UI Health Care COO Urges Proactive Operating Model Redesign
In a Becker's Healthcare Podcast interview, Jody Reyes, COO of the clinical enterprise at University of Iowa Health Care, says academic health systems should redesign operations proactively rather than wait for reimbursement pressures to force change. She cites scrutiny of 340B, provider-based reimbursement, and site-neutral payment policy as threats to the financial mechanisms that have historically supported academic medical centers, alongside rising labor, pharmaceutical, and supply costs. Her 2026 priorities include workforce productivity, capacity and throughput, supply chain management, and standardizing operations across UI Health Care's hospitals and ambulatory sites. She emphasizes giving frontline leaders better data and accountability tools to spot operational waste in real time.