June 18, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of the MGMA Business Solutions Podcast, host Daniel Williams sits down with Kate Daniels, Senior Director of Franchises, Associations and Buying Groups, and Hyrum Gray, Solution Consulting Manager from Oracle NetSuite. They dive deep into how medical practices can transform their operations by embracing modern technological solutions, addressing critical challenges in healthcare administration, and streamlining complex business processes.
Key Takeaways:
- [06:36] - Manual Processes Barrier
- [10:14] - Unified Platform Benefits
- [13:18] - Change Management Strategy
- [15:39] - Implementation Best Practices
- [17:37] - Technology Adoption Advice
- [20:49] - Community Learning
Resources:
Learn more about Oracle NetSuite - visit here
Additional Resources:
Email us at dwilliams@mgma.com if you would like to appear on an episode. If you have a question about your practice that you would like us to answer, send an email to advisor@mgma.com. Don't forget to subscribe to our network wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Daniel Williams (00:53):
Well, hi, everyone. Welcome to the MGMA
Business Solutions Podcast. I'mDaniel Williams, senior editor
at MGMA. And today, we'rediscussing a really interesting
topic. I wanna get to the bottomof smoother operations and
smoother care.
So to elaborate on that topic,joining us today are two people
(01:13):
from NetSuite. We've got KateDaniels, senior director of
franchises, associations, andbuying groups. I wanna ask Kate
what that is exactly. And we'vegot Hiram Gray, solution
consulting manager also atNetSuite. So, Kate, Hiram,
welcome to the show.
Hyrum Gray (01:33):
Thank you.
Kate Daniels (01:33):
Thank you. Lovely to be here.
Daniel Williams (01:35):
Yeah. It's great having y'all. So we talked
about this offline. Kate, I'mgonna start with you. Both of
y'all have very interestingbackgrounds.
But for the sake of focusing onthe topic, we'll limit some of
the background, but I would loveto hear this. So, Kate, let's
begin with you. Just tell us alittle bit about your health
(01:56):
care journey, what got you toNetSuite, and anything else you
might wanna share.
Kate Daniels (02:00):
Sure. Lovely. Yeah. Today, I lead a program at
Oracle NetSuite Suite calledFAB, and that stands for
franchises, associations, andbuying groups. And it's
predicated on the notion that wetrust our friends and our peers
and our colleagues far morereadily than we do strangers.
I think that's kind of a humanthing. But I started my career
(02:21):
twenty years ago in 2005 in arural health center in South
Africa. So while much of what Isay today will be sort of driven
by and informed by my earlyexposure to health care and to a
dearth of of medical systems andback end systems to support
health care delivery. I'llcertainly lean on Hiram for more
(02:42):
of the the technical backing.
Daniel Williams (02:45):
Yeah. Perfect. And that's one of the things
when, you know, we go toLinkedIn now and learn about
people and going, Wow, Kate hasthis amazing background in South
Africa and all these otherthings she's been doing, but
thank you for sharing that.Hyrum, wanted to hear from you
as well. Tell us a little bitabout your background and what
brought you here.
Hyrum Gray (03:02):
Yeah, my background started out in corporate
accounting. I graduated inaccounting and then went into
the corporate accounting field,and I worked in that for quite a
few years. And then after that,I actually left the accounting
world and went into theentrepreneurship world, I ran an
e commerce business with my wifefor five years. And that was
incredibly fun seeing alldifferent facets of business,
(03:24):
and then we sold that business,and then I came here to NetSuite
back in 2020. And when I camehere to NetSuite, the healthcare
industry was really in highdemand, especially for NetSuite,
as it has remained to this day.
And so I started out inhealthcare when I came here to
NetSuite, focused on thatindustry, and been in that ever
since. So very happy to be Yeah.
Daniel Williams (03:45):
And so I want to give a little background for
our audience to, I mean, Oracleobviously is one of the biggest
companies in the world, butOracle NetSuite, Let's talk
about that, Kate. I'll startwith you. Just tell us a little
bit about how that OracleNetSuite interacts or helps
medical practices and the workthat they do.
Kate Daniels (04:05):
Yeah. Well, NetSuite has long time for quite
a long time been the preferredcloud based enterprise resource
planning or ERP solution for thehealth care industry. This is
because we marry quite nicelywith health record systems. We
can ensure HIPAA compliance andHIPAA adherence, which is
critical to anybody kind ofcontrolling the continuum of
(04:28):
care. But, you know, one of thereasons we're here is we have a
strong relationship with theMedical Group Management
Association.
And since fomenting thatrelationship about a year and a
half ago, they have quicklyrisen to be one of the largest
and most notable relationshipswe have under this association's
program, and that's driven bythe members. Members are
(04:50):
adopting NetSuite en massebecause NetSuite's the way to
scale your health careoperation. We're finding that
members are maximizing theintegrations that we offer with
hundreds of different sort ofgap filling SaaS products. And
we find that, you know, membersare delighted to have an option
available to them that that kindof takes them out of the world
(05:13):
of never ending spreadsheets andkind of analog, slow, cumbersome
systems. So, yeah, thisrelationship has been one that's
not only allowed us to kind offeature what we do for the
healthcare industry, but todeepen our relationship with a
community of highly selfreferential healthcare
providers.
