Building High Reliability Revenue Cycle: Denial Prevention, Agentic AI, & Leadership | Ken Hogue

In this episode of The RC Executive Lounge Podcast, Ken Hogue, Chief Revenue Officer at United Health Services, shares how building a high reliability culture has made UHS one of the top-performing revenue cycle organizations in its class.

Ken opens with the framework that anchors everything he does: start as far upstream as possible, define your denial never events, and tear the portfolio apart monthly to make sure nothing is hiding. His SWAT team model, where specialists trend root causes and drive automation rather than simply working claims, is one of the most distinctive structures in the series.

On agentic AI, Ken is direct: there is no longer a choice. Payers are using it and providers have to keep up. His deployment philosophy: trust and verify before accepting any AI decision, monitor automation output daily, and plan for AI drift as policy changes accumulate.

Additional topics covered include:

✅ Benchmark three ways: nationally, regionally, and by state as just one benchmark gives you blisters✅ Touch 300 denials now to eliminate 1,000 next month: the ops versus innovation compromise
✅ Reducing claim touches from 14 to 10: the ROI metric most organizations do not track
✅ Clean claim pass rate and days work on hand: the two metrics Ken lives by every morning
✅ Combat AI with AI: why there is no longer a choice in the current payer landscape
✅ Joy Notes: the music-anchored leadership book that reconfirms we are all in this together

Learn more about ArceeHQ and our comprehensive AI solutions platform for reducing denials, increasing adoption of patient financing and utilization of financial assistance:

👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com⁠⁠⁠

Download the free white paper on the play book for reducing claim denials:👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/claims-denial-management/the-executive-guide-to-reducing-claim-denials-with-agentic-ai⁠⁠⁠

Download the free white paper on the play book for increasing collections from patient financing:

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/patient-financing/the-financial-engagement-playbook-with-agentic-ai⁠⁠⁠

Download the free white paper on the play book for increasing collections using financial assistance:

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/financial-assistance/the-executive-guide-to-financial-assistance-with-agentic-ai⁠⁠⁠

Evaluate your ROI of reducing claim denials using the ROI calculator:👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/claims-denial-management/roi-calculator⁠⁠⁠

Evaluate your ROI of increasing collections from patient financing using the ROI calculator:

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/patient-financing/roi-calculator⁠⁠⁠

Evaluate your ROI of increasing collections from financial assistance using the ROI calculator:

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/financial-assistance/roi-calculator⁠⁠⁠

Access all the podcast episodes and short videos from the RC Executive Lounge:

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/the-rc-executive-lounge-podcast-series⁠⁠⁠

👉⁠⁠⁠https://arceehq.com/podcast-shorts⁠⁠

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