August 7, 2025 • 16 mins
Nick Barcellona, CFO of WVU Medicine, shares how reflection plays a key role in navigating leadership responsibilities and adapting to challenges in today’s healthcare environment. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy organizational culture and outlines strategies for improving recruitment efforts to strengthen workforce stability. Barcellona also discusses how financial leadership is evolving to meet the demands of a rapidly changing industry.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker CFO
and revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to
be joined today by Nick Barcelona,
CFO of WVU Medicine.
Nick, it's great to have you back on
the podcast.
Thank you. And it's, it's great to be
here.
So for our listeners who who haven't tuned
in to our first podcast together, do you
mind sharing just a little bit about, your
(00:21):
background and more about WVU Medicine?
Sure. Happy to do so, Madeline. Thank you.
Again, I'm Nick Barcelona, the system CFO for
WVU Medicine.
I am actually, this month, hitting my two
year anniversary of being here in in West
Virginia, so very excited.
Prior to my time in West Virginia,
I was the assistant CFO for Temple Health,
(00:44):
in Philadelphia.
Prior to Philly, I spent more than fifteen
years,
at UPMC
in a variety of different operational and financial
leadership roles. And way back when I started
my career actually at General Electric, first as
an engineer and then moved into finance.
So that's me, WVU Medicine. We are a
growing,
(01:05):
regional,
health system,
predominantly based in West Virginia,
but also have hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland.
We have started our own health plan as
of two and a half or so years
ago, Peak Health.
And we are, you know, very focused on
improving the health trajectory of West Virginians and
(01:27):
and all those beyond that we serve.
Thank you so much for sharing your background
there. So to kick us off, and you
mentioned it right at the beginning, you are
approaching your two year anniversary
at WVU Medicine. I would love to hear
maybe two to three defining moments or lessons
learned that have helped shape your approach to
to leading the system's financial strategy.
(01:49):
Yeah. Well, this is a this is a
good question and, sort of forces reflection. And
I think in in today's
environment,
and world, we often don't spend enough time
on reflection.
We're just so focused on fighting the fires
of the day. So I actually really like
this question and appreciate it. You know, I
think couple of things I would say,
(02:09):
you know,
probably the the most defining
moment or the biggest,
was just coming in and and getting to
experience the culture that that Albert and the
team at WVU Medicine have built. Right? Like,
you you know, you interview for a new
role, you move there, you maybe know some
folks that are there or were there, and
(02:29):
so you have a preconceived notion about what
that culture is gonna be like. But you
don't really know
often until you're sort of part of the
team. And
I think WVU
Medicine and what we've built is is really
structured a little differently than some of the
other places I've been where we have a
lot of autonomy and authority
at the local business unit level. Yes. We
(02:50):
have a corporate structure and we're very proud
of how lean that corporate structure is and
we view that as part of our secret
sauce. And we keep that corporate structure under
seven and a half percent and that makes
up finance, HR,
legal,
IT, and compliance.
But, you know, what we really do is
is we have a lot of autonomy and
authority for those local business units and that
(03:11):
allows us to recruit and retain
great leaders
at those business units, and it really requires
us to recruit great leaders for those local
levels in order for the structure to work.
And so that was probably the biggest eye
opening,
moment for me was to actually get here
and just see how much,
you know, we put in the hands of
(03:32):
those local leaders. And I think that allows
us, again, to have those strong and recruit
and retain those strong leaders. It allows us
to maintain very positive relationships in those communities
and allows us to live up to our
mission
of investing in those those communities. And maybe
the second, you know,
moment, if you will, that was a defining
moment was the first time we went through
(03:53):
our strategic capital,
planning process. We do a five year strategic
capital plan.
And it's, I would say, a little bit
more robust and detailed than I've experienced in
my career where we're going down to, like,
individual, you
know, capital line items for all of our
entities. So whether that's the big ones, which
I think happens everywhere, but even some of
our smaller facilities. So like a grand memorial,
(04:15):
you know, and we're talking about, you know,
relatively
smaller capital investments in the in the grand
scheme of the system, but really important and
large capital investments
in in the eyes of our stakeholders that
live in those communities. And, you know, I
think that was a a bit of an
eye opening process for me, and and I
think it's a really good and healthy one
(04:35):
that we have here. And I think from
our biggest entity to our smallest entity, I
think our operational leaders and CFO
CFOs really appreciate
that attention to detail. And and I think
that's also allowed us
to to keep up with the rapid growth
that we've gone through over the last three
or four years. That attention to to detail,
that commitment,
and that accountability that we have at those
(04:57):
individual business unit levels.