Daniel Williams (05:31):
Okay. Thanks for that. Hyram, anything you
wanna add to that discussion?
Hyrum Gray (05:35):
Yeah. Mean, NetSuite, just like Kate said,
it is a full business suite, andit really has a tremendous
amount of differentcapabilities, but it can do so
much more. And specifically inthe healthcare space,
historically, healthcarecompanies, they separate the
operations and the accountinginto two siloed different
places. NetSuite can really jointhat. And so one thing that
(05:57):
NetSuite really does well is ittakes data from the EMR, the
patient billing platform, andcan bring it into NetSuite, and
it can bring it in with so muchrich data.
One example of that is bringingrevenue data, and you can bring
it in in a segmented way intoNetSuite. And when I say
segmented, I mean that you canbring it in with which location
(06:17):
it happened at, whichdepartment, which provider or
physician, which pay type, whichinsurance carrier. On top of
that, it can bring in inventorydata, so what was used during
the patient visit, what was usedwhen it left the central supply
warehouse. On top of that, itcan bring in statistical
information. So how many patientvisits happened, how many
(06:38):
referrals, how many child versusadult visits.
So just a lot of rich data thatnets we can marry between the
operations and the finance side.
Daniel Williams (06:46):
Okay, thank you. Kate, I'll turn back to
you. So one of the things wewant to get to the bottom of is
really marrying these medicalpractice with the technology
that's available to them. When Iwas doing research and looked at
y'all's backgrounds, one of thethings I saw that manual
processes like budgeting andreporting are still common in
(07:08):
healthcare. I know.
Your eyes and your reactionsshow everything here. So let's
talk about the outdated methodsthat may be there, how they
create barriers, and how we canbring those practices to utilize
the tools that are available tothem out there.
Kate Daniels (07:26):
Yeah. Well, I will draw a bit on some of my early
experience, which is why my eyeslit up in such a way. I mean,
you know, when I first startedmy career, which was back in
02/2005, I went to work for a aprivately held but PEPFAR funded
clinic. So PEPFAR was thepresident's emergency plan for
AIDS relief initiated by Georgew Bush, and this was to address,
(07:49):
you know, serious HIV infectionand tuberculosis infection
largely in emerging and frontiereconomies. So working in a
private clinic that wasreceiving all of this support
around antiretrovirals was areally good way to expose
oneself not only to globalhealth care and public health
care issues, but also to the thesystems and support that that
(08:10):
undergird all of that, servicedelivery.
And I was shocked being a personoriginally from Northern
California whose mother was acertified Microsoft trainer.
Mhmm. So it was it was impartedon me early how important it is
to be conversant with Excel andAccess and other types of of
systems like that, but I wasshocked by the dearth of strong
(08:32):
back end systems in thisclinical setting. In fact, you
know, managing a a pretty largerollout of ARVs at the time,
this was, again, back in02/2005, we were managing that
on a massive Excel spreadsheet.Wow.
Which today, I mean, you know, Ithink we can all agree that
would be irresponsible andperhaps a bit risky way to
(08:53):
manage confidential patientinformation. Mhmm. And I don't
think any of us would dream ofit. But, you know, I think that
the origin stories for a lot ofthe ways we think about data and
patient care today matter. So Ithink the extent to which you
want to protect and stewardpatient information and the the
patient continuing of care isinextricably linked to your the
(09:16):
systems and the tools you haveto back up those those
processes.
Daniel Williams (09:21):
Okay.
Kate Daniels (09:21):
So, yeah, I'll I'll hand it to Hiram to talk a
little bit about exactly howNetSuite integrates with some of
the systems we see mostcommonly, but I think the two
are the continuum of care andthe systems you use to
administer that care are arecannot be divorced from one
another.
Daniel Williams (09:38):
Right, right. Thank you for sharing that. So,
Hyrum, I'll tweak it just alittle bit. So when you're
looking at the medicalpractices, what are some of the
measurables? What are some ofthe KPIs that you're looking at
to see how a medical practice'sback office systems are holding
them back?
Hyrum Gray (09:57):
Yeah, so medical practices, clinics, hospitals,
FQHCs, they really want to beable to plan and forecast based
off of headcount, based off howmany visits they're getting,
based off of the inventory thatthey need to have on hand. And
all these different systems areoften siloed. And so NetSuite
(10:20):
can really bring that into oneunified system, particularly
with planning, budgeting,forecasting. And if you know
that you need to start hiringmore people, well, are you gonna
plan for that? How are you gonnabudget that?
NetSuite has a tool calledNetSuite Planning and Budgeting.
