Phil Cendoma, PhD, MSHA, MBA, FACHE
Assistant Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Health Services Administration
Dr. Phil Cendoma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He teaches courses in healthcare finance and brings a practitioner-informed perspective to both the classroom and his research. His scholarly interests focus on the financial and operational performance of healthcare organizations, particularly hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), as well as innovative and disruptive trends in healthcare delivery.
Dr. Cendoma began his career as a health insurance consultant, where he spent five years working with organizations to analyze benefits structures, reimbursement mechanisms, and financial risk. This early experience provided a strong foundation in payer dynamics and healthcare financing, which continues to inform his research and teaching.
Following his consulting career, Dr. Cendoma served for more than five years as a hospital administrator in both not-for-profit and for-profit healthcare systems. In these executive roles, he was primarily responsible for hospitals’ financial operations, with leadership responsibilities that included labor management, service line growth, expense control, capital budgeting, construction projects, and process and quality improvement initiatives.
Dr. Cendoma has an active research agenda and has published in leading peer-reviewed journals in health services administration. His publications include:
– Service Mix and Financial Performance in Rural Hospitals: A Contingency Theory Perspective, published in Health Care Management Review (2024), which examines how strategic service offerings influence rural hospital financial outcomes.
– The Continuing Debate: Do For-Profit Hospitals Provide More Charity Care as Compared to Not-for-Profit Hospitals?, published in Hospital Topics (2025), which empirically evaluates differences in charity care provision across ownership types.
His broader body of work addresses hospital bankruptcy, equity and community orientation, FQHC sustainability, and financial performance, with the goal of producing evidence that directly informs healthcare management practice and policy.
Dr. Cendoma earned a PhD in Health Services Administration from UAB in 2023. He also holds a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Science in Health Administration, and a Bachelor of Science in Finance. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE).
