Brian Rothman, MD, professor of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Informatics, and Surgery, and Medical Director for Revenue Cycle, has been named to the newly created role of Vice President and Executive Medical Director for Vanderbilt University Medical Center Finance. His appointment is effective July 1.
In this role, Rothman will report to Cecelia B. Moore, MHA, CPA, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, with dotted-line reporting relationships to Cecelia Theobald, MD, MPH, Chief of Staff for Corporate Clinical Affairs, and Rick Wright, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Clinical Affairs.
As Vice President and Executive Medical Director for Finance, Rothman will provide medical leadership for areas including Revenue Cycle, Managed Care Contracting, Credentialing, Revenue and Reimbursement and other clinician-facing initiatives pertaining to the Department of Finance. He will facilitate clinician interactions with Finance to assure patient centered practices are effective and efficient regarding the delivery of patient financial care.
Among his new responsibilities, Rothman will expand his work as a liaison with the medical leadership of external managed care plans, governmental plans and other governmental or public entities in coordination with Theobald and Wright. He will participate as a key medical leader in the Managed Care Contracting Committee and serve as co-chair, medical staff representative and approver for the Finance Policy and Audit Committee.
“Brian has been an outstanding partner to the Revenue Cycle team over the past five years. I am excited for him to expand his role in Finance and continue his dedicated work to improve not only processes but ensure payment for the services our clinicians work so hard to provide,” Moore said.
In addition to his clinical duties, for the past five years Rothman has served as Medical Director for Revenue Cycle where he has made substantial contributions. He co-led Vanderbilt University Hospital’s Utilization Management team in cooperation with Revenue Cycle leadership to implement workflow and policy transitions that significantly reduced self-denials by more than 50% year-over-year. He partnered with Health Information Management to create the Documentation Quality Improvement Committee, and as co-lead implemented specialty-specific case mix index (CMI) monitoring and new documentation workflows with key specialties that improved secondary diagnoses documentation so that VUMC’s CMI better reflected the complexity of its patient population.
Since 2020, Rothman assumed responsibility for Vanderbilt Credentialing Services’ (VCS) daily operations. The VCS team has become the Credentials Verification Organization for the Vanderbilt Health system and ensures only fully trained and competent practitioners provide care to Vanderbilt patients and supports Payor Enrollment’s ability to enroll practitioners efficiently with payers.
He also participates and collaborates on a host of workstreams, committees, and special projects in partnership with Managed Care, Faculty Affairs, the Office of Legal Affairs, Health Information Management, and Compliance to guide, shape and improve VUMC’s financial, administrative, operational and clinical landscape.
“It is an honor to serve in this new role and collaborate with our outstanding Finance leaders and staff, and practitioners to further drive the integration of clinical care and patient financial care throughout Vanderbilt’s health system. I am thankful for the opportunity to continue to support Vanderbilt’s mission and commitment to our patients, staff and community,” Rothman said.
Rothman joined VUMC in 2007 and has assumed increasing levels of responsibility within the Department of Anesthesiology and Department of Finance. He has also made significant contributions toward the advancement of information technology (IT) in the perioperative environment and elsewhere across the Medical Center. He partnered with Health IT and Revenue Cycle to develop the Clinical Informatics Fellowship, Revenue Cycle and Healthcare Finance Rotation, to educate Clinical Informaticists about Revenue Cycle and Finance.
The author of numerous research articles and editorials and a frequent presenter at national and international scientific meetings, Rothman is also actively involved in teaching Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students and training anesthesiology residents.
Rothman earned both a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Accounting and Finance and a medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. He served his internship in internal medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore and underwent residency training in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.