Every company out there, everyorganization, planning,
budgeting is important to them.With MGMA, I know that they work
(10:43):
a lot with nonprofit healthcareorganizations. Nonprofits,
they're typically federallyfunded or funded by the state,
and they need to manage theirfunds extremely well with a lot
of care and a lot of thought inthat, and NetSuite can
streamline that process, gettingthe data from one side to the
other in real time and allowingthem to have that visibility
(11:04):
across it.
Daniel Williams (11:05):
Okay. Thanks for that. Kate, I want to talk
about automation and using aunified platform, because a lot
of times, and I know I am guiltyof this right now, I've got some
platforms I do some of my workon, and then I'm over here, and
then I'm over there, and I knowthat there are some that can
integrate. But let's talk aboutusing that unified platform, how
(11:27):
it can help workflows, reducebottlenecks, really make things
work the most efficiently.
Kate Daniels (11:32):
Yeah. I think you're best positioned asking
Hiram that question. Honestly,you know, I think Hiram can
speak to some of our specificintegrations for healthcare, as
well as the workflows we've seenmost successful for some of our
healthcare customers.
Hyrum Gray (11:48):
Yeah, mean streamlining processes and
having things in real time andautomating your processes is
key. I'll give you one example.I recently worked with an
organization, they had fourdifferent teams doing the
procure to pay process. Theprocure to pay process is how do
you request supplies, how do youbuy those supplies, how do you
(12:10):
put them into inventory, and howdo you pay for those supplies?
This organization had fourdifferent teams doing that on
four different systems.
A lot of it was just manual. Sofor example, the people that
needed the materials, thesupplies, they were emailing,
they were handwriting, they werecalling the purchasing team
saying, We need these supplies.The purchasing team would get
(12:31):
that, and then they would makethe order, the order would
arrive at the warehouse, theinventory team would receive
that into inventory, they wouldget the bill of lading, they
would scan that in, send it overto the accounts payable team,
the fourth team in this process,and they would pay the bill.
These were all siloed, theycouldn't view what the other
(12:53):
team was doing. NetSuite, thatis standard functionality.
You can automate that process.You can have somebody
electronically going in, makinga request for supplies, they can
electronically receive thosesupplies, you can have an
approval process around it. Soit really makes everyone in the
organization more efficient, andthis drives to better care in
(13:15):
the end.
Daniel Williams (13:16):
Yeah, I really appreciate that. So I'm gonna
shift gears just a little bit,Kate, and ask you a question
about change management. So fulldisclosure, MGMA, we're coming
up on our one hundredthanniversary or our one hundredth
year. It'll be in 2026, so we'rereally excited about that. But
(13:36):
to do that, we're going throughsome change management.
And as you know, there can befriction, there can be
resistance, there can be likejust like what's going on. So
when we talk about changemanagement, what strategies can
help ensure or at least helpgrease the wheel, so to speak,
that staff buys into it? Becausewe get really comfortable in
(14:00):
what we're doing, and then eventhough this might be better,
this change, it's still change,and so it's uncomfortable
initially.
Kate Daniels (14:08):
Oh, yeah. I mean, this is, I think, the most
important component of anydigital transformation journey
that any health center, healthclinic, hospital will undertake.
I think sometimes and and it'sled by people in our position.
We we lead with the technologyMhmm. As if the technology is
going to solve all yourproblems, and it won't.
(14:31):
I our technology is great as ismany other pieces that we work
with, but I think the the key isif you lead with the tech,
you'll get the most importantcomponents wrong, which is the
people and the processes. So anychange management journey begins
with ensuring you've got theright people on board, and
you've got the right peoplebought in to the change you're
(14:52):
initiating. People have to feellike this thing that will be
shifting is going to improvetheir jobs, the output of what
they're doing, and potentiallytheir impact. At the end of the
day, we all wanna feel like weare impactful in our work. We
wanna feel like we're making adifference and that we are being
as efficient and as as strong asteward of resources as
(15:12):
possible.
And so ensuring that you'regathering and generating buy in
and momentum from the people whowill be affected is the first
step. And then you have todesign and put in place the
processes that will supportthose people. Only then in a
tertiary fashion do you talkabout the technology. It it
should be the last part of anotherwise pretty broad and
(15:36):
thoughtful change managementprocess. And I think when we do
talk to customers who stumbledduring their implementation or
whose expectations were notmanaged carefully, it's
generally around these issues,didn't have the right people
bought in from the beginning, orwe didn't have the right
processes to support the thewide scale adoption of this new
(15:57):
technology.
So I think if we are driven bythis kind of people process then
technology in that order
Daniel Williams (16:04):
Mhmm.
Kate Daniels (16:04):
Mindset, we will position our our customers to
succeed.
Daniel Williams (16:08):
Hiram, I'll turn it to you, and maybe we
take a step even deeper if youwanna give an example or what it
looks like in health care, butwe're talking about almost a
math equation. People,processes, technology, success
at the end of that. But walk usthrough that. What's going on,
and where are those frictionpoints? How do we get around
(16:28):
those?
