What 105 healthcare leaders say about the returns on outpatient growth—and what it takes to realize them
Health systems and medical groups have shifted capital from inpatient facilities to ambulatory care, increasingly counting on outpatient growth to strengthen margins. But is that investment paying off?
A Becker’s Healthcare and athenahealth survey of 105 healthcare leaders—primarily finance and revenue cycle executives—suggests the answer is yes: 98% say their ambulatory investments are meeting or exceeding expectations.
Those returns, however, are not automatic. They depend on disciplined revenue cycle execution and the ability to measure how technology—including AI—affects financial and operational performance.
This report explores where ambulatory organizations are finding margin growth, why revenue cycle automation is leaders’ top financial priority for 2027, and what distinguishes organizations that can demonstrate AI’s impact from those relying on assumptions.
Inside the report
- How organizations are preparing for mandatory episode-based payment in 2027
- Where healthcare leaders expect the greatest margin growth over the next three to five years
- Why 68% rank revenue cycle automation as their top financial lever for 2027
- Which two functions leaders identify as their largest sources of unresolved inefficiency
- What separates organizations that measure AI’s impact from those that merely assume it