Yeah. That's great to hear. And, you know,
over these nearly last two years of your
time with with the system,
Could you even share some steps you've taken
to build resilience amid? I mean and you
kinda touched on this. Some of the industry
pressures we're seeing,
labor supply costs, reimbursement
rates, and even, you know, the unknowns of
(05:17):
potential policy changes right now.
Yeah. Boy, that's,
it seems to be a timely question,
and I'll maybe answer this, though, a little
bit differently than you probably would expect. I
mean, I you you know, I think look
look at the Merriam Webster definition. Right? Resilience
is the ability to adapt well in the
face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant
(05:38):
sources of stress.
Mhmm.
Boy, that's
that's a daunting,
task, right, or a daunting thing to ask.
And,
you know, I think what I would say
is, yes, we have made a lot of
investments, a lot of steps, and are constantly
focused on building and maintaining that resilience. But
I will also say
(05:59):
resilience can be exhausting.
And and one of the things that I
I think we we really need to be
conscious of, and this is something that we
we spend time
thinking about and and and, you know, really
trying to address in our organization, and it
goes back to culture, but it's it's positive
adaptation. Right? It's not just about enduring or
(06:22):
surviving
all of those things that that are listed
there. Right? Adversity, trauma, tragic threat, etcetera.
But it it's actually being able to
thrive and maintain
your well-being in the face of all those
challenges. And
and I answer it that way because I
think the reality for those that have been
in health care for some time is there
is always something.
(06:43):
Always. You know? If if you go back
to the great financial crisis and, you know,
since then, right, like, I feel like every
year, every other year, there's some big major
thing that we experienced, you know, and most
recently, of course, right, we have the pandemic
and,
you know, and then we have financial stress
and you have tariffs and now you have,
(07:04):
you know, fed funding. And I I I
think the the mistake that's often made is
thinking that, like, you're just gonna survive and
then it's gonna get back to normal.
That never happens. Right? And I think you
need to be prepared to build,
you know, a positive,
you know,
reality for folks that this is adversity. This
(07:26):
is challenging. But how do we
adapt to it in a positive way and
and face that adversity
and be realistic about the challenges and and
how we're going to navigate through them. And
that really that's the job of your leadership.
Right? That is our job. I think you've
heard me maybe say this the last time
we met. Like, you know, all of the
folks in the c suite, not just the
(07:47):
CEO, part of our title is, like, you're
the chief culture officer too, and you have
to maintain that healthy culture.
And your team looks to you, and they
look to your reactions, and this is true
of the CFO as well. Right? You know,
they look to
how you're messaging the financial performance, how you're
messaging the broader economic
indicators, how you're messaging what's going on in
(08:08):
in Washington and others. And so Right. You
you know, it doesn't make it go away,
but you you you know, you have to
maintain focus on having a positive attitude, and
that's something that I take very seriously,
as as part of my role in the
leadership team.
Yeah. Positive mindset is is always an important
skill to have and and can sometimes get
overlooked, especially when people get bogged down, with
(08:31):
ever changing
situations in this industry. So those are some
good insights there. I wanna shift gears a
little bit and talk to you about a
growing trend we're seeing, noncontiguous
m and a. So for example,
in early March,
we saw that I believe it was early
March, actually.
Prime, which is in California, Prime Healthcare, completed
(08:51):
its acquisition of eight,
St. Louis, Missouri based Ascension Hospitals, but they
were in Illinois. So this is where that
noncontiguous m and a comes in. This being
said, we are seeing more of it,
across other systems.
Could you share maybe some of the primary
factors that would compel
maybe an organ organization, your organization to pursue
(09:13):
a merger acquisition like this? And do you
expect to see more of these transactions,
occur in the future?
