8 Essential Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Trends for 2025

Times are changing, and this new year has brought some changes to your RCM operations. Is your organization ready?

The past few years have been challenging for revenue cycle management (RCM), as teams adapt to pressures and changes caused by the pandemic, new laws, and changes in how healthcare staff work. There will likely be ongoing changes and challenges throughout 2025. Here are a few trends to watch.

The nature of how healthcare is delivered is changing. Some changes, such as remote work and increased use of telehealth, were due to the pandemic and the need to alter the way medical professionals provided their services. Others, such as value-based care, are due to the consumerization of healthcare — patients want lower costs and better outcomes.

• Value-based care. Increasingly, healthcare facilities and providers are moving from a fee-for-service reimbursement model to a value-based one. A value-based model rewards providers for good outcomes. It can result in better healthcare and lower costs for patients.
• Remote work. During the pandemic, remote work became commonplace. Now that the public health emergency has waned, many RCM workers are asking for more remote working options, which means provider organizations must learn to deal with the changes and challenges of remote work over the long term — or risk losing valuable staff.
• Telehealth. Telehealth also got a boost during the pandemic as providers and patients adjusted to a new reality, and payers struggled to figure out how to reimburse for telemedicine.

Outsourced revenue cycle services go beyond simple staffing replacements. The best partnerships combine skilled professionals with advanced technology, automation tools, and proven workflows that drive measurable results. By integrating seamlessly with a provider’s internal systems and processes, these teams help maintain billing efficiency, prevent backlogs, and keep cash flow consistent even during periods of internal transition or growth.

Strategic outsourcing also allows healthcare organizations to scale more effectively. Rather than overextending internal staff, RCM partners can absorb volume spikes, manage specialized functions such as denial management or early-out collections, and apply best practices learned across multiple healthcare settings. This not only boosts accuracy and turnaround time but also frees internal resources to focus on higher-value tasks, such as improving the patient financial experience and enhancing overall care delivery.

Ultimately, outsourcing isn’t just about filling staffing gaps—it’s about extending operational capacity and expertise. As revenue cycle processes become more complex, healthcare organizations that leverage the right external partnerships will be better positioned to maintain financial stability and adapt quickly to the evolving reimbursement landscape.

Technology is changing healthcare and related operations, including RCM, and this trend is not slowing down. In fact, it’s picking up speed as we head into 2025 and beyond. Technology is making life easier in many ways, but with the benefits come challenges as it also introduces additional risks.

• Automation. Technology has facilitated the automation of certain repetitive or manual tasks, including following up on claim denials and automating coding. This all frees up RCM staff to execute more complex or strategic tasks requiring human input.
• Artificial intelligence (AI). AI is an essential tool in healthcare. It can help with recordkeeping, diagnosing, predicting outcomes, and more. Its importance will only grow going forward.
• Increasing security risks. As the use of technology in healthcare expands, so do security risks. Healthcare facilities must increase their vigilance, educate staff, and maintain a robust IT team. Ransomware is becoming an escalating problem, especially for healthcare because of the valuable patient data within.

Disconnected systems often lead to claim delays, eligibility errors, and communication breakdowns between front-end and back-end teams. Modern RCM strategies focus on creating connected ecosystems where electronic health records (EHRs), billing systems, and payer portals exchange data automatically. This enables staff to access real-time updates on claim status, patient eligibility, and payment progress without manual entry or repeated logins.

True interoperability doesn’t stop at internal systems—it extends to payer connectivity and patient engagement platforms. For example, integrating prior authorization tools or digital payment systems into RCM workflows helps eliminate redundant data collection and minimizes revenue leakage.

For healthcare organizations, adopting connected revenue systems is no longer optional. It’s a strategic move toward data-driven, transparent, and patient-friendly financial operations. TruBridge solutions support this by integrating cleanly with existing EHRs and financial systems, empowering providers to manage their entire revenue cycle from a unified, intelligent platform.

The new year brings along some transitions from traditional ways of billing for services as well as some new rules.

• Patient-first billing. High healthcare costs, more uninsured patients, and high-deductible insurance plans means more direct patient billing. This trend not only is frustrating and costly for patients, but also poses a challenge for providers. The debt typically resulting from patient-first billing is often more difficult to recover.
• No Surprises Act. The No Surprises Act bans balance billing for emergency services provided at an out-of-network facility or scheduled services by out-of-network medical professionals at an in-network facility if the patient was not notified of their network status.

These trends are just a sampling of the healthcare changes coming or already settling in 2025. It’s important for RCM professionals to be aware of these trends and ramp up efforts to provide more training to meet the associated challenges. Amid staffing shortages throughout the healthcare sector, outsourcing your RCM to a RCM company with the expertise to overcome these challenges will keep your organization ahead of the curve.

Contact us to learn how we can help.

A “patient-first” billing approach focuses on clarity and empathy at every stage of the revenue cycle. Patients want to understand what they owe, why they owe it, and how they can pay it—without surprises or complex paperwork. This means providers must prioritize price transparency, provide digital billing portals, and offer personalized payment plans that align with patients’ financial realities.

Technology plays a crucial role in making this experience seamless. Features like online bill pay, text reminders, and self-service portals empower patients to manage their accounts on their own terms. Meanwhile, integrated financial counseling tools and automated eligibility checks help staff proactively guide patients through their payment options—before a bill ever goes unpaid.

Forward-thinking healthcare organizations now recognize that strong financial communication builds loyalty. Patients who feel respected and supported are more likely to return for future care and pay their balances on time. By combining patient-first design with advanced billing tools, providers can strengthen both patient relationships and financial performance—transforming the revenue cycle into a driver of trust and long-term growth.

As healthcare revenue cycles become more complex—with higher patient financial responsibility, diverse payer models, and growing regulatory pressure—the ability to predict revenue risks and proactively adjust becomes a competitive differentiator. Predictive analytics enables providers to shift from reactive billing to risk-based revenue cycle management. By leveraging machine-learning models, historical claim-data, patient payment behavior and payer trends, organizations can identify which claims are most likely to be denied, which patients may struggle with payment, and where revenue leakage is imminent. This insight empowers teams to re-prioritize workflows, offer targeted patient financial outreach, and improve operational efficiency. In turn, the revenue cycle moves from a cost-center to a strategic function that anticipates outcomes, optimizes cash-flow and strengthens financial resilience.

• Predictive models flagