Robin Damschroder: Healthcare finance’s growth gives rise to new leadership roles

Over the years, the role of hospital CFOs has expanded profoundly. Back in 1946, when the HFMA was born as the American Association of Hospital Accountants, the highest titles for healthcare finance leaders were comptroller, controller or business manager.^a

Not so anymore. New titles have emerged with the increasing complexity of the finance function as single hospitals have expanded into hospital and health systems with the increasing complexity of information systems for running healthcare finance functions. Healthcare finance leaders now must master a wide variety of financial, leadership, interpersonal and operational skills. Not a job for the faint of heart.

Robin Damschroder, MHSA, FACHE, CPA, has experienced this evolution in her own career. Today, she is the president, value-based enterprise, and CFO of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, a leading comprehensive, integrated health systems. Over her almost 30-year career in healthcare finance leadership, she advanced from auditor through controllerships to interim CFO, to COO at two other health systems and ultimately to her current role.

Aspiring finance leaders can benefit from understanding how Damschroder’s role at Henry Ford Health has expanded to cover an array of divisions and departments. Her oversight of Henry Ford health’s value-based enterprise extends the reach of her leadership to encompass the health system’s health plan and its various offshoots. She provides strategic, financial and operational leadership to the $12 billion health system, which includes 13 hospitals and 550+ sites of care.

And her journey continues. Her role recently expanded beyond finance, revenue cycle and supply chain to include business development and operational oversight of Populance, a population health services company that is affiliated with Henry Ford Health.^b Damschroder’s oversight role for Populance encompasses IT, facilities and support services and community care services (CCS).

“[The role] draws on my prior operations leadership experience within Trinity Health and University of Michigan Health,” she said.  “This allows me to draw up a more comprehensive strategy between these areas and the rest of the enterprise.”

A balancing act to achieve a clear vision

Damschroder underscores the importance of balancing the needs of all the stakeholders, calling it a significant task.

 “I help our health plan and clinically integrated network (the value-based enterprise) deliver coverage and care to our patient population. We continuously work on how we can improve the outcomes, and how we are impacting experience and engagement for both member patients and the physicians.”

At Henry Ford Health, an overarching vision is to align around the quintuple aim, which focuses on achieving a healthier population, better consumer experiences, a more efficient health system, greater health equity and a better work life for healthcare providers.^c

 “The objective is to have aligned goals and incentives united around our investments and capabilities to deliver on those goals.” Damschroder said. “Therefore, it is important to invest on both sides of the house — the health plan and the care delivery system. Our aim is to align the investments and goals together to drive outcomes and affordability.”

It takes a skilled practitioner, with the depth and breadth of experience and knowledge, to perform the demanding work required of today’s health system CFOs. Damschroder acknowledges it is a tough job, but also a rewarding one.

A focus on cost-effectiveness of care

To deliver cost-effective healthcare, the investments and capabilities the organization requires must be aligned,” Damschroder said.

“[Developing] the needed capabilities required doubling down on many aspects of value-based care,” she said. “This heavily involves IT and its many aspects, such as cyber, the cloud, AI and automation, particularly as it includes current labor shortages. If we can reduce non-value-added tasks so that people can work ’top-of-license,’ then the staff can work smarter.’

Damschroder also observed that this approach is useful for driving innovations in care.

“For example, the health system has a multi-disciplinary team searching for improvements in cancer care,” she said. “Using AI, they can recognize genes in patients that can create high toxicity reactions. This allows the team and doctors on the floor to tailor treatments that are efficacious, not deadly.”

Favorite HFMA memories

Damschroder is currently a member of the HFMA National Board. Her favorite HFMA memories extend back to her early membership years, meeting a variety of peers who would become lifelong friends, and mingling with and learning from senior leaders in the field.

Footnotes

a. Shelton, R.M., From Acorn to Oak: A history of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, 1991.
b. Henry Ford Health, “Rewriting the rules of value-based care,” 2025.
c. Nundy, S., Cooper, L.A., Mate, K.S., “The quintuple aim for health care improvement: A new imperative to advance health equity,” JAMA, Jan. 21, 2022.