Preserving and Enhancing What’s Important: Care, Community, and Cash

Kari Cornicelli, FHFMA, CPA is an accomplished and visionary healthcare executive with a successful track record of achieving strong year-over-year financial results, growing market share, and driving operational cost efficiencies across diverse health care delivery systems. She has extensive experience including 3 ½ years as the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of one of the nation’s largest free-standing academic children’s hospitals. Additionally, Kari has 22 years of experience as a Chief Financial Officer in an integrated regional delivery system providing acute and tertiary services including level two trauma, kidney, pancreas and heart transplant programs, behavioral health, freestanding women and newborn hospital with level three neonatal care, ambulatory surgery and outpatient imaging centers, and comprehensive home care services.

Kari is an innovator leveraging clinical and financial data to deliver transformational results in profitability and growth, clinical and quality improvement, and employee/physician engagement. She is a strategic thought leader creating financial and patient care models that deliver quality clinical health outcomes, care coordination, and economic savings for value-based population health programs. Kari is a committed industry and community leader, at the local, state, and national levels, a poised and engaging presenter who excels at communicating complex information in a meaningful, actionable manner, and a frequent speaker at regional and national healthcare financial conferences.

Kari’s core values center upon compassionate leadership, accountability, and transparency. She is a genuine and authentic leader who cultivates strong relationships to create and implement effective strategies, achieving impressive operational outcomes. Kari focuses on financial integrity while developing sustainable financial systems and building best-of-class teams. She is passionate about mentoring the next generation of leaders.

Professional Experience

• Development of strategic, operational, and financial sustainability plan for facilities in breach of bond covenants.
• Creation of a financial re-opening plan for closed, bankrupt hospital to secure state funding for the re-opening of the facilities and clinics.
• Key executive during the pandemic leading financial sustainability initiatives resulting in no employee layoffs or furloughs. Developed extensive financial plan achieving $28.4 million in expense reductions, $100 million in accelerated cash advancements, significant increases in supplemental funding from the federal government and retained $84 million in CARES Act funding.
• Contributed to the organizational growth and expansion from a stand-alone hospital into a health system, growing net revenues to $1.3 billion, improving the balance sheet and cash position and achieving two bond rating upgrades over a two-year period to AA- (Fitch) and A+ (S&P) and A1 (Moody’s).
• Successfully completed new money bond financing totaling $290 million with all three rating agencies affirming ratings despite increase in debt.
• Successfully completed two bond re-financings – $155 million with net present value savings totaling over $64 million and $75 million with net present value savings totaling over $14 million.
• Transitioned investment portfolio to new outsourced chief investment firm, revised asset allocations and grew portfolio to $1.1 billion. Days cash on hand grew from 232 days to 421 days.
• Successfully renegotiated largest managed care contract resulting in increased net revenues averaging 7% return annually over two-year contract.
• Led systemwide multidisciplinary improvement project to identify and implement claim denial prevention strategies for write-offs in excess of $240.0 million. Project included extensive causation and financial analysis, transparently sharing data, educating leaders regarding improvement opportunities, and breaking down silos between front end and back end clinical and revenue cycle departments to collaboratively implement workflow improvements.