena R. Eggert
SUMMER 2025!
Dear RCM CommUnity,
Summer is officially in full swing and with it comes thoughts of vacations, pools, beaches, and lakes. So, what better way to kick off this sunny season than by featuring one of our RCM CommUnity leaders from none other than Orlando, Florida?
A special thank you to Michelle Farrell, who took time out of her day to share a few insights into her journey and perspective on revenue cycle management. Michelle is part of Orlando Health, an organization that has grown by leaps and bounds. Personally, they hold a special place in my heart both of our daughters were born at Arnold Palmer Hospital So yes, you could say they’re part of our story too
As we dive into summer 2025, our team at The HUB is also celebrating the launch of our RCM Influencer Series. And who kicked it off? You guessed it Michelle, with a few fun facts and familiar truths I think you’re going to enjoy seeing many recognizable faces in this series as we spotlight the people shaping our industry.
And big news we’re just about ready to launch access to healthcare RFPs right here on RCR|HUB This is something we’ve been building toward for a long time, and we can’t wait to share it with you. So with that, grab a cold drink, kick back, and enjoy the summer edition of RCM Connections.
Cheers friends,
Jena Eggert
Editor-in-Chief, RCM Connections
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Michelle Farrell, Vice President or Revenue Management
INTRODUCTION SERIES HERB THE BOT
How you can be a part of it too! He is here to help!
MICHELLE FARRELL MICHELL E FARRELL
Interview with Vice President of Revenue Management
Hosted by Jena Eggert, Founder & CEO, RCR|HUB
Jena Eggert: Welcome to RCR|HUB Joining us today is Michelle Farrell, Vice President of Revenue Management at Orlando Health
Jena: Why Revenue Cycle? What brought you here and what’s kept you?
Michelle: I had a different start to my career outside of healthcare, but why revenue cycle? I've been at Orlando Health for just over 26 years. In Revenue Cycle, we get an opportunity, a blessing, to be able to work with patients before, during, and after care.
If anyone has a level of compassion, this is the place to be in terms of helping patients through the real part of the financial piece of their stay. For those of us who just can't do medicine and blood, we get the chance to help patients along their way, for what we call the second fear. Anyone in healthcare understands the “second fear.” First, our patients are worried about, “Can I get well? Am I getting well? Second, how am I going to afford it?”
Jena: Tell us about your education path
Michelle: My undergrad degree was in public relations with a minor in business. Which surprisingly provided skills that are quite transferable to what I do today. My master's degree, of course, is in healthcare administration. I went from managing national PR campaigns in the entertainment industry to taking an entry level role in a hospital! But, you know, in learning and just starting off in the emergency room, once I moved to Florida, it was eye-opening to see what we can do to help patients navigate through this space Most people don't know much about the financial aspect of healthcare and their own insurance benefits We are often compared to buying a computer at Best Buy, where they give a price, or ordering a pizza, prices are clear Healthcare is very different as each patient has a unique and individual health scenario Explaining to patients how it works, detailing their benefits, and navigating the whole process of securing a claim is quite complex. We offer services and clinical care to the best of our abilities. However, in revenue cycle, sometimes it feels like a hope and a dream that we will get paid at the end of the day by a payer. Of course we are successful but not without effort. Navigating that has been interesting over the years as it has gotten increasingly challenging The landscape changes all of the time, especially with regulatory mandates and it's really more about learning and adapting as we go and gathering all the information from associations, peers, and mentors along the way
Jena: Tell us about the mentors who brought you in How were you recruited?
Michelle: As I shared, I began in the emergency room, thinking that it was a great place to start. It was actually quite impactful to opening my world to healthcare. As you know, not for the faint hearted or anything like that, because the things you see in a level one trauma center stay with you for a while. I had the blessing of having some great leaders along the way in my life that, that you know, who opened doors for me.
They trusted me early on in my career and gave me more opportunity as positions opened up. Pursuing and noticing that sometimes just drive and curiosity to learn and do more, doors open. When you show up where you have that level of interest and humility, like I don't really know how to do this, but if you show me, I'll get it going And so having that type of support along the way, I think it's so important to anyone in our careers
But early on, I ended up working at all of our facilities, which we call the original colonies, kind of where we were before our exponential growth You know, just putting myself out there to learn and take on other areas of the revenue cycle along the way And lo and behold, 26 years later, here I am, which could not have happened if I were not surrounded by great leaders along the way who have put faith in me and trusted me to take on more and more as I grew.
Jena: Tell us about your team.
Michelle: My area of oversight currently includes the front and middle of the revenue cycle, extending through education and selfpay patient follow-up. We have a great team. Under my purview are approximately 1000 downstream team members across clinical and non-clinical areas I have about 70 nurses who report up through me in the clinical documentation review space We have an amazing team We talk a lot about the support we give one another and the importance of curiosity and interest If you want to join us on the journey, there's always more to do and more room to grow Over my 26 years here, it's been a ride We’ve seen the ups and downs of healthcare, even within our organization
The turnaround really began when our new CEO joined us in 2015. That moment put us in a position where we started acquiring, building, and growing organically and through acquisitions. It’s a very different place now. While not everyone remains, many of our team members have stayed and shown real resiliency.
We went through tough times, and to see where we are today is incredibly rewarding. I’m deeply grateful for the leaders I’ve worked with and for this organization, which have given me so many opportunities to grow along the way.
Jena: Two thoughts: your CEO, David Strong. What a leader! He has done so much for OH and Orlando It's exciting to see what he's doing and how you all are contributing to the community's growth Regarding team members, your team member retention is unmatched in the industry
Michelle: Yes You know, we have a lot of loyalty here at Orlando Health It's a great organization to work for; we have people who have stayed here for many years I attended the last team member's anniversary gala and our longest-tenured team member has worked for us for just under 60 years! When did they start working?!