Hyrum Gray (16:29):
Yeah, so when you are trying to implement new
software, new technology insideof your clinic, your practice, I
think there are two main thingsthat can really help
organizations, and two thingsthat maybe they do incorrectly
when they're trying to change.One is the implementation
process. A lot of people are soanxious, they're so excited to
(16:49):
get onto a new system that theyrush that implementation
process. I think that they needto slow down, take it easy, take
the time to really implement thesoftware, and do it right the
first time, that will be thefoundation. Hopefully, it's the
foundation that lasts a decadeplus that you're using that
software, so don't rush thatprocess.
The second thing that I wouldsay that they need to do is
(17:12):
adoption management. So gettingtheir team to buy in to this new
software. And the great thingabout NetSuite is that can start
immediately during theimplementation, so before you go
live. You don't want peoplelearning the software when it's
live. You want them to learn thesoftware before you're fully
implemented.
You want them to be practicing,training, getting comfortable
(17:34):
and familiar inside of thatsystem. So the two things, don't
rush the implementation and getyour people practicing and
learning it immediately beforeit goes live.
Daniel Williams (17:43):
Okay. So I'll give you all kind of a blank
canvas then for a finalquestion. Hyram, I'll stay with
you, and then we'll go to Katefor this. You kind of gave a
really good piece of advice forhealthcare leaders knowing, you
know, when they need tomodernize their operations but
aren't really sure where tostart. So you can continue in
(18:05):
that mode, or if there'ssomething else you'd want to
share with these MGMA healthcareleaders, they're looking at
technology, they see a lot ofoptions out there, they see the
challenges they have.
Where do they start? What'ssomething that they can look
into where they can get somewins and they can move forward
(18:25):
with their organization?
Hyrum Gray (18:27):
Yeah, so the first thing that I would tell them to
do is to go down to theoperations people, the people
that are actually performing thetransactions inside of their
current system today. Ask themwhat their bottlenecks, what
their challenges are.Oftentimes, leaders, they can
maybe feel like we're going tosave money by staying on this
(18:49):
outdated, very cheap,inexpensive system. So one
recommendation is go talk toyour people, see what challenges
they're having, and then makethe jump to a new system. The
new system is, of course,probably going to be more
expensive upfront, but in thelong run, it's going to really
save them money.
There's a great quote by AbrahamLincoln about chopping down a
(19:10):
tree. He says, If you give mesix hours to chop down a tree,
I'll spend the first four hourssharpening the axe. So you're
not going to save time by usinga dull axe. Spend the money, get
the sharp axe, and it's going topay off in the long run.
Daniel Williams (19:26):
Love that. Kate, I'll give you the same
question, and you can take it inwhatever direction you want, but
we've got these medical practiceleaders, they have a lot of
complex challengestechnologically, staffing wise,
everything else they're dealingwith. So where would you advise
them to really begin? What arethose first steps they need to
(19:47):
do to really, if they want to,they know they need to modernize
their practice, but are kind ofthat paralysis by analysis just
stuck there right now?
Kate Daniels (19:57):
I'd love to kind of highlight and piggyback off
of Hyrum's idea. I reallyappreciate you starting with
that, Hyrum, because I think sooften big decisions, especially
expensive ERP transitions, aremade in rooms that don't involve
the people who are everydayimplementers or or patient
facing. And I think asking thosequestions of the people who are
(20:20):
patient facing and who are goingto be most directed directly
affected by changes is a greatplace to start. Right? Get buy
in.
Again, ask all of the the thethe ranks and the the levels of
people most affected by thesechanges. The other thing I think
is important is, you know, yourcommunity of health care
providers and practitioners is areally rich resource of
(20:43):
recommendations and ideas. A lotof the MGMA members have been
exposing themselves to NetSuiteas well as other systems and
made the choice to adoptNetSuite. And they're now going
through implementation. They'regoing live.
And they they are a richrepository of experiential
information, words to the wise,tips and tricks, things they
(21:04):
wish they'd asked earlier on,things they wish they'd done
earlier on. So I think ask yourcommunity, lean on the leaders
also of MGMA who have been, forus, incredible partners, not
only in the conversation arounddigital transformation, but in
the broader conversation aroundhow to serve their members well.
So I know they have a vestedinterest in ensuring there's
(21:24):
good connections made betweenmembers and that the information
shared is of true value. So,yeah, start with the the folks
who are most directly affectedand and are faced with patients
every day, and lean on yourcommunity of peers and
colleagues.
Daniel Williams (21:40):
Alright. Well, Kate, Hyrum, thank you so much
for joining us today. I reallyappreciate y'all being here, and
I should have mentioned itpreviously, but they're in
studio with us here. So it'sgreat to have you all in here.
Hyrum Gray (21:53):
Yeah. It's great to be here. It's been a pleasure.
Kate Daniels (21:56):
It's delightful to finally have the three d
experience, I find. So much ofour lives are, you know,
Hollywood squares on a screen,and there's nothing quite like
being in person. So
Daniel Williams (22:04):
thank you. Yeah. We we all live in the,
Greater Denver area, but camefrom all all parts of it to get
here today. It was really neatmeeting up with y'all. So with
that said, everybody, that'sgonna do it for this episode of
the MGMA Business SolutionsPodcast.
