FastFinance: Patient collections trends; SDP cuts rule
HFMA’s FastFinance newsletter is now a podcast. Host Rich Daly discusses the most current and relevant healthcare news, delivered in an easily digestible format. Hospitals and health systems have improved their front-end patient collections over the last year. But back-end collections are faltering. Also, this week’s Weird Number: $1.3 billion. That’s the amount of Medicaid…
Focus on patient care and access transcends hospital-centric model
Healthcare is shifting from a hospital-centric model to a more distributed, digital and patient-focused system, requiring revenue cycle management to evolve into a strategic enterprise capability. By leveraging AI, automation and revenue cycle data, health systems can reduce barriers to care, improve patient outcomes and strengthen financial resilience amid growing operational and reimbursement pressures.
How to protect revenue in a digital-first ecosystem
As hospitals become more digitally connected and AI-enabled, revenue cycle operations must shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive prevention by embedding data integrity, automation and revenue protection directly into care workflows.
5 keys to enhancing automation, expanding capacity and improving efficiency to reduce costs
Healthcare organizations in 2026 are operating under sustained financial strain. Margins remain compressed, workforce shortages continue, payer requirements are more complex and patient financial responsibility has increased. At the same time, many revenue cycle operations still rely on fragmented systems and manual processes that limit efficiency and delay cash flow. The traditional, reactive revenue cycle…
How to handle the revenue cycle skills gap
Revenue cycle management is becoming less about managing transactions and more about technology, as hospital finance departments shift toward AI-enabled workflows. Increasingly, skills valued by hospital and health system employers are aligning around automation and analytics. As Heather Dunn, chief revenue officer at Novant Health, said in “The Revenue Cycle of the Future,” a recently…
The evolution of the revenue cycle builds on today’s multimodal approach
Multimodal AI in revenue cycle helps providers reduce cost to collect and streamline payer-provider communication across workflows.
4 shifts that define the revenue cycle of the future
AI can improve patient access, coding, billing, and payment, but CFOs need a revenue cycle operating model built for scale, trust, and governance.
The Revenue Cycle of the Future: AI boom and workflow redesigns accelerate rev cycle transformation
Hospitals of all sizes are leveraging AI advancements and workflow redesigns to modernize revenue cycle management, aiming to lower costs, improve operational efficiency, and enhance the patient experience. While technology such as predictive analytics and automation shows promise in streamlining tasks, challenges remain in workforce adaptation, skill shifts, and the need for strategic collaboration, as leaders work to balance innovation with employee training and retention in an increasingly tech-driven environment.
Growth projects lead amid reduced capex
Even as health systems reduce their capital investment, they’re focusing greater shares of funds on expansion efforts, according to a recent survey. Health system and hospital capital investments are declining and few are expecting significant increases in the next two years, according to a Sage Growth Partners survey of 101 health system and hospital executives.…
Revenue cycle as enterprise infrastructure: Building financial resilience in 2026
Healthcare finance leaders are confronting a new reality: Revenue cycle performance is no longer just an operational task — it’s a central driver of financial sustainability and organizational resilience. Rising payer complexity, increasing patient financial responsibility and the persistent pressure of workforce shortages are forcing a strategic reappraisal of how revenue operations are structured and…