About Kevin
Career · Leadership · Writing · Education · Speaking · Media
250,000+ article views · 9,000+ LinkedIn followers · 34 years in healthcare finance
My teaching mission is simple: make sure the people coming up behind me don't have to learn this job the hard way, the way I did.
A contract term gets applied wrong. A payer finds a way around language you thought was airtight. A denial pattern shows up six months after go-live, and by then the money's gone. You won't learn most of this in a revenue cycle course or a managed care seminar. It lives in the dark and confusing spaces found between the contract you negotiated and the system that processes it, and the two don't always agree.
I've spent over 30 years in that gap: five states, three kinds of health systems, contract portfolios in the billions. I've built contracting departments from a vacant office, walked away from bad deals, and repaired payer relationships most people would have written off.
None of that matters on its own. What matters is what it protects. Every underpayment caught, every contract term enforced, is revenue that stays with patient care instead of leaking out unnoticed. That's why I write, teach, and mentor about what happens when you're across the table from a payer VP with a reservation of rights letter in your drawer and a CFO asking why expected payment is off.
Everything here reflects my own experience, not the position of my employer or any organization I'm associated with.
Mastering Managed Care is for healthcare finance professionals, executives to early-career, who want something they can use, not another white paper buried in an Outlook folder. Each week I publish what I wish someone had handed me starting out. If that's your world, payer relations, contract management, managed care analytics, revenue cycle, come join them.
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Invite me to speak: Speaking & Media
Got a question? Email me at [email protected]
Career
Thirty-four years, five states, one mission: Put Patients First
University Health
San Antonio, Texas · 2016 to present. Public academic health system with four hospital campuses and University Medicine Associates, a medical group of nearly 1,000 providers.
Vice President, Payer Relations · Aug 2025 to present
Leads the enterprise payer portfolio for University Health and University Medicine Associates across commercial, Medicare Advantage, Managed Medicaid, exchange and direct-employer agreements. Chairs the Managed Care Executive Committee, serves on the AI Governance Committee, and leads a team spanning contract management, analytics, performance audit and implementation.
Deputy Vice President, Payer Relations · Apr 2022 to Aug 2025
Led systemwide payer engagement strategy for the portfolio. Launched the PACT Program and formalized the People-Portfolio-Process Model.
Executive Director, Managed Care Contracting and Payer Relations · Aug 2018 to Apr 2022
Led negotiations across every payer segment. Directed the July 2020 Epic expected-payment go-live covering 150+ contracts, and brought pathology client services contracting into the enterprise portfolio.
Director, Managed Care Contracting · Jan 2016 to Aug 2018
Recruited by the CFO to build the managed care contracting function for facility and professional services across commercial, exchange, Managed Medicaid and Medicare Advantage lines.
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
Sarasota, Florida · 2015 to 2016
Director, Managed Care
Recruited by the CFO to lead the managed care contract portfolio for one of Florida's largest public health systems, aligning contract intent with claims behavior and denial patterns.
McLeod Health
Florence, South Carolina · 2009 to 2015
Director, Managed Care
Built the managed care department for a regional system of five acute-care hospitals and 300+ providers, with a large contract portfolio. Led policy work on ACOs, Medicaid expansion, health insurance exchanges and charity care during the ACA transition. President, South Carolina Hospital Association Society of Managed Care Professionals (2014 to 2015).
West Tennessee Healthcare
Jackson, Tennessee · 1995 to 2009
Executive Director, Physician Services · 2006 to 2009
Reported to the President and CEO. Led physician enterprise strategy, practice acquisitions and operations across 12 locations, with 200+ employees including 50+ physicians and advanced practice providers.
Director, Managed Healthcare · 1995 to 2006
Built the system's first contracting function: a payer contract portfolio of 50+ agreements, including exclusive commercial agreements for a 10-hospital alliance. Designed an algorithmic contract-provision weighting model and presented it to the board.
Early career
New Orleans, Louisiana · 1992 to 1995
Tenet Healthcare, Regional Manager, Managed Care · 1995
Converted 30+ commercial agreements within six months of a two-hospital acquisition.
Mercy Baptist Medical Center, Manager, Planning and Contracting · 1992 to 1995
Formalized payer contracting after a merger created an 805-bed, two-campus system, and helped design SelectHealth, a provider-sponsored PPO.
Industry Leadership
Boards, committees and recognition
Texas Hospital Association. Chair, Policy Committee on Hospital Contracting and Payment. Member, Council on Policy Development and HOSPAC Board.
Healthcare Financial Management Association. Fellow and 30-year member. South Texas Chapter Board. Leads University Health's HFMA Enterprise Membership.
American College of Healthcare Executives. Fellow. Past President, Mid-South Healthcare Executives (TN). ACHE Service Award.
Industry Recognition. Becker's Healthcare 20 Payer Relations Executives to Know (2026). HFMA Enterprise Impact Award (2025).
Community. Co-Chair, University Health Foundation Live Better Campaign (2026). Graduate, Leadership Jackson. Graduate, Leadership Florence. Graduate, WestStar Leadership. Graduate, Rotary District Leadership Academy 6760. District Rotarian of the Year 6760. Paul Harris Fellow. Past President, Jackson (TN) Area Habitat for Humanity. Past Board Member, Salvation Army of West Tennessee. Co-Founder, Emma’s Path Scholarship Fund (University Health Foundation).
Writing and Teaching
What I write and teach
Author, Mastering Managed Care. The free Tuesday Edition on payer contracting, denials and revenue strategy. Read the archive.
Creator, the People-Portfolio-Process Model. The framework that guides how I run a payer relations function, with a free Field Guide and self-assessment.
Author, The Early Careerist Guide to Healthcare Contracting and Payer Relations. An ebook for people starting out in the field.
Compiler, the Managed Care Glossary. 100+ terms for revenue cycle and contracting teams, free as a PDF.
Mentor. Coaches early-career healthcare finance leaders and BHA and MHA students, informally and through university programs.
Education
Degrees and credentials
MBA, University of Tennessee at Martin
BS in Management, Tulane University
Credentials: Fellow, Healthcare Financial Management Association (FHFMA). Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). Certified Revenue Cycle Representative (CRCR). Certified Specialist Payment and Reimbursement (CSPR). HFMA Executive of Healthcare Revenue Cycle (EHRC).
Speaking & Media
Invite Kevin to speak
Available for podcast interviews, conference sessions, and panel discussions on managed care contracting, payer relations, and revenue cycle strategy, drawing on more than 30 years of hospital-side negotiating experience.
Formats: keynote or breakout (30 to 60 minutes), panel or fireside chat, workshop or office-hours Q&A, and podcast interviews. In person or virtual.
Signature topics
The People-Portfolio-Process Model. How to organize a payer relations function so contracting decisions connect directly to financial performance.
What happens after the contract is signed. The gap between negotiated rate and collected dollar, why it exists, and what closing it takes.
Health systems are training payers to underpay them. How reasonable decisions add up to a systematic disadvantage, and three moves to start reversing it.
The payer relations department of the future. Why managed care needs distinct contract management and analytics roles, and what's lost while that changes.
Mission as a negotiating asset. For safety-net and governmental systems: turning community mission into a strength at the table instead of a liability.
Invite Kevin to SpeakMedia kit: Headshot · Speaker Profile (PDF) · Podcast Guest Kit (PDF)
