A patient access department can stay within budget while problems originating there create costly work elsewhere. When an insurance issue or missed authorization reaches the billing team, the financial impact extends well beyond the front office.

In this Office Hours episode, Jon Vitiello, Chief Financial Officer at St. Luke’s Network, joins Stuart Newsome to discuss why patient access deserves executive attention and how to make the financial case for investing in it. Drawing on his experience with patient access restructuring at St. Luke’s, Jon will explore how finance leaders evaluate improvement proposals and recognize costs that can be difficult to see within individual departmental budgets.

The conversation will also examine how to distinguish staffing needs from workflow problems and assess the value of technology and specialized support. For patient access leaders preparing to request funding, Jon will offer a CFO’s perspective on what makes a proposal credible and how to demonstrate that an investment is delivering results.

Thursday, November 12, 2026, 11:00 am PT / 1:00 pm CT / 2:00 pm ET

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

  1. Identify how front-office decisions affect downstream costs and hospital financial performance.
  2. Build a stronger business case for patient access improvements by accounting for rework and the value of staff capacity.
  3. Evaluate investments in staffing, automation, and specialized support using clear expectations for financial and operational results.
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