I do wanna say if you've gotquestions, thoughts, wanna do
(22:25):
more research on what Hiram andKate were talking about today,
go over to netsuite.com. I'mgonna provide a direct link in
the episode show notes so youcan find exactly what you need
there. So until then, thank youall for being MGMA podcast
listeners.
Well, hi, everyone. Welcome to the MGMA
Business Solutions Podcast. I'mDaniel Williams, senior editor
at MGMA. And today, we'rediscussing a really interesting
topic. I wanna get to the bottomof smoother operations and
smoother care.
So to elaborate on that topic,joining us today are two people
(01:13):
from NetSuite. We've got KateDaniels, senior director of
franchises, associations, andbuying groups. I wanna ask Kate
what that is exactly. And we'vegot Hiram Gray, solution
consulting manager also atNetSuite. So, Kate, Hiram,
welcome to the show.
Hyrum Gray (01:33):
Thank you.
Kate Daniels (01:33):
Thank you. Lovely to be here.
Daniel Williams (01:35):
Yeah. It's great having y'all. So we talked
about this offline. Kate, I'mgonna start with you. Both of
y'all have very interestingbackgrounds.
But for the sake of focusing onthe topic, we'll limit some of
the background, but I would loveto hear this. So, Kate, let's
begin with you. Just tell us alittle bit about your health
(01:56):
care journey, what got you toNetSuite, and anything else you
might wanna share.
Kate Daniels (02:00):
Sure. Lovely. Yeah. Today, I lead a program at
Oracle NetSuite Suite calledFAB, and that stands for
franchises, associations, andbuying groups. And it's
predicated on the notion that wetrust our friends and our peers
and our colleagues far morereadily than we do strangers.
I think that's kind of a humanthing. But I started my career
(02:21):
twenty years ago in 2005 in arural health center in South
Africa. So while much of what Isay today will be sort of driven
by and informed by my earlyexposure to health care and to a
dearth of of medical systems andback end systems to support
health care delivery. I'llcertainly lean on Hiram for more
(02:42):
of the the technical backing.
Daniel Williams (02:45):
Yeah. Perfect. And that's one of the things
when, you know, we go toLinkedIn now and learn about
people and going, Wow, Kate hasthis amazing background in South
Africa and all these otherthings she's been doing, but
thank you for sharing that.Hyrum, wanted to hear from you
as well. Tell us a little bitabout your background and what
brought you here.
Hyrum Gray (03:02):
Yeah, my background started out in corporate
accounting. I graduated inaccounting and then went into
the corporate accounting field,and I worked in that for quite a
few years. And then after that,I actually left the accounting
world and went into theentrepreneurship world, I ran an
e commerce business with my wifefor five years. And that was
incredibly fun seeing alldifferent facets of business,
(03:24):
and then we sold that business,and then I came here to NetSuite
back in 2020. And when I camehere to NetSuite, the healthcare
industry was really in highdemand, especially for NetSuite,
as it has remained to this day.
And so I started out inhealthcare when I came here to
NetSuite, focused on thatindustry, and been in that ever
since. So very happy to be Yeah.
Daniel Williams (03:45):
And so I want to give a little background for
our audience to, I mean, Oracleobviously is one of the biggest
companies in the world, butOracle NetSuite, Let's talk
about that, Kate. I'll startwith you. Just tell us a little
bit about how that OracleNetSuite interacts or helps
medical practices and the workthat they do.
Kate Daniels (04:05):
Yeah. Well, NetSuite has long time for quite
a long time been the preferredcloud based enterprise resource
planning or ERP solution for thehealth care industry. This is
because we marry quite nicelywith health record systems. We
can ensure HIPAA compliance andHIPAA adherence, which is
critical to anybody kind ofcontrolling the continuum of
(04:28):
care. But, you know, one of thereasons we're here is we have a
strong relationship with theMedical Group Management
Association.
And since fomenting thatrelationship about a year and a
half ago, they have quicklyrisen to be one of the largest
and most notable relationshipswe have under this association's
program, and that's driven bythe members. Members are
(04:50):
adopting NetSuite en massebecause NetSuite's the way to
scale your health careoperation. We're finding that
members are maximizing theintegrations that we offer with
hundreds of different sort ofgap filling SaaS products. And
we find that, you know, membersare delighted to have an option
available to them that that kindof takes them out of the world
(05:13):
of never ending spreadsheets andkind of analog, slow, cumbersome
systems. So, yeah, thisrelationship has been one that's
not only allowed us to kind offeature what we do for the
healthcare industry, but todeepen our relationship with a
community of highly selfreferential healthcare
providers.
Daniel Williams (05:31):
Okay. Thanks for that. Hyram, anything you
wanna add to that discussion?
