Nurse Visiting Senior Female Patient On Ward
Patient experience is the top organizational goal among health care revenue management leaders this year, ahead of both increasing revenue and reducing costs.
“This reordering indicates that revenue cycle leaders are starting to move away from short-term fixes, such as aggressive cost cutting and narrow reimbursement strategies," said Hemant Goel, president and CEO of FinThrive. "Organizations are shifting from reactive crisis management to deliberate recalibration focused on rebuilding stability, rethinking growth and advancing technology's role in the revenue cycle to improve patient satisfaction."
Even as patient experience climbs the priority list, revenue growth remains a central goal, the company’s latest Transformative Trends and Data-Driven Insights Report found. Leaders increasingly are relying on AI, automation and better-integrated systems to reduce friction across the revenue cycle, deliver clearer financial communications, accelerate resolution and ultimately support stronger collections and lower costs to collect.
"Patient experience is critical to financial health when coupled with an overall reduction of cost to collect,” said Jake Collins, vice president of revenue cycle for the Phoebe Putney Health System. “To best serve patients and communities, providers must deliver sustainable revenue. Patient experience and revenue improvement form the one-two punch that won't change anytime soon.”
Three-quarters of leaders cite automation solutions as a key initiative, and 56% say automation and AI represent their most significant area of investment across all business goals. The top three areas where AI and automation are being deployed are:
- Prior authorization process, 73%;
- Denials and underpayment management, 67%; and
- Clinical documentation and coding, 60%.
Leaders are transitioning from fragmented point solutions to a more progressive platform consolidation approach, expanding strategically as value is realized. More than 7 in 10 expect to reduce reliance on third-party revenue cycle vendors, and nearly 60% plan to consolidate revenue cycle management vendors within the next three years. This signals that providers are looking for long-term strategic partnerships with trusted vendors to support them across the platform rather than multiple quick-fix point solutions.
Forecasts for 2026 indicate a rise in cybersecurity risk as reduced federal threat-intelligence support for health care creates widening security gaps, driven by structural changes. As a result, revenue cycle technology decisions have shifted from optional upgrades to core resiliency requirements.
"Cyber and clearinghouse shocks are accelerating the next era of revenue cycle modernization," Goel said. "The winners will be organizations that move from a siloed set of point solutions to an AI-enabled platform approach, where automation, governance and redundancy are built in, not bolted on. That alignment compounds value through more uptime, fewer denials, faster cash, better productivity and a simpler, more patient-friendly financial experience."
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