Medical Money Matters with Jill Arena

Episode 189: Your Staffing Problem Isn't a Staffing Problem—It's a Systems Problem 07.07.2026 15min

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever looked around your practice and wondered why good people keep leaving? Maybe you've blamed the job market, younger generations, higher salaries across town, or the simple fact that healthcare has become harder than ever. While all of those things certainly play a role, what if I told you that your staffing problem isn't really a staffing problem at all? More often than not, turnover is actually a systems problem. Practices with strong systems consistently retain...

Episode 188: Behavioral Health Belongs Here: Integrating It into Your Practice with Ed Speedling 30.06.2026 28min

Send us Fan Mail Behavioral health is no longer a "nice to have"—it's an essential part of delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. In this episode of Medical Money Matters, Jill Arena welcomes healthcare executive and behavioral health expert Ed Speedling (MSW, MHA, FACHE), President of ES Healthcare Consulting. Drawing on decades of leadership experience, Ed shares why integrating behavioral health into primary care is one of the most important opportunities facing medical practices ...

Episode 187: The Blame Game and Why a Culture of Accountability is the Antidote 23.06.2026 27min

Send us Fan Mail What if the biggest threat to your medical practice isn't declining reimbursement, staffing shortages, rising expenses, or even physician burnout? What if it's the culture you've unintentionally created? That may sound dramatic, but after working with hundreds of physician practices across the country, I've seen something over and over again. Practices spend enormous amounts of time worrying about external threats while overlooking the internal dynamics that are quietly drain...

Episode 186: Your Revenue Cycle Is Talking — Are You Listening? 16.06.2026 19min

Send us Fan Mail If I walked into your organization today and asked you one simple question — “What is your revenue cycle trying to tell you?” — would you know the answer? Not your collections rate. Not your days in A/R. Not your monthly deposits. I mean the deeper answer. What operational stories are hiding inside your numbers right now? Because most healthcare organizations still think about revenue cycle as a billing department function. Claims go out. Payments come in. Denials get worked....

Episode 185: Busy, Burned Out, and Barely Profitable? Here’s What High-Performing Groups Do Differently - Part 2 09.06.2026 14min

Send us Fan Mail Last week, we talked about some of the biggest differences between struggling medical groups and high-performing organizations. We discussed long-term thinking, strategic staffing, operational intelligence, investment philosophy, and diversified revenue streams. And today, we’re continuing that conversation — because once organizations begin growing successfully, entirely new challenges emerge. Growth sounds exciting. But growth without infrastructure creates chaos very quick...

Episode 184: Busy, Burned Out, and Barely Profitable? What Top Groups Do Differently - Part 1 02.06.2026 17min

Send us Fan Mail Why do some medical groups thrive while others constantly struggle — even in the same market? Have you ever looked at two practices in the same city, with similar physicians, similar patient populations, and similar payer contracts… and wondered why one group seems calm, strategic, financially healthy, and growing — while the other feels stressed, chaotic, reactive, and constantly fighting fires? That difference is rarely luck. High-performing medical groups think differently...

Episode 183: The Million Dollar Problem No One’s Talking About: Physician Undercoding 26.05.2026 22min

Send us Fan Mail What if your organization’s biggest revenue problem has nothing to do with payer contracts? Think about that for a moment. Because in healthcare, we spend enormous amounts of time obsessing over payer negotiations, denials, collections, reimbursement schedules, staffing ratios, labor costs, and operational efficiency. Entire leadership meetings are devoted to squeezing another one or two percent out of contracts. But what if the revenue problem starts long before the claim is...

Episode 182: How to Harness Data Abundance with AI: A Conversation with Saurabh Gupta, MD 19.05.2026 38min

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with Saurabh Gupta, MD — physician, healthcare technology executive, and Founder & CEO of CorMetrix — for a timely conversation about the explosion of healthcare data and how artificial intelligence can help physicians and healthcare organizations make sense of it. With decades of experience spanning clinical medicine, enterprise healthcare technology, data strategy, and innovation, Dr. Gupta brings a unique perspective to the intersectio...

Episode 181: The Power of Private Practice: Why Independence, Community, and Connection Still Matter 12.05.2026 19min

Send us Fan Mail Today I want to talk about something that is deeply important to me, and I suspect deeply important to many of you listening today — the future of independent private practice, and why community matters now more than ever. This past weekend, we gathered in Portland, Oregon for the Caduceus Masquerade Ball, a celebration of independent medicine and the people who dedicate their lives to caring for our communities. And honestly, it was extraordinary. The room was filled with ph...

Episode 180: Drowning in Reports, But Still Guessing? How to Turn Practice Data Into Real Decisions 05.05.2026 14min

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re talking about something that is hiding in plain sight in almost every practice I work with—and that is your data. Because here’s the truth: most practices are sitting on a goldmine of data inside their EMR and practice management system… but very few are actually using it to make better business decisions. You’ve got reports. You’ve got dashboards. You’ve got numbers. But if you’re like most physicians and practice leaders, you’re still asking: what does this actu...