Jena: It's an event where everyone is celebrated; it's truly lovely.
Michelle: It’s a formal affair. People come all decked out? Some people wear gowns, and it's amazing to see how we've grown. We've been able to celebrate those types of events in small places Now it's held in huge party halls at hotels because we've grown so much And I think, you know, what we really believe in is our culture here I think it’s what keeps us all connected You know, I have OH pride running through my veins
Jena: It runs red! My next question is: Is your team hybrid, do you have team members on site, or is everyone remote?
Michelle: Combination thereof Some teams need to be on-site, for example, patient access HIM, we still have on site, our CDE and Care Management teams. They are all part of what we call RMCM, which stands for Revenue Management, Managed Care and Care Management. These are the teams that report to our SVP and chief revenue officer, Michele Napier. And within those teams, we also have some hybrid work-from-home team members as well.
Top row L to R: Jerry Warner, AVP Revenue Management Operations, Christopher Loftis, AVP Revenue Management, Michael Stubee, Vice President Payer Strategy
Seated L to R: Michelle Farrell, Vice President Revenue Management, Michele T Napier, SVP Chief Revenue Officer, Sheri Blanchard, AVP Revenue Management
On the backend, of course, post-COVID, it was like pedal to the metal in terms of everyone needing to work from home We implemented that rather quickly across more of the backoffice functions Most of these team members have remained at home We relinquished a lot of real estate regarding our support teams, and they've continued to work remotely Regarding leadership, our executive leaders have been on-site throughout COVID, coming into the office So, it has changed and evolved along the way
Jena: We talked about growth Looking ahead, what do you look forward to? With automation and technology, what do you look forward to seeing in revenue cycle?
Michelle: Leaning on technology is so important. You know, getting to the place where, of course, everyone talks about AI and automation and all that stuff. How do we integrate technology for those simpler tasks –and work by exception Allowing for our team to leverage those critical thinking skills for the more challenging functions How do we move us to the place where we really are using the best and our brightest to solve for this journey that we're all in healthcare revenue cycle?
So, I think we're excited about how we introduce some of those things a little bit more into the process, so it's baked in, and trusted, and relied upon I think we're excited about that, for sure
We've been on Epic for a few years now, and so just continuing to maximize the efficiency of the tool and get those standardizations in place That's one big part of it for us looking at standardization so we can have economies of scale, and the experience we provide to our patients and team members can be consistent across locations
But on the other side of it, what I'm excited for is continuing to grow our young leaders. There's so much future here. And thinking about, you know, the last trajectory of your career, my career, in terms of what I want to do.
My legacy is just continuing to grow the nextlevel leaders for the organization I love that part Leadership development that’s my fun part Finding those who are interested and curious that curiosity piece is just, when you see it in someone, you're like, “Yes!” they got it
Additionally, I recently have taken a Board role in Florida HFMA, leading the Emerging Professional Community, which works perfectly with building future leaders We are working with universities across the state to engage with healthcare finance students
Jena: I've always believed in all the internship programs, and you can see from everything we've done and everyone we've tried to help that this is super important to me and my team.
What last comments would you like to share with our RCM CommUnity?
Michelle: I think the most important thing we didn't touch upon is the need for relationships and building relationships across teams, within teams, and across spectrums We succeed when we have a solid pathway to relate to people and develop relationships so that we all continue to grow I don't think any of us can solve this on our own We talk to our teams about getting involved and volunteering with associations and things like that so they can continue to grow I think our team's success has come when we've had a solid leadership team that has worked together and stood arm in arm to tackle challenges along the way That's how we succeed; we have a great team that I am so proud of.
Jena: It's been my pleasure.
Michelle: Thank you so much for this opportunity and it was great talking with you!
RFP ACCESS IS COMING TO
At RCR|HUB, we’re always listening to the needs of our CommUnity. One request has come up repeatedly from our business partners:
“Can you help us find healthcare RFPs?” We’re excited to share that the answer is now: Yes.
We’re launching a members-only area featuring a real-time, curated list of revenue cycle RFPs built to streamline discovery and strengthen connections across the RCM space.
Why It Matters
RFPs (Requests for Proposals) are how healthcare organizations initiate new partnerships from coding audits and billing technology to denial management and contract services But these opportunities are often hidden, inconsistently posted, or spread across dozens of procurement portals We’ve taken on the challenge of pulling it all together
Our team researches, verifies, and updates listings every week, and we’re adding new hospitals daily.
What Business Partners Will See
Each RFP listing includes:
Health System Name
Primary Website
RFP / Supply Chain URL
RFP Page Exists? (Yes/No)
Manual Notes
Hospital Type (if ranked by Fortune)
This is a working, real-time list actively curated, continuously updated, and improved through feedback from our members As more users engage, the list becomes stronger and more valuable.
This initiative isn’t just for business partners Providers and their supply chain teams are encouraged to participate by sharing their RFP links and procurement portals, helping ensure accuracy, visibility, and better vendor alignment
Whether you're centralizing access or helping others find your RFPs more easily, this collaborative tool supports everyone involved in the RCM decision-making process.
How Providers Benefit Too Who gets access
We’re rolling out access in phases. Sponsors will receive first access as the members-only section goes live Broader access and pricing details will be announced soon
If you’re already listed on The HUB great news: you’re on the priority list
Final Thoughts
The HUB was built to simplify connections in healthcare revenue cycle
With this new RFP tool, we’re eliminating yet another barrier providing real-time insights that help business partners discover new opportunities and help providersget in front of the right teams, faster.
It’s not just a list. It’s a smarter way to connect.
Im here to help!!
This month, I share fun facts, next month I’ll be spotlighting each of our sponsors!
