Christy Tortin, CFO of Net Health, a Pittsburgh-based provider of software solutions for healthcare providers, says finance departments can no longer afford to function in isolation from the rest of the organization and focus primarily on tracking performance.
Today's CFOs must be equally concerned with “shaping the future, anticipating risk, guiding decision-making, and driving strategic outcomes in line with the broader organization.”
Tortin shares what it means for her and her team in medical technology, why we always need to “judge the bottom early,” and why certainty is overrated.
How are you fostering stronger partnerships between your finance, clinical, and operational teams to drive strategic outcomes?
This type of collaboration is a core part of how Net Health operates. One of the most effective ways we've fostered stronger partnerships between our finance teams and our clinical, operational, and go-to-market teams is through consistent, structured engagement. Specifically, monthly meetings with all business units and functional partners.
These include finance and operations, as well as sales, marketing, engineering, business unit presidents and their leadership teams. These sessions will review financial performance, discuss market dynamics, address current challenges, and strategize how better data can support stronger decision-making.
This regular rhythm creates a feedback loop. Finance provides accurate, reliable data, whether it relates to revenue trends, customer retention, or deal structure, and functional teams bring context. For example, if a particular segment is seeing a decline in retention, a customer success manager can talk about the “why,” which can inform both strategy and prediction. This created a business conversation based on shared responsibility.
We also develop strong partnerships around deal structuring and go-to-market planning to ensure that decisions made upstream reflect how they flow through our systems and impact our finances. A key factor in making all of this possible is incorporating trusted financial leaders into the process. For example, our Vice President of Revenue Analytics regularly engages in cross-functional planning, guiding how we measure sales, marketing, and performance based on sales trends.
Ultimately, collaboration comes from data consistency and trust. When teams know they're working from a trusted source of truth, they're more likely to engage, ask questions, and align with strategy. It also allows finance to move from its role of reporting performance to shaping the future, anticipating risk, guiding decision-making and driving strategic outcomes in line with the broader organization.
What do you think about the near-term outlook for M&A in your industry, and how do you see M&A playing out more broadly in other industries?
M&A activity is starting to pick up again, especially among strategic buyers looking to strengthen their market position. Across industries, organizations are acquiring high-growth companies that align with existing markets to better serve customer needs. Especially in the healthcare sector, M&A activity brings much-needed innovation and operational improvements.
Healthcare, and healthcare technology in particular, continues to be one of the most active areas for M&A. The financial pressures facing hospitals, particularly those related to reimbursement issues, are driving demand for tools that can simplify clinical workflows, improve efficiency, and deliver measurable returns on investment. AI, predictive analytics, and other intelligent platforms are becoming more of a necessity than an option. M&A is increasing the way organizations gain access to that type of innovation at scale.
The near-term outlook for healthcare M&A shows continued momentum and, more broadly, similar trends across the industry. M&A is now seen as a way to add essential innovation, accelerate transformation and create resilience in a rapidly changing landscape.
How has your role as a CFO evolved in recent years, and what skills and mindsets do you think are increasingly important for today's finance leaders to have?
In recent years, the CFO's role has evolved from a focus primarily on financial reporting and oversight to a more collaborative and strategic role within the organization. Today, finance no longer works in silos, but is deeply integrated across teams, helping to drive decisions that impact the entire business.
Much of our work is now rooted in consistent communication and collaboration. We connect regularly across departments to share insights, align goals, and collaborate to deliver more comprehensive reporting. This team-based approach allows finance to take a more active role in shaping corporate strategy, rather than simply tracking performance after the fact.
Another big change is the focus on building sustainable processes and ensuring data integrity. Clean, accurate and accessible information is now a basic requirement. As finance leaders, we need to prioritize not only data quality, but also transparency and reproducibility, so we can make decisions confidently and efficiently.
What key lessons or insights have you learned from recent challenges in finance leadership that you think other CFOs should consider? How can they apply this to their own organizations?
An important lesson I learned recently is that as financial leaders, we need to stay ahead of risk and make bold, proactive decisions, even when there is still uncertainty. It is often better to address potential challenges early than to wait for full clarity. This can lead to delayed decisions and missed opportunities to course correct.
For example, since the first quarter of last year, we identified potential booking risks early on. Rather than wait for further declines in performance, we acted quickly by working with our business partners to manage expenses and make strategic adjustments.
The best approach is to identify the bottom early and work toward recovery, rather than waiting for bad news to accumulate and reacting too late. Coordination across teams allows organizations to reduce impact and focus energy on recovery.
The takeaway for other CFOs is to not wait for certainty to guide you. Develop the confidence to address issues early and build open lines of communication throughout your organization to avoid operating in silos. When finance is fully aligned with business leaders, it can anticipate risks, respond quickly, and guide the organization through uncertainty with clarity and control.
