Reflecting on a Career in Healthcare Collections, HFMA, and the Future of Healthcare Debt Recovery

Collections in general, but especially in the healthcare industry, require delicacy, patience, and intelligence, all while ensuring the company meets revenue goals and the client’s customer experience is cared for. IC System’s specially trained collections experts make this possible, from engaging in industry boards such as the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and employing innovative tools as allowed by significant regulation.

On the newest episode of Closing the Books, a podcast by IC System, IC System’s  Bart Shea, VP of Client Development shares his personal journey in the industry, his passion for the HFMA, and his industry insights with host Gabrielle Bejarano.

The two discuss…

  • What Shea’s journey in the collections industry looked like
  • What the HFMA is and how to get involved
  • Where Shea see debt recovery going in 2023 and beyond

“It’s near and dear to my heart with making sure that our industry is up to speed on the changes in healthcare, whether that be from a compliance standpoint or just an actionable standpoint…but I think that the HFMA is truly one of the good vehicles that us as service providers…can actually have really good conversations with prospects that attend HFMA shows,” said Shea.

Shea has been with IC System for over two years as the VP of Client Development. He holds over two decades of experience in healthcare receivables management and previously spent time as the VP of Client Development – West for MedAssist and the National Director of Client Development for RevSolve, Inc. He is a HFMA Certified Revenue Cycle Representative (CRCR) and current President of the HFMA Arizona Chapter.

Recent Episodes

As hospitals look to improve outcomes with faster, more informed decisions, infrastructure limitations remain a major hurdle. This episode—part two of a five-part Health and Life Sciences at the Edge series exploring The Future of Patient Monitoring—dives into what’s holding back smarter, more connected care. Intel’s Andrew Lamkin, AI Solutions Architect, and Bikram Day,…

Denials are no longer a slow leak in the revenue cycle—they’re a fast-moving, rule-shifting game controlled by payers, and hospitals that don’t model denial patterns in real time end up budgeting around losses they could have prevented. PayerWatch’s four-digit, client-verified ROI in 2024 shows what happens when a hospital stops reacting claim by…

Health insurers love to advertise themselves as guardians of care, but the real story often begins when a patient’s life no longer fits neatly into a spreadsheet. In oncology especially, “coverage” isn’t a bureaucratic checkbox—it’s the fragile bridge between a treatment that finally works and a relapse that can undo years of grit…