Hyrum Gray (05:35):
Yeah. Mean, NetSuite, just like Kate said,
it is a full business suite, andit really has a tremendous
amount of differentcapabilities, but it can do so
much more. And specifically inthe healthcare space,
historically, healthcarecompanies, they separate the
operations and the accountinginto two siloed different
places. NetSuite can really jointhat. And so one thing that
(05:57):
NetSuite really does well is ittakes data from the EMR, the
patient billing platform, andcan bring it into NetSuite, and
it can bring it in with so muchrich data.
One example of that is bringingrevenue data, and you can bring
it in in a segmented way intoNetSuite. And when I say
segmented, I mean that you canbring it in with which location
(06:17):
it happened at, whichdepartment, which provider or
physician, which pay type, whichinsurance carrier. On top of
that, it can bring in inventorydata, so what was used during
the patient visit, what was usedwhen it left the central supply
warehouse. On top of that, itcan bring in statistical
information. So how many patientvisits happened, how many
(06:38):
referrals, how many child versusadult visits.
So just a lot of rich data thatnets we can marry between the
operations and the finance side.
Daniel Williams (06:46):
Okay, thank you. Kate, I'll turn back to
you. So one of the things wewant to get to the bottom of is
really marrying these medicalpractice with the technology
that's available to them. When Iwas doing research and looked at
y'all's backgrounds, one of thethings I saw that manual
processes like budgeting andreporting are still common in
(07:08):
healthcare. I know.
Your eyes and your reactionsshow everything here. So let's
talk about the outdated methodsthat may be there, how they
create barriers, and how we canbring those practices to utilize
the tools that are available tothem out there.
Kate Daniels (07:26):
Yeah. Well, I will draw a bit on some of my early
experience, which is why my eyeslit up in such a way. I mean,
you know, when I first startedmy career, which was back in
02/2005, I went to work for a aprivately held but PEPFAR funded
clinic. So PEPFAR was thepresident's emergency plan for
AIDS relief initiated by Georgew Bush, and this was to address,
(07:49):
you know, serious HIV infectionand tuberculosis infection
largely in emerging and frontiereconomies. So working in a
private clinic that wasreceiving all of this support
around antiretrovirals was areally good way to expose
oneself not only to globalhealth care and public health
care issues, but also to the thesystems and support that that
(08:10):
undergird all of that, servicedelivery.
And I was shocked being a personoriginally from Northern
California whose mother was acertified Microsoft trainer.
Mhmm. So it was it was impartedon me early how important it is
to be conversant with Excel andAccess and other types of of
systems like that, but I wasshocked by the dearth of strong
(08:32):
back end systems in thisclinical setting. In fact, you
know, managing a a pretty largerollout of ARVs at the time,
this was, again, back in02/2005, we were managing that
on a massive Excel spreadsheet.Wow.
Which today, I mean, you know, Ithink we can all agree that
would be irresponsible andperhaps a bit risky way to
(08:53):
manage confidential patientinformation. Mhmm. And I don't
think any of us would dream ofit. But, you know, I think that
the origin stories for a lot ofthe ways we think about data and
patient care today matter. So Ithink the extent to which you
want to protect and stewardpatient information and the the
patient continuing of care isinextricably linked to your the
(09:16):
systems and the tools you haveto back up those those
processes.
Daniel Williams (09:21):
Okay.
Kate Daniels (09:21):
So, yeah, I'll I'll hand it to Hiram to talk a
little bit about exactly howNetSuite integrates with some of
the systems we see mostcommonly, but I think the two
are the continuum of care andthe systems you use to
administer that care are arecannot be divorced from one
another.
Daniel Williams (09:38):
Right, right. Thank you for sharing that. So,
Hyrum, I'll tweak it just alittle bit. So when you're
looking at the medicalpractices, what are some of the
measurables? What are some ofthe KPIs that you're looking at
to see how a medical practice'sback office systems are holding
them back?
Hyrum Gray (09:57):
Yeah, so medical practices, clinics, hospitals,
FQHCs, they really want to beable to plan and forecast based
off of headcount, based off howmany visits they're getting,
based off of the inventory thatthey need to have on hand. And
all these different systems areoften siloed. And so NetSuite
(10:20):
can really bring that into oneunified system, particularly
with planning, budgeting,forecasting. And if you know
that you need to start hiringmore people, well, are you gonna
plan for that? How are you gonnabudget that?
NetSuite has a tool calledNetSuite Planning and Budgeting.
Every company out there, everyorganization, planning,
budgeting is important to them.With MGMA, I know that they work
(10:43):
a lot with nonprofit healthcareorganizations. Nonprofits,
they're typically federallyfunded or funded by the state,
and they need to manage theirfunds extremely well with a lot
of care and a lot of thought inthat, and NetSuite can
streamline that process, gettingthe data from one side to the
other in real time and allowingthem to have that visibility
(11:04):
across it.