Episode 179: Stop Wasting Conferences: How to Get Real Value from Every Event 28.04.2026 17min

Send us Fan Mail It’s conference season—and calendars are filling up fast. Flights are getting booked, hotels are getting reserved, registration fees are getting approved, and calendars are getting blocked off for a few days away from the practice. And if you’re like most physicians and practice leaders, there’s a mix of emotions. Maybe a little excitement. Maybe a little overwhelm. Maybe even a quiet question in the back of your mind… Is this actually worth it? Because when you really step b...

Episode 178: If You Didn’t Say It, It Didn’t Happen: The Hidden Risk of Ambient Scribes 21.04.2026 17min

Send us Fan Mail Ambient scribes are one of the most exciting developments we’ve seen in clinical workflows in years. They promise less typing, less burnout, and more meaningful connection with patients. And for many physicians, that alone feels like a long-overdue shift in the right direction. But here’s the question: are they actually capturing the full clinical and financial story of the visit? Because what I’m seeing, across practices of all sizes, is that while ambient scribes are ...

Episode 177: Did You Really Get Paid? Reconciliation in Practice Finance: A Conversation with Sasha King of Anatomy 14.04.2026 29min

Send us Fan Mail How do you know if you really got paid? Reconciliation between bank deposits, practice management system payment posting and accounting system totals is one of the most persistent—and often overlooked—challenges in healthcare operations. And it's a fantastic internal control. In this episode, I sit down with Anatomy’s CEO Sasha King to discuss how groups should automate bank deposits, strengthen internal controls, and bring much-needed clarity to the reconciliation process. I...

Episode 176: Social Media: Friend or Foe for Your Practice? 07.04.2026 14min

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re talking about something that tends to bring up a mix of reactions for physicians and practice leaders, and that is social media. For some of you, this feels like something you know you should be doing more with, but it keeps getting pushed down the list. For others, it feels like noise or distraction, and you’re not convinced it really matters. And for a few of you, you’ve probably seen enough examples to feel a little cautious—maybe even concerned—about the risks...

Episode 175: The Hidden Cost of “Cheap” Revenue Cycle Management 31.03.2026 18min

Send us Fan Mail Today we’re going to talk about something that seems really practical on the surface… but has massive implications for your income, your stress level, and the long-term health of your practice. And that is this: Why going cheap on your revenue cycle is almost always a mistake. Now, I want to start by saying—this is not about criticizing any specific vendor or company. This is about understanding how these systems actually work…so you can make better decisions. Because revenue...

Episode 174: Playing With Data: A Conversation With Nate Moore 17.03.2026 31min

Send us Fan Mail Physicians and administrators are drowning in a sea of data, with no real information or business intelligence to work with. EMR's and practice management systems have dashboards galore, but how useful is the information really? Join me for a fast-paced discussion with national data expert Nate Moore of Moore Solutions (https://mooresolutionsinc.com/) as we talk about how physicians and practice leaders can take a different approach. We wander through many topics, such as sch...

Episode 173: When a Good Office Manager Isn’t Enough Anymore: A Common Growing Pain in Medical Practices 10.03.2026 13min

Send us Fan Mail There are few moments in a growing medical practice that feel more uncomfortable than this one. You look around and realize that something isn’t working the way it used to. Day-to-day operations feel harder. Decisions seem slower. Issues keep landing back on the physicians’ desks. And yet, the person at the center of it all—the office manager—has been loyal, hardworking, and instrumental in getting the practice to where it is today. This is where leadership and loyalty collid...

Episode 172: Growth or Chaos: The Early Warning Signs Success Is Creating Friction Inside Your Practice 03.03.2026 12min

Send us Fan Mail There’s a moment that many successful medical practices reach where something feels… off. Volume is up. The practice is growing. On paper, things look good—sometimes even great. And yet, the day-to-day experience feels harder than it used to. Communication takes more effort. Decisions feel heavier. Small issues seem to snowball faster than expected. Instead of growth feeling energizing, it starts to feel exhausting. That’s the moment we’re talking about today. Because growth ...

Episode 171: Cash Flow Tells the Truth: What Your Financials Are Saying About Your Next 12 Months 24.02.2026 12min

Send us Fan Mail There are practices that look profitable on paper and still feel constantly on edge. Payroll clears, but just barely. Distributions feel risky. Hiring decisions get delayed. Big expenses create anxiety instead of confidence. And despite doing “well,” leadership always feels like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. That feeling usually has nothing to do with profit. It has everything to do with cash flow. Cash flow tells the truth in a way no other financial statement ...

Episode 170: From Busy to Sustainable: The Numbers That Reveal Whether Your Practice Is Actually Healthy 17.02.2026 14min

Send us Fan Mail “Busy” is one of the most dangerous words in medicine. It sounds positive. Reassuring, even. When a practice is busy, it feels productive. Schedules are full. Phones are ringing. The waiting room is packed. From the outside—and often from the inside—it looks like success. But over the years, we’ve seen something very different play out behind the scenes. Some of the busiest practices we work with are also the most fragile. Margins are thin. Physicians are exhausted. Cash flow...