44% of practices plan to renegotiate payer reimbursement rates

Improving patient payments and payer reimbursement rates is a top priority for physician practices, according to a new survey from AdvancedMD. 

AdvancedMD surveyed ambulatory care providers about their top priorities via its customer portal and an online survey form during the first quarter of 2025. The survey was completed by 118 survey respondents. 

The survey found that high priority issues for survey respondents this year included improving patient payments and payer reimbursement rates; automating claims preparation processes (e.g., claim scrubbing, eligibility verification and submission workflows); and spending more time learning about current health IT capabilities to use existing platforms to their full capabilities.  

Renegotiating payer reimbursement rates 

Physician practices are looking to cushion their bottom lines, and many are seeking better payer reimbursement rates to do that. In the survey, 44% of ambulatory care providers said they plan to renegotiate reimbursement rates with one or more payers this year. 

However, the majority -- 56% -- do not anticipate further negotiations with payers this year. 

Practices seeing Medicare beneficiaries are already facing tighter reimbursement rates. CMS finalized a nearly 3% reduction in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule conversion rate. 

Increasing private payer reimbursement rates by just 2% to 3% can result in more than half a million dollars in annual revenue, according to the survey. But providers need to pursue reimbursement renegotiations to actualize additional revenue, the survey emphasized. 

Improving patient payments 

Another key way physician practices plan to improve the bottom line is through patient payments, the survey indicated. Most survey respondents rated improving patient payments and reimbursement processes as the highest priority for their practices this year. However, most respondents may be leaning toward more reimbursement process improvements. 

Forty-two percent of respondents are not planning to add any patient payment options this year, according to the survey. Although, about 19% said they already have multiple patient payment options, including the top options practices plan to implement over the next year. 

Of the new patient payment options being pursued by practices, 14% said they are looking into patient payment plans that are supported by medical billing software. Another 14% also said they were adding new credit card on file capabilities. 

Finally, 11% of survey respondents said they were adding new digital wallet options. 

Prioritizing health IT capabilities for the bottom line 

Automating claim preparation processes, including claims scrubbing, eligibility verification and submission workflows are top of mind for ambulatory care providers, the survey found.  

Claims management is a resource intensive process for practices. Over a quarter of survey respondents said they hope to reduce the amount of time spent managing claims and payer relationships this year.  

Other areas respondents want to cut time for included data entry and administrative tasks within the EHR (33%), answering emails (20%) and operational tasks (19%). 

However, a significant majority of respondents said their technology budgets will remain the same as last year. While 65% of respondents report a static budget, 23% do plan to increase their technology budgets. The remaining 12% report a decrease in what they plan to spend on technology. 

Claims management is a notoriously manual process despite many opportunities to automate. Technology and automation can streamline the process, considering the many repeatable tasks staff must perform. But practices are seemingly looking to their existing tech stack for improvements. 

A majority of survey respondents said they spending time learning about current health IT capabilities is a high priority this year. This could be a way practices are working around static technology budgets to further automate tasks and improve the bottom line. 

"Our surveys offer great insights into the challenges private practices are up against, as well as the opportunities they hope to capitalize on," Amanda Sharp, CEO of AdvancedMD, said in the press release. "The fact that so many survey respondents are looking to improve patient payment options, while also wanting to renegotiate payor reimbursement processes, makes clear that the financial health of the practice is a major focus this year." 

Jacqueline LaPointe is a graduate of Brandeis University and King's College London. She has been writing about healthcare finance and revenue cycle management since 2016.