Our mission statement shows the commitment we have towards our clients. “Credit Management Company exists to provide world-class customer experience, unmatched value to our clients, and a growth-driven environment for our employees.”
Since the leadership team is responsible for making decisions on long-term strategies, we sat down with Joel McKiernan, to learn his vision for the company.
You’ve spent your entire career in revenue cycle management for healthcare. What sets you up for success as president of CMC?
Well, I’m a big picture person and I always make sure that my efforts are consistent with the company's goals. Since I’ve been in business development for practically my entire career, I'm always thinking about growth. I’m always looking at where we need to be, and what steps we need to take to achieve certain goals. I believe that sets me apart and will help me be successful in this position.
A Greek philosopher once said, “Change is the only constant in life." What are some of the changes you’ve experienced in this industry?
It’s amazing how rapidly things are changing in the healthcare space. There has been a lot of talk about telehealth in the past but COVID expedited those plans. And, as technology changes, we need to offer our clients multiple modes of communication to make it easy for them to submit payments.
Another change is all the mergers and acquisitions in the hospital sector. Sometimes, we’re on the positive end of those types of acquisitions, other times we can lose that business. There’s also been a lot of mergers and acquisitions on the vendor side.
In an ever-changing industry, do you have many long-term clients?
Yes, quite a few. We have one large client who has been with us for 30 years and two other large clients who have been with us for 20 years. Also, we’ve serviced several smaller clients for 10, 15, and 20 years.
Why do you think clients stay with you?
There are two reasons. First, I have always been a big believer in reaching out to clients. Even with all the other options to communicate today— text, a Zoom call, or email—there’s no substitute for sitting across the table from someone. We make sure our clients are valued.
Second, we provide transparency to our clients. They can access a client portal anytime and have access to all their accounts. We always encourage clients to pull up 10 or 15 accounts, read the notes, look at the status codes, see how many phone calls have been made. This puts their mind at ease that we are doing everything that we said we would do. We tout ourselves as a transparent company with nothing to hide.
How do you hope your time at CMC is remembered 25 years from now?
When we look back at my tenure as president, I hope this time is remembered as one of great growth. I hope we expand our footprint into other parts of the country and that we are transformed from being a super-regional company to a truly national company.