Daniel Williams (11:05):
Okay. Thanks for that. Kate, I want to talk
about automation and using aunified platform, because a lot
of times, and I know I am guiltyof this right now, I've got some
platforms I do some of my workon, and then I'm over here, and
then I'm over there, and I knowthat there are some that can
integrate. But let's talk aboutusing that unified platform, how
(11:27):
it can help workflows, reducebottlenecks, really make things
work the most efficiently.
Kate Daniels (11:32):
Yeah. I think you're best positioned asking
Hiram that question. Honestly,you know, I think Hiram can
speak to some of our specificintegrations for healthcare, as
well as the workflows we've seenmost successful for some of our
healthcare customers.
Hyrum Gray (11:48):
Yeah, mean streamlining processes and
having things in real time andautomating your processes is
key. I'll give you one example.I recently worked with an
organization, they had fourdifferent teams doing the
procure to pay process. Theprocure to pay process is how do
you request supplies, how do youbuy those supplies, how do you
(12:10):
put them into inventory, and howdo you pay for those supplies?
This organization had fourdifferent teams doing that on
four different systems.
A lot of it was just manual. Sofor example, the people that
needed the materials, thesupplies, they were emailing,
they were handwriting, they werecalling the purchasing team
saying, We need these supplies.The purchasing team would get
(12:31):
that, and then they would makethe order, the order would
arrive at the warehouse, theinventory team would receive
that into inventory, they wouldget the bill of lading, they
would scan that in, send it overto the accounts payable team,
the fourth team in this process,and they would pay the bill.
These were all siloed, theycouldn't view what the other
(12:53):
team was doing. NetSuite, thatis standard functionality.
You can automate that process.You can have somebody
electronically going in, makinga request for supplies, they can
electronically receive thosesupplies, you can have an
approval process around it. Soit really makes everyone in the
organization more efficient, andthis drives to better care in
(13:15):
the end.
Daniel Williams (13:16):
Yeah, I really appreciate that. So I'm gonna
shift gears just a little bit,Kate, and ask you a question
about change management. So fulldisclosure, MGMA, we're coming
up on our one hundredthanniversary or our one hundredth
year. It'll be in 2026, so we'rereally excited about that. But
(13:36):
to do that, we're going throughsome change management.
And as you know, there can befriction, there can be
resistance, there can be likejust like what's going on. So
when we talk about changemanagement, what strategies can
help ensure or at least helpgrease the wheel, so to speak,
that staff buys into it? Becausewe get really comfortable in
(14:00):
what we're doing, and then eventhough this might be better,
this change, it's still change,and so it's uncomfortable
initially.
Kate Daniels (14:08):
Oh, yeah. I mean, this is, I think, the most
important component of anydigital transformation journey
that any health center, healthclinic, hospital will undertake.
I think sometimes and and it'sled by people in our position.
We we lead with the technologyMhmm. As if the technology is
going to solve all yourproblems, and it won't.
(14:31):
I our technology is great as ismany other pieces that we work
with, but I think the the key isif you lead with the tech,
you'll get the most importantcomponents wrong, which is the
people and the processes. So anychange management journey begins
with ensuring you've got theright people on board, and
you've got the right peoplebought in to the change you're
(14:52):
initiating. People have to feellike this thing that will be
shifting is going to improvetheir jobs, the output of what
they're doing, and potentiallytheir impact. At the end of the
day, we all wanna feel like weare impactful in our work. We
wanna feel like we're making adifference and that we are being
as efficient and as as strong asteward of resources as
(15:12):
possible.
And so ensuring that you'regathering and generating buy in
and momentum from the people whowill be affected is the first
step. And then you have todesign and put in place the
processes that will supportthose people. Only then in a
tertiary fashion do you talkabout the technology. It it
should be the last part of anotherwise pretty broad and
(15:36):
thoughtful change managementprocess. And I think when we do
talk to customers who stumbledduring their implementation or
whose expectations were notmanaged carefully, it's
generally around these issues,didn't have the right people
bought in from the beginning, orwe didn't have the right
processes to support the thewide scale adoption of this new
(15:57):
technology.
So I think if we are driven bythis kind of people process then
technology in that order
Daniel Williams (16:04):
Mhmm.
Kate Daniels (16:04):
Mindset, we will position our our customers to
succeed.
Daniel Williams (16:08):
Hiram, I'll turn it to you, and maybe we
take a step even deeper if youwanna give an example or what it
looks like in health care, butwe're talking about almost a
math equation. People,processes, technology, success
at the end of that. But walk usthrough that. What's going on,
and where are those frictionpoints? How do we get around
(16:28):
those?
Hyrum Gray (16:29):
Yeah, so when you are trying to implement new
software, new technology insideof your clinic, your practice, I
think there are two main thingsthat can really help
organizations, and two thingsthat maybe they do incorrectly
when they're trying to change.One is the implementation
process. A lot of people are soanxious, they're so excited to
(16:49):
get onto a new system that theyrush that implementation
process. I think that they needto slow down, take it easy, take
the time to really implement thesoftware, and do it right the
first time, that will be thefoundation. Hopefully, it's the
foundation that lasts a decadeplus that you're using that
software, so don't rush thatprocess.