And certainly one that we spend a lot
of time thinking about. Right? We've grown dramatically.
We've, you know, nearly tripled in size in
the last, call it, four years from a
revenue perspective, north of 7,000,000,000 now and 25
hospitals. And so we've, you know, we've experienced
(09:35):
quite a bit of m and a.
Our m and a has been, you know,
contiguous from a geographic,
market perspective. And so,
you know,
I think because of all of the external
pressures that are out there, you're going to
see an acceleration in m and a. I
think that's the reality of what's happening. You're
probably hearing and reading a lot about this
(09:56):
related to,
the big beautiful bill and the potential implications
to Medicaid funding and the number of hospitals
that will close or systems that will come
under significant financial stress can cover that. And
overall, I agree with all of those statements.
I think that's accurate.
But specifically
related to noncontiguous,
(10:17):
m and a, you know, we're of the
opinion and I you know, Albert Wright, our
CEO, and and and Jessica Alsopf, our our
general counsel chief legal officer, and Ben Gerber,
our chief strategy officer and CEO of of
our insurance company, Peak.
The four of us spend an awful lot
of time,
debating this this topic and, you know, because
I think when you get into those times
(10:38):
of great stress, right, more organizations are sort
of raising their hands and asking for help
or seeking out partners and,
you know, that's certainly been true for for
folks talking to us as well. So you
have to have your,
you know, your strategy defined and your methods
and metrics that you evaluate when when answering
or responding to those types of questions. You
(10:58):
have to be aligned on that. And I
think
we are of the opinion, and I'm you
know, I don't wanna speak for everyone, but
I think Albert would agree that, you know,
we we don't see the value in these
noncontiguous,
m and a, you know, deals that you're
seeing, certainly for nonprofit health care,
mission oriented organizations like ours.
(11:19):
Yes. There's scale. Yes. There are other potential
benefits that you bring to the table. But
for us,
you know, we we have a lot of
pride and passion,
in our brand.
We have a lot of,
appreciation and and depth of support from our
region, from a geographic perspective, and certainly in
an environment of uncertainty related to Medicaid. And
(11:40):
Medicaid, whether we like it or not, is
a very local business. Right? Like, you have
to,
work very closely with your state or surrounding
states that you are in and and establish
those relationships and and work together,
because these are very challenging problems to solve,
and they're not gonna be solved overnight. So
for us, you know, I think for lack
(12:01):
of a better way to say it, sort
of the the pros do not outweigh the
cons, at least in our mind. And and,
you know, you have to be careful you
don't eat your words. But from my perspective,
I think we see a lot of value
in contiguous growth and and, you know, contiguous
geographic growth and expansion.
But we're we're not there on on some
of these noncontiguous.
And and, you know, like, everyone has a
(12:22):
different lens that they look through. We respect
that, but that's that's kinda where we land
on this. Yeah. No. I agree. It's different
for every every organization,
and it was just interesting to get your
thoughts there. And it'll also be interesting just
to see how these types of transactions, you
know, continue to occur and and the trends
we see.
Kind of switching it back to WVU Medicine
now,
(12:43):
almost I think we're now halfway through the
year. It's crazy
to think that. But can you share maybe
two to three top financial priorities you're thinking
for the system through the rest of the
year into into next year?
Yeah. Well, we continue to invest in breadth
and depth.
And so that's, you know, strategic capital investment
and recruitment in our regions.
(13:05):
So beyond sort of the the Central region
and and Morgantown area where I sit today,
but, you know, outside in in areas, you
know, such as, Wheeling and Charleston and Martinsburg,
Princeton, etcetera.
So that's a core part of our strategy
and a real focus for us in 2025.
You know, we recently announced, you know, north
(13:26):
of 460,000,000
in strategic capital. None of it was in
Morgantown. It was across all these different regions.
So that investment and and commitment to breadth
and depth,
is a core,
part of our strategy both in the short
term and long term and certainly something we're
focused on in 2025.
