Misty Brackett Brings Revenue Expertise to Erlanger Health

Before becoming a revenue cycle leader, Misty Brackett originally planned to spend her career as a coder, thinking it would allow her to stay home with her kids. But there was one problem for the self-described “bubbly person.”

“I have to be able to talk to people,” she admits. “I can’t stay at home and stare into space. My husband will tell you that I can talk to the walls. So, I decided to get my degree in health information management to one day be a HIM director.”

Once she got her degree, she worked her way up to be district manager of operations at Healthport LLC, where she planned, led, organized, and executed district operations for four health systems. That experience positioned her well to reach her goal and to serve as an HIM director and privacy officer at Mercy Medical Center in North Dakota.

But her husband will also tell you that Brackett is never satisfied, she says. Her exposure to HIM and operations management made her want to oversee the entire revenue cycle. Those aspirations brought her to Erlanger Health System, which serves the Chattanooga, Tennessee area and is widely recognized as a leader in healthcare. Brackett started out as a compliance auditor and over a span of ten years, worked in every role within revenue cycle, from patient access to physician revenue. That deepened the leader’s understanding of how revenue cycle enables organizations to reach its goals.

“If we don’t have revenue cycle, there’s no money coming into the hospital. Treatment can happen, but unless you have revenue cycle, there’s no payment coming in. There’s no coding, no documentation, no billing,” Brackett explains. “That’s why the C-suite has to understand the importance of it and ensure rev cycle is fully staffed and that it has the tools it needs to operate efficiently and effectively.”

In June 2023, Brackett was promoted to vice president, bringing her expertise to a role that tasks her with overseeing all hospital and physician billing, patient access, registration, financial counseling, and more. Since she’s been in the role, she’s prided herself on being a persistent, leader who’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves.

“I lead by example. I can do any job in revenue cycle, from scheduling, registering to following up. The staff knows it too and often come to me saying you’re not the worker bee anymore,” she says. “But if I ask someone to do something, I want them [to know] that I’m willing to do it too and I’m not leading them astray.”

Brackett has had an exciting 2023. In addition to her promotion, she’s helped the company transition from a public entity to a 501(c)(3), implemented more than five systems, and put together a physician centralization team. Brackett’s overall goal has been to “strengthen the revenue cycle by getting people together and getting people talking.”

“Before, we were in lots of siloes at Erlanger, and now, we have direct communication—people plugged in at various departments to make sure we have a voice,” she says. “That communication and collaboration is vital because we’re the ones that raise the red flag when denials come through and set the tone for taking immediate action and preventing them in the future.”

Young people seeking success in their careers shouldn’t be afraid to change locations for attractive opportunities, says Brackett.

“Don’t be afraid to move because you [can] gain experience, and the best opportunities may not always be in the city your living in.”

She also urges young professionals to “put your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“Be willing to learn anything and everything and to offer help,” she says. “I initially thought I screwed up in my career getting my hands in a number of different things, but that’s what helped me understand how operations and revenue cycle works.”