In this episode, Jonathan Besler, BESLER’s President & CEO, discusses BESLER’s podcast history and provides a mid-year update.
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Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- 500th podcast episode milestone.
- Some meaningful stats
- Memorable moments
- Dream guests or topics that we would love to feature in the future
- Planning for 2026
Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome back BESLER’s President and CEO, Jonathan Besler. In this episode, Jonathan and I will discuss BESLER’s podcast history and provide a mid-year update. Welcome back and thank you for joining us today, Jonathan.
Jonathan Besler: Kelly, thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be back. I apologize. I feel like it’s been so long, but I know we’ve had a wonderful number of guests that have been keeping our podcast listeners interested and engaged and certainly on their toes. So, it’s great to be back. Thanks for having me.
Kelly: Yeah, thanks for coming back. Well, let’s go ahead and jump in. So, this is pretty exciting. So, this is our 500th podcast episode. So, we were podcasting before it was cool to podcast. So, what are your thoughts on this monumental milestone?
Jonathan: And it is a milestone, Kelly. I mean, to have the great fortune of 500 podcast episodes is just absolute wonderful. And I will say, at the risk of oversimplifying an answer, I would just say, wow, it’s amazing not only how far we’ve come, but really all the great content and information that we continue to bring to our listenership. Really what started with a very simple concept of podcasting around a pain point that hospitals had at the time, which was hospital readmissions and touched upon quality and finance and a whole bunch of different aspects to really expanding it to what we are now with obviously the rebranding that we did to broaden that subject matter and really invite a plethora of guests onto the show to talk about things that are interesting and pertinent and relevant to our listenership runs the gamut to physician groups and hospitals and legislatures and folks that are really on the front lines that not only impact healthcare from a broad standpoint but also from a very, very specific care delivery model as well. So, we’ve really had a great benefit of kind of broadening the subject matter and welcoming so many people. And again, really what started with a pretty simple concept 10 years ago has really rolled into just a wonderful community for our listenership and our guests. And I will say that again having that good fortune of really sticking with it. Certainly, there’s times throughout its course that we’ve had more listeners and less listeners and obviously every topic is a little bit different and interesting for those who want to participate, but really sticking with it and bringing that content out to our community is again, we’re blessed. Thank you.
Kelly: 500 episodes is quite an achievement. So, thinking back on our podcast history what are some meaningful stats that you can share with us?
Jonathan: Sure. Well really not being a podcast expert myself, and I have the good fortune of having a team of people who really focus on this like yourself and some of our other team members. I didn’t realize this because podcasts are so ubiquitous at this point and you hear a lot about them and you dial in for different content and all kinds of different things. But I was surprised that only 20% of all podcasts make it past 5 years, and obviously the vast majority don’t even make it that long. But the fact that we’ve been around for 10 years doing this is just a tremendous, tremendous testament for us. And again, our listenership and really the feedback that we get from our community saying, “Yes, we really like this,” and we’re dialing in and doing so on a consistent basis. And what we love to get is the feedback from our customers and from our community to say, “Hey, we’re interested in this particular subject. Can you bring somebody on to talk about that?”
So, we love, we love, love, love the feedback that we get. We do this every week and sometimes more than weekly. We certainly have kind of best of episodes and sort of special episodes when different information comes out for the listeners. So, we try to be very consistent with it and very steady. The fact that we’re well over 500,000 downloads, approaching a million, with the key stat that I really kind of focus in on because what you really don’t measure, you can’t understand whether or not it’s working or not. But the impactful plays that we have, the impactful downloads, which means that more than 75% of that episode is listened to all the way through. And our average podcast has a 97% – what we call impactful play – which means that not only are people dialing in and listening, but they’re listening close to the entirety of the episode, which I think is, again, a great testament to the to the content that we bring forth, the guests that we bring on. So again, thank you for everyone who’s out there downloading and continuing to download and listen in. It’s just been great.
Kelly: Yeah, we have had some great guests and topics. I noticed in the few years that I’ve been the host. So yeah, I mean, it’s been very awesome. And I agree with you. We do need that feedback, and we love getting suggestions for topics and guests. Can you share a memorable moment, episode, or guest that stands out to you from the past 499 episodes?
Jonathan: Oh my gosh, this is like a question that I feel like I get from my kids from time to time when they ask me who my favorite is. I think it’s an unfair question, but it’s a great question. With all the different guests that we’ve had over the years, I don’t think I could pick a single favorite one. Everyone brings something unique to the table a different perspective, whether it’s listening to someone from the insurance side kind of talk from a payer perspective, certainly the folks that we’ve had on who are lawmakers and can really impact what happens on a legislative basis. They’ve been wonderfully received, and I and I really always appreciate their perspective. They’re seeing it in not only Washington, DC, but some of our state capitals as well as we bring on some state lawmakers as well. I love hearing from our physicians. I think that they bring a wonderful perspective and really some of their key points from a care delivery side, because at the end of the day, hospital finance…it really all boils back to what happens on a patient perspective. So, a favorite guest or a favorite episode or a moment, I’m not sure if I could pick just one across 499 at this point. Maybe the only thing I would do is exclude the podcasts that I’ve been on, because I wouldn’t think that it’s fair to pick your own as a favorite.