You know, workforce,
continues to be, you know, part of your
(13:47):
question about,
resiliency, I'm sure was related to that. It
continues to be a challenge, I think, for
us and many others. You know, I I
think specific,
to that one, we've been very focused on
our employee
benefits,
and the benefit design and how we can
manage that, effectively for certainly, first and foremost,
for our employees and their covered lives, but
(14:09):
also
from an expense growth perspective. And having our
our integrated delivery network or IBM strategy with
our insurance
company peak,
and what we've done, from a PBM perspective
and and some of the moves that we've
made there are paying dividends. And I think
that's another core part of our strategy, certainly
for the rest of '25 and and beyond.
(14:31):
And and probably last but, you know, maybe
not least is sort of balance sheet simplification
and fortification.
Right? And and so
because we've grown so rapidly, we have a
number of different entities that sort of you
know, everybody brings their baggage with them, so
to speak. And
and, you know, simplifying that has been a
key part of our strategy. We priced the
(14:51):
bond transaction actually last month,
and so that's, you know, a continuation of
that strategy. We we hired and formed really
a a a new sort of manager of
debt management and and dedicated treasury function. We
brought in an outside FA and are really
sort of focused on that simplification.
And the reason for that, right, is to
(15:12):
lead to the fortification. Because one of the
things that I'll tell you, and I think
if you're if you're not thinking about it
as a CFO right now, you should be,
is in the current environment
with all of the uncertainty around federal funding,
making sure that you have the appropriate drive
tower is is a core part of of
your function. Right? That's part when you think
about the fiduciary responsibility of your board and
(15:32):
your leadership,
you gotta be having those conversations, and we're
certainly having right now. That's a really important
part of of what we're doing,
as an organization because, you know, the you
know, I'm not saying anything I think any
anyone out there, including the CFOs or the
bankers, would disagree with, but, like, you know,
you always wanna seek additional capacity
when you don't need it, and you never
(15:54):
wanna seek it when you do need it.
Right? That's when you end up paying a
fortune for it. So that's that's probably the
third thing I'd say that we're really focused
on right now.
No. That's
busy but exciting time right now for WVU
Medicine. Again, Nick, it's always such a pleasure
getting to speak with you, especially on health
care trends that we're seeing right now as
(16:14):
well. I truly appreciate you taking the time
today and look forward to the next time
we get to to chat.
Yeah. Thank you so much, and, please have
a, happy and safe fourth of July.
Yeah. You too. Alright. Thanks.
Thanks. Take care.
This is Madeline Ashley with the Becker CFO
and revenue cycle podcast, and I'm excited to
be joined today by Nick Barcelona,
CFO of WVU Medicine.
Nick, it's great to have you back on
the podcast.
Thank you. And it's, it's great to be
here.
So for our listeners who who haven't tuned
in to our first podcast together, do you
mind sharing just a little bit about, your
(00:21):
background and more about WVU Medicine?
Sure. Happy to do so, Madeline. Thank you.
Again, I'm Nick Barcelona, the system CFO for
WVU Medicine.
I am actually, this month, hitting my two
year anniversary of being here in in West
Virginia, so very excited.
Prior to my time in West Virginia,
I was the assistant CFO for Temple Health,
(00:44):
in Philadelphia.
Prior to Philly, I spent more than fifteen
years,
at UPMC
in a variety of different operational and financial
leadership roles. And way back when I started
my career actually at General Electric, first as
an engineer and then moved into finance.
So that's me, WVU Medicine. We are a
growing,
(01:05):
regional,
health system,
predominantly based in West Virginia,
but also have hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland.
We have started our own health plan as
of two and a half or so years
ago, Peak Health.
And we are, you know, very focused on
improving the health trajectory of West Virginians and
(01:27):
and all those beyond that we serve.
Thank you so much for sharing your background
there. So to kick us off, and you
mentioned it right at the beginning, you are
approaching your two year anniversary
at WVU Medicine. I would love to hear
maybe two to three defining moments or lessons
learned that have helped shape your approach to
to leading the system's financial strategy.
(01:49):
Yeah. Well, this is a this is a
good question and, sort of forces reflection. And
I think in in today's
environment,
and world, we often don't spend enough time
on reflection.
