SPEAKING & MEDIA
Kevin W. Barron
BSM, MBA, FHFMA, EHRC, FACHE
Vice President, Payer Relations, San Antonio, Texas
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.
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Speaker Profile
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Kevin Barron is Vice President of Payer Relations at one of the nation's largest public academic medical centers. He has spent more than 30 years on the hospital side of managed care contracting and negotiates payer agreements that affect patient access and financial sustainability across a multi-billion-dollar portfolio.
He chairs the Texas Hospital Association's Policy Committee on Hospital Contracting and Payment, was named by Becker's Healthcare as one of the 20 Payer Relations Executives to Know in 2026, and received HFMA's Enterprise Impact Award. He publishes Mastering Managed Care, where he teaches the People-Portfolio-Process (3P) Model, a contracting framework he built from his own work at the negotiating table.
Signature topics
Each topic is grounded in active contracting work, not theory, and works as a keynote, breakout, panel, or podcast conversation.
The People-Portfolio-Process (3P) 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 from finance and revenue cycle together.
Building a real walk-away position
What a credible alternative looks like for a health system, and why most organizations think they have one when they don't.
Network adequacy as a negotiating asset
Turning your footprint and specialty depth into a compliance argument that reframes the negotiation before rates come up.
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 change gets deferred.
Prior authorization and hospital contracting
What regulatory and legislative pressure on prior auth means for contracting strategy, and how to position before the rules change again.
Mission as a negotiating asset
For safety-net and governmental systems: turning community mission into a strength at the table instead of a liability.
Formats
Podcast guest, solo or panel
Conference keynote or breakout, 30 to 60 minutes
Panel discussion or moderated fireside chat
Workshop or office-hours Q&A
In person or virtual: Zoom, Teams, Webex, and others
Recognition
Becker's Healthcare, 20 Payer Relations Executives to Know 2026
HFMA Enterprise Impact Award
Fellow, HFMA (FHFMA) and ACHE (FACHE); HFMA Executive of Healthcare Revenue Cycle (EHRC)
Chair, Texas Hospital Association Policy Committee on Hospital Contracting and Payment
HFMA national, regional, and state chapter speaker
Listen and watch
Becker's Healthcare Podcast: Pushing back on aggressive payer tactics
Listen to the Becker's episode →
MGMA Insights Podcast: The hidden cost of winning the rate
Mastering Managed Care, Kevin's own weekly podcast
Booking and contact
Have a date, session, or episode in mind? Reach out directly and Kevin will get back to you.
[email protected] · linkedin.com/in/kevinbarron
Views expressed are Kevin's own and do not represent University Health or any organization with which he is affiliated.