The second thing that I wouldsay that they need to do is
(17:12):
adoption management. So gettingtheir team to buy in to this new
software. And the great thingabout NetSuite is that can start
immediately during theimplementation, so before you go
live. You don't want peoplelearning the software when it's
live. You want them to learn thesoftware before you're fully
implemented.
You want them to be practicing,training, getting comfortable
(17:34):
and familiar inside of thatsystem. So the two things, don't
rush the implementation and getyour people practicing and
learning it immediately beforeit goes live.
Daniel Williams (17:43):
Okay. So I'll give you all kind of a blank
canvas then for a finalquestion. Hyram, I'll stay with
you, and then we'll go to Katefor this. You kind of gave a
really good piece of advice forhealthcare leaders knowing, you
know, when they need tomodernize their operations but
aren't really sure where tostart. So you can continue in
(18:05):
that mode, or if there'ssomething else you'd want to
share with these MGMA healthcareleaders, they're looking at
technology, they see a lot ofoptions out there, they see the
challenges they have.
Where do they start? What'ssomething that they can look
into where they can get somewins and they can move forward
(18:25):
with their organization?
Hyrum Gray (18:27):
Yeah, so the first thing that I would tell them to
do is to go down to theoperations people, the people
that are actually performing thetransactions inside of their
current system today. Ask themwhat their bottlenecks, what
their challenges are.Oftentimes, leaders, they can
maybe feel like we're going tosave money by staying on this
(18:49):
outdated, very cheap,inexpensive system. So one
recommendation is go talk toyour people, see what challenges
they're having, and then makethe jump to a new system. The
new system is, of course,probably going to be more
expensive upfront, but in thelong run, it's going to really
save them money.
There's a great quote by AbrahamLincoln about chopping down a
(19:10):
tree. He says, If you give mesix hours to chop down a tree,
I'll spend the first four hourssharpening the axe. So you're
not going to save time by usinga dull axe. Spend the money, get
the sharp axe, and it's going topay off in the long run.
Daniel Williams (19:26):
Love that. Kate, I'll give you the same
question, and you can take it inwhatever direction you want, but
we've got these medical practiceleaders, they have a lot of
complex challengestechnologically, staffing wise,
everything else they're dealingwith. So where would you advise
them to really begin? What arethose first steps they need to
(19:47):
do to really, if they want to,they know they need to modernize
their practice, but are kind ofthat paralysis by analysis just
stuck there right now?
Kate Daniels (19:57):
I'd love to kind of highlight and piggyback off
of Hyrum's idea. I reallyappreciate you starting with
that, Hyrum, because I think sooften big decisions, especially
expensive ERP transitions, aremade in rooms that don't involve
the people who are everydayimplementers or or patient
facing. And I think asking thosequestions of the people who are
(20:20):
patient facing and who are goingto be most directed directly
affected by changes is a greatplace to start. Right? Get buy
in.
Again, ask all of the the thethe ranks and the the levels of
people most affected by thesechanges. The other thing I think
is important is, you know, yourcommunity of health care
providers and practitioners is areally rich resource of
(20:43):
recommendations and ideas. A lotof the MGMA members have been
exposing themselves to NetSuiteas well as other systems and
made the choice to adoptNetSuite. And they're now going
through implementation. They'regoing live.
And they they are a richrepository of experiential
information, words to the wise,tips and tricks, things they
(21:04):
wish they'd asked earlier on,things they wish they'd done
earlier on. So I think ask yourcommunity, lean on the leaders
also of MGMA who have been, forus, incredible partners, not
only in the conversation arounddigital transformation, but in
the broader conversation aroundhow to serve their members well.
So I know they have a vestedinterest in ensuring there's
(21:24):
good connections made betweenmembers and that the information
shared is of true value. So,yeah, start with the the folks
who are most directly affectedand and are faced with patients
every day, and lean on yourcommunity of peers and
colleagues.
Daniel Williams (21:40):
Alright. Well, Kate, Hyrum, thank you so much
for joining us today. I reallyappreciate y'all being here, and
I should have mentioned itpreviously, but they're in
studio with us here. So it'sgreat to have you all in here.
Hyrum Gray (21:53):
Yeah. It's great to be here. It's been a pleasure.
Kate Daniels (21:56):
It's delightful to finally have the three d
experience, I find. So much ofour lives are, you know,
Hollywood squares on a screen,and there's nothing quite like
being in person. So
Daniel Williams (22:04):
thank you. Yeah. We we all live in the,
Greater Denver area, but camefrom all all parts of it to get
here today. It was really neatmeeting up with y'all. So with
that said, everybody, that'sgonna do it for this episode of
the MGMA Business SolutionsPodcast.
I do wanna say if you've gotquestions, thoughts, wanna do
(22:25):
more research on what Hiram andKate were talking about today,
go over to netsuite.com. I'mgonna provide a direct link in
the episode show notes so youcan find exactly what you need
there. So until then, thank youall for being MGMA podcast
listeners.
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