We're just so focused on fighting the fires
of the day. So I actually really like
this question and appreciate it. You know, I
think couple of things I would say,
(02:09):
you know,
probably the the most defining
moment or the biggest,
was just coming in and and getting to
experience the culture that that Albert and the
team at WVU Medicine have built. Right? Like,
you you know, you interview for a new
role, you move there, you maybe know some
folks that are there or were there, and
(02:29):
so you have a preconceived notion about what
that culture is gonna be like. But you
don't really know
often until you're sort of part of the
team. And
I think WVU
Medicine and what we've built is is really
structured a little differently than some of the
other places I've been where we have a
lot of autonomy and authority
at the local business unit level. Yes. We
(02:50):
have a corporate structure and we're very proud
of how lean that corporate structure is and
we view that as part of our secret
sauce. And we keep that corporate structure under
seven and a half percent and that makes
up finance, HR,
legal,
IT, and compliance.
But, you know, what we really do is
is we have a lot of autonomy and
authority for those local business units and that
(03:11):
allows us to recruit and retain
great leaders
at those business units, and it really requires
us to recruit great leaders for those local
levels in order for the structure to work.
And so that was probably the biggest eye
opening,
moment for me was to actually get here
and just see how much,
you know, we put in the hands of
(03:32):
those local leaders. And I think that allows
us, again, to have those strong and recruit
and retain those strong leaders. It allows us
to maintain very positive relationships in those communities
and allows us to live up to our
mission
of investing in those those communities. And maybe
the second, you know,
moment, if you will, that was a defining
moment was the first time we went through
(03:53):
our strategic capital,
planning process. We do a five year strategic
capital plan.
And it's, I would say, a little bit
more robust and detailed than I've experienced in
my career where we're going down to, like,
individual, you
know, capital line items for all of our
entities. So whether that's the big ones, which
I think happens everywhere, but even some of
our smaller facilities. So like a grand memorial,
(04:15):
you know, and we're talking about, you know,
relatively
smaller capital investments in the in the grand
scheme of the system, but really important and
large capital investments
in in the eyes of our stakeholders that
live in those communities. And, you know, I
think that was a a bit of an
eye opening process for me, and and I
think it's a really good and healthy one
(04:35):
that we have here. And I think from
our biggest entity to our smallest entity, I
think our operational leaders and CFO
CFOs really appreciate
that attention to detail. And and I think
that's also allowed us
to to keep up with the rapid growth
that we've gone through over the last three
or four years. That attention to to detail,
that commitment,
and that accountability that we have at those
(04:57):
individual business unit levels.
Yeah. That's great to hear. And, you know,
over these nearly last two years of your
time with with the system,
Could you even share some steps you've taken
to build resilience amid? I mean and you
kinda touched on this. Some of the industry
pressures we're seeing,
labor supply costs, reimbursement
rates, and even, you know, the unknowns of
(05:17):
potential policy changes right now.
Yeah. Boy, that's,
it seems to be a timely question,
and I'll maybe answer this, though, a little
bit differently than you probably would expect. I
mean, I you you know, I think look
look at the Merriam Webster definition. Right? Resilience
is the ability to adapt well in the
face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant
(05:38):
sources of stress.
Mhmm.
Boy, that's
that's a daunting,
task, right, or a daunting thing to ask.
And,
you know, I think what I would say
is, yes, we have made a lot of
investments, a lot of steps, and are constantly
focused on building and maintaining that resilience. But
I will also say
(05:59):
resilience can be exhausting.
And and one of the things that I
I think we we really need to be
conscious of, and this is something that we
we spend time
thinking about and and and, you know, really
trying to address in our organization, and it
goes back to culture, but it's it's positive
adaptation. Right? It's not just about enduring or
(06:22):
surviving
all of those things that that are listed
there. Right? Adversity, trauma, tragic threat, etcetera.
But it it's actually being able to
thrive and maintain
your well-being in the face of all those
challenges. And
and I answer it that way because I
think the reality for those that have been
in health care for some time is there
is always something.
(06:43):
Always. You know? If if you go back
to the great financial crisis and, you know,
since then, right, like, I feel like every
year, every other year, there's some big major
thing that we experienced, you know, and most
recently, of course, right, we have the pandemic
and,
you know, and then we have financial stress
and you have tariffs and now you have,
(07:04):
you know, fed funding. And I I I
think the the mistake that's often made is
thinking that, like, you're just gonna survive and
then it's gonna get back to normal.