Kelly: [laughter] No, there have been some great ones. I know I would be hard pressed to identify a favorite one as well, so I totally understand that. So, are there any dream guests or topics that you’d love to feature in the future?
Jonathan: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Gosh, my dream list would go on and on. What I really think that we could benefit from, and I think one of the loudest things that we hear from our community is this question of, “Where are we going?” And I think certainly everyone wants more predictability in their own lives and in their own career and really what happens what happens next. So, I would say that I would love to have some more participation from a CMS perspective. I think that they can really offer us some great things to think about, not only what’s important to them, but what is their charge? Because at the end of the day, CMS is really charged with implementing the things that are happening from a legislative standpoint. And so, CMS, please, please, whenever you’re ready to come on our podcast, please join in. We would love to have you. And then coupled with also having some more additional lawmakers come on as well. They serve their constituents, and they serve the community in different ways and really the things that they’re hearing from their own constituents obviously gets into the lawmaking pipeline at some point. And so, if we’re going to get any kind of future-looking prediction or crystal ball or whatever we want to call it, I think that those two groups to be on, and to be on consistently, would just be a wonderful, wonderful benefit to our listeners.
Kelly: I completely agree with both of those suggestions. I think that would be fantastic. So, I agree, if there’s anybody out there listening who falls under those categories, reach out to us because we’d love to have you on. Speaking of the future, Jonathan, we’re about to start our planning for 2026. And we’re halfway through 2025, which is crazy. But what has stood out for you so far this year?
Jonathan: Well, 2025, I feel like has been just a tremendous– we’ve undergone some tremendous changes. I would say the thing that I think about the most is really what is going on with AI and what impact is that going to have on us, both from a hospital finance perspective, but also from a care perspective as well. And there’s been companies that have been out there talking about how they can have their computers read medical charts and read radiology, for example. That’s an area that I hear a lot about in terms of having the computers look at medical pictures and determine what may or may not be going on with that particular patient. And so, as our technology continues to get smarter and being able to interpret things more, I think that that’s an area that has not only impacted 2025 so far, but I think will continue and I really think is going to accelerate that going forward.
So, AI, I think, has been a huge topic of conversation across the hospital boardrooms. I certainly know from our own company perspective and some of the other vendor partners that we work with how impactful AI has been and really the possibilities of what it could be in the future as well. So that’s been kind of been a very, very heady topic. And then really to break it down even further, I mean, we did have a fairly significant change. And some would argue, and for certainly some hospitals out there probably the biggest thing that they’re grappling with in 2025 so far, which is the Big Beautiful Bill. And certainly the impacts around that and how that’s going to affect our hospitals both positively and negatively. And then really, what are our hospital finance leaders doing with it? How can they adapt to what these new changes are? Are they long term? Are they short-term? And really figuring out, again, how to serve their communities with the resources they have. So, I would say that those two issues so far in 2025 have certainly taken up a lot of my time. And I’m sure that of our community as well.
Kelly: Yeah, those make a lot of sense and definitely big issues that we’ve been having to deal with. So, as we close, why do you think people continue to listen to our podcasts, especially as so many new podcasts have entered the scene?
Jonathan: Sure, that’s an excellent question, because you’re right. I mean, since we started this back in June of 2015, we’ve certainly seen a number of other podcasts not only enter the market, but also take different angles on hospital finance as well. And I think one of the key things that our podcast listeners really enjoy is that we’re not really single-threaded on a hospital finance discussion. And so, as we think about hospital finance, we think about it in fairly broad terms. And so like I had said before, really trying to help our listeners, help our community, really think through all of the aspects of what they have to do within their role and responsibility, whether they are, in fact, working at a hospital, or maybe they run a physician group, or maybe they work with a subacute care setting, or maybe they’re on the financial side being a vendor or a channel partner for our hospitals.
And so, I think the varied content that we continue to bring to our listenership, I think our listeners really appreciate that. I know I listened to a number of podcasts as well, and when I want to hear about something, that’s when I go in and I download that particular topic that I want to. And I think the broadness of what we attempt to do with our podcast, but also staying sort of singularly threaded. I don’t think you’re going to tune into our podcast and start to hear stand-up comedy or something completely far left field. But we think about our subject in a sort of finely pointed way, but also a broad-based focus as well. And I think our listeners appreciate that. They learn information that might not be squarely focused on their day-to-day responsibility, but maybe it’s something that they encounter at a board meeting, a topic might come up or maybe they’re responsible for that one or two tasks two or three times a year, so they might not be focused on it all day, every day, but it’s relevant for them to dial in and really get that information so they’re educating themselves, they’re educating their teams. So yeah. And again, I mean to go back to the number of impactful plays that we have, I do think that we’re doing something right by having not only so many people tune in, but so many people tune in and stay engaged.
Kelly: Completely agree. Yes. So, we’ll continue doing what we’ve been doing. And so, thank you so much for joining us, Jonathan, and for sharing your insights about our podcast, as well as your thoughts about 2025. We really appreciate you being here.
Jonathan: Wonderful, Kelly. Keep up the great work and to all of our listeners out there…we look forward to you tuning into the next 500.T
Kelly: Definitely. And thank you all for joining us for this episode of he Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…
[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to discuss on the Hospital Finance podcast or if you’d like to be a guest, drop us a line at update@besler.com.
