Deep RCM vendor partnership drives better collections, efficiency

Why go all in with an RCM technology vendor

The RCM technology landscape has always been a smorgasbord of vendors and solutions. While most healthcare organizations rely on the EHR system for at least some RCM capabilities, providers are increasingly adopting third-party solutions to bolster native EHR functions or automate more of their revenue cycles.

However, this has led to a fragmented, "bolt-on" environment for providers. Consequently, they have experienced operational challenges around coordinating RCM solutions, including data silos that affect efficiency.

Providers are seemingly trying to fix the patchwork of technology, though.

"The reason they opt to go down this route is to consolidate technology, simplify the partnership for better relationship and pricing, and also get functionality and integration benefits," Paul Warburton, co-author of the report and principal analyst at KLAS, told RevCycle Management.

When asked why they chose more solutions from a single vendor, most deep adopters (57%) said they wanted to consolidate third-party RCM solutions. An equal proportion also said they wanted a stronger vendor partnership or relationship. Pricing was also a leading decision factor, with 43% of deep adopters.

Gaining new or expanded functionality wasn't necessarily a driving factor, although 41% of deep adopters did consider this when choosing a vendor.

A little over a third of respondents also identifiedenhancing integration between revenue cycle modules (37%), improving existing functionality (37%) and enhancing integration with the EHR (35%).

"This speaks to the frustration leaders have managing multiple products across their revenue cycle today," Warburton explained. "So, they are concerned about poor efficiency that drives their administrative waste. As such, they are hoping reducing technology will help reduce cost and bring in money faster."

RCM vendors leading the end-to-end charge

The report surveyed deep adopters across four RCM technology vendors: Availity, Experian Health, FinThrive and Waystar. Respondents were generally satisfied with their respective RCM suites, with the lowest score being B on the typical grading scale.

However, Waystar led the vendors in overall satisfaction, earning an A rating.

Deep adopters of Waystar's RCM solutions reported the most success in achieving their goals with that vendor, including primarily creating a stronger vendor partnership. They also cited Waystar's pricing-bundling model, which reduced the feeling of being nickel-and-dimed. However, some deeper adopters reported turning off some of Waystar's modules after not seeing enough value from the results, KLAS reported.

Availity also earned an A rating, with the limited number of deep adopters giving it an A-. Respondents who chose Availity reported the most consistent outcomes, with at least 51% improving across cost to collect, cybersecurity, integration between modules, integration with the EHR, scalability, vendor partnerships and work efficiency.

However, the report's authors said that, given the limited number of deep adopters, the vendor will need to scale its outcomes to attract more customers to its enterprise technology.

Experian Health and FinThrive landed in the B-range, with a B+ and a B, respectively. Outcomes among deep adopters were less consistent, with Experian's clients most commonly reporting improved cash collections and FinThrive's reporting improvements in work efficiency and cash collections.

For both of these vendors, integration between modules and the EHR left something to be desired, as did their abilities to get some critical features functional, KLAS reported.

But faster automation development, particularly around AI, was a weak spot for all vendors in the report. Availity and Waystar deep adopters just felt "a greater sense of momentum."

Can RCM vendors get to an end-to-end solution?

Many RCM vendors strive to be a one-stop shop for providers, offering a range of capabilities across the front, middle and back-ends of the revenue cycle. Yet the report noted that KLAS has not validated providers' use of a complete end-to-end solution.

Therefore, the report describes the trade-offs of investing in a single vendor for long-term technology decisions.

Creating a truly end-to-end RCM platform has been notoriously difficult for vendors.

"Integration is the first challenge. Also, building these products takes time," Warburton stated. "Most of these vendors have acquired technology to speed up the process, but it's extremely expensive and these vendors have to have customers that can foot the bill for that expense."

RCM technology vendors have a long road ahead in creating a comprehensive platform, he continued.

Still, mergers and acquisitions activity within the RCM market has been aggressive over the past couple of years. According to the Everest Group, emerging agentic capabilities are also ushering in a new era for RCM -- one in which healthcare leaders have a unified strategy to implement more integrated solutions from vendors who offer both technology and services.

Providers are also looking for deeper relationships with their RCM vendors. A 2025 survey conducted by Black Book Research found that 83% of hospitals plan to expand or initiate third-party RCM partnerships, up from just 68% in 2023. What's more, 77% said their vendor partners were crucial to financial sustainability in the face of labor shortages, rising claim denials and shrinking margins.

But Warburton pointed out that having "a single, end-to-end solution is not the stated goal for many healthcare providers because it's not feasible today."

"It's going to be a difficult task going forward to finish building, buying, and integrating the additional technology," Warburton explained. "That doesn't even guarantee it's effective once all that is done. Also, providers have split their investment into many AI fronts right now that limits their ability to go all in with a single software vendor."

For now, a trend is emerging: Providers are moving toward deeper vendor partnerships, and those who choose wisely are already seeing the financial and operational benefits.

Jacqueline LaPointe is an Executive Editor at Xtelligent Healthcare Media, covering revenue cycle management, healthcare payers, health policy and health IT since 2016.