That never happens. Right? And I think you
need to be prepared to build,
you know, a positive,
you know,
reality for folks that this is adversity. This
(07:26):
is challenging. But how do we
adapt to it in a positive way and
and face that adversity
and be realistic about the challenges and and
how we're going to navigate through them. And
that really that's the job of your leadership.
Right? That is our job. I think you've
heard me maybe say this the last time
we met. Like, you know, all of the
folks in the c suite, not just the
(07:47):
CEO, part of our title is, like, you're
the chief culture officer too, and you have
to maintain that healthy culture.
And your team looks to you, and they
look to your reactions, and this is true
of the CFO as well. Right? You know,
they look to
how you're messaging the financial performance, how you're
messaging the broader economic
indicators, how you're messaging what's going on in
(08:08):
in Washington and others. And so Right. You
you know, it doesn't make it go away,
but you you you know, you have to
maintain focus on having a positive attitude, and
that's something that I take very seriously,
as as part of my role in the
leadership team.
Yeah. Positive mindset is is always an important
skill to have and and can sometimes get
overlooked, especially when people get bogged down, with
(08:31):
ever changing
situations in this industry. So those are some
good insights there. I wanna shift gears a
little bit and talk to you about a
growing trend we're seeing, noncontiguous
m and a. So for example,
in early March,
we saw that I believe it was early
March, actually.
Prime, which is in California, Prime Healthcare, completed
(08:51):
its acquisition of eight,
St. Louis, Missouri based Ascension Hospitals, but they
were in Illinois. So this is where that
noncontiguous m and a comes in. This being
said, we are seeing more of it,
across other systems.
Could you share maybe some of the primary
factors that would compel
maybe an organ organization, your organization to pursue
(09:13):
a merger acquisition like this? And do you
expect to see more of these transactions,
occur in the future?
And certainly one that we spend a lot
of time thinking about. Right? We've grown dramatically.
We've, you know, nearly tripled in size in
the last, call it, four years from a
revenue perspective, north of 7,000,000,000 now and 25
hospitals. And so we've, you know, we've experienced
(09:35):
quite a bit of m and a.
Our m and a has been, you know,
contiguous from a geographic,
market perspective. And so,
you know,
I think because of all of the external
pressures that are out there, you're going to
see an acceleration in m and a. I
think that's the reality of what's happening. You're
probably hearing and reading a lot about this
(09:56):
related to,
the big beautiful bill and the potential implications
to Medicaid funding and the number of hospitals
that will close or systems that will come
under significant financial stress can cover that. And
overall, I agree with all of those statements.
I think that's accurate.
But specifically
related to noncontiguous,
(10:17):
m and a, you know, we're of the
opinion and I you know, Albert Wright, our
CEO, and and and Jessica Alsopf, our our
general counsel chief legal officer, and Ben Gerber,
our chief strategy officer and CEO of of
our insurance company, Peak.
The four of us spend an awful lot
of time,
debating this this topic and, you know, because
I think when you get into those times
(10:38):
of great stress, right, more organizations are sort
of raising their hands and asking for help
or seeking out partners and,
you know, that's certainly been true for for
folks talking to us as well. So you
have to have your,
you know, your strategy defined and your methods
and metrics that you evaluate when when answering
or responding to those types of questions. You
(10:58):
have to be aligned on that. And I
think
we are of the opinion, and I'm you
know, I don't wanna speak for everyone, but
I think Albert would agree that, you know,
we we don't see the value in these
noncontiguous,
m and a, you know, deals that you're
seeing, certainly for nonprofit health care,
mission oriented organizations like ours.
(11:19):
Yes. There's scale. Yes. There are other potential
benefits that you bring to the table. But
for us,
you know, we we have a lot of
pride and passion,
in our brand.
We have a lot of,
appreciation and and depth of support from our
region, from a geographic perspective, and certainly in
an environment of uncertainty related to Medicaid. And
(11:40):
Medicaid, whether we like it or not, is
a very local business. Right? Like, you have
to,
work very closely with your state or surrounding
states that you are in and and establish
those relationships and and work together,
because these are very challenging problems to solve,
and they're not gonna be solved overnight. So
for us, you know, I think for lack
(12:01):
of a better way to say it, sort
of the the pros do not outweigh the
cons, at least in our mind. And and,
you know, you have to be careful you
don't eat your words. But from my perspective,
I think we see a lot of value
in contiguous growth and and, you know, contiguous
geographic growth and expansion.
But we're we're not there on on some
of these noncontiguous.
And and, you know, like, everyone has a
(12:22):
different lens that they look through. We respect
that, but that's that's kinda where we land
on this. Yeah. No. I agree. It's different
for every every organization,
and it was just interesting to get your
thoughts there. And it'll also be interesting just
to see how these types of transactions, you
know, continue to occur and and the trends
we see.
Kind of switching it back to WVU Medicine
now,
(12:43):
almost I think we're now halfway through the
year. It's crazy
to think that. But can you share maybe
two to three top financial priorities you're thinking
for the system through the rest of the
year into into next year?
Yeah. Well, we continue to invest in breadth
and depth.
And so that's, you know, strategic capital investment
and recruitment in our regions.
(13:05):
So beyond sort of the the Central region
and and Morgantown area where I sit today,
but, you know, outside in in areas, you
know, such as, Wheeling and Charleston and Martinsburg,
Princeton, etcetera.
So that's a core part of our strategy
and a real focus for us in 2025.
You know, we recently announced, you know, north
(13:26):
of 460,000,000
in strategic capital. None of it was in
Morgantown. It was across all these different regions.
So that investment and and commitment to breadth
and depth,
is a core,
part of our strategy both in the short
term and long term and certainly something we're
focused on in 2025.
You know, workforce,
continues to be, you know, part of your
(13:47):
question about,
resiliency, I'm sure was related to that. It
continues to be a challenge, I think, for
us and many others. You know, I I
think specific,
to that one, we've been very focused on
our employee
benefits,
and the benefit design and how we can
manage that, effectively for certainly, first and foremost,
for our employees and their covered lives, but
(14:09):
also
from an expense growth perspective. And having our
our integrated delivery network or IBM strategy with
our insurance
company peak,
and what we've done, from a PBM perspective
and and some of the moves that we've
made there are paying dividends. And I think
that's another core part of our strategy, certainly
for the rest of '25 and and beyond.
(14:31):
And and probably last but, you know, maybe
not least is sort of balance sheet simplification
and fortification.
Right? And and so
because we've grown so rapidly, we have a
number of different entities that sort of you
know, everybody brings their baggage with them, so
to speak. And
and, you know, simplifying that has been a
key part of our strategy. We priced the
(14:51):
bond transaction actually last month,
and so that's, you know, a continuation of
that strategy. We we hired and formed really
a a a new sort of manager of
debt management and and dedicated treasury function. We
brought in an outside FA and are really
sort of focused on that simplification.
And the reason for that, right, is to
(15:12):
lead to the fortification. Because one of the
things that I'll tell you, and I think
if you're if you're not thinking about it
as a CFO right now, you should be,
is in the current environment
with all of the uncertainty around federal funding,
making sure that you have the appropriate drive
tower is is a core part of of
your function. Right? That's part when you think
about the fiduciary responsibility of your board and
(15:32):
your leadership,
you gotta be having those conversations, and we're
certainly having right now. That's a really important
part of of what we're doing,
as an organization because, you know, the you
know, I'm not saying anything I think any
anyone out there, including the CFOs or the
bankers, would disagree with, but, like, you know,
you always wanna seek additional capacity
when you don't need it, and you never
(15:54):
wanna seek it when you do need it.
Right? That's when you end up paying a
fortune for it. So that's that's probably the
third thing I'd say that we're really focused
on right now.
No. That's
busy but exciting time right now for WVU
Medicine. Again, Nick, it's always such a pleasure
getting to speak with you, especially on health
care trends that we're seeing right now as
(16:14):
well. I truly appreciate you taking the time
today and look forward to the next time
we get to to chat.
Yeah. Thank you so much, and, please have
a, happy and safe fourth of July.
Yeah. You too. Alright. Thanks.
Thanks. Take care.
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