Conifer Health Solutions will lay off more than 1,000 employees after its contract with CommonSpirit ends, and Oracle Health unveiled new capabilities for its revenue cycle management portfolio. Here are 12 revenue cycle updates that Becker’s reported in September:
- Conifer Health Solutions, the revenue cycle management arm of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, will lay off more than 1,000 employees effective Nov. 2 as its contract with Chicago-based CommonSpirit ends.
- Oracle Health unveiled five AI capabilities for its revenue cycle management portfolio. The tools are designed to flag denials, authorization problems and charge errors early in the patient and payment journey, before they delay reimbursement.
- The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association put out a second round of research estimating that hospitals’ growing use of AI-assisted billing tools has added roughly $942 million in excess costs to the BCBS system over two years, contributing new data to the contentious “AI bot war” that’s been playing out across the industry.
- Revenue cycle performance is typically tracked through operational metrics such as denial rates, days in accounts receivable and cost to collect. In 2026, hospital and health system CEOs also elevated it to a strategic priority, discussing it in turnaround plans, payer negotiations, earnings calls and 2027 budgets.
- Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine built a three-person revenue cycle automation team that processed about 400,000 tasks over the past fiscal year — work the health system estimates is equivalent to roughly 24 full-time employees.
- R1 completed its acquisition of Humata Health, an AI-powered touchless prior authorization company.
- Four revenue cycle leaders at Becker’s 11th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Conference said denial rate — once the most trusted scorecard in revenue cycle — no longer tells the whole story, and that relying on it alone could cost hospitals money.
- HCA Healthcare CFO Mike Marks said payers have outpaced hospitals on AI-driven claims processing, adding another layer to the friction hospitals face on denials, underpayments and prior authorization.
- The line between the CFO’s office and the revenue cycle department is disappearing, four health system leaders said Sept. 15 during a panel discussion at Becker’s 11th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Conference.
- Nine leaders shared with Becker’s how their definition of revenue cycle success has changed over the past several years.
- The American Medical Association released its 2027 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set Sept. 9, an update that adds 299 codes and continues to build out billing for clinical AI.
- Eight leaders shared with Becker’s their thoughts on the most dangerous trends in revenue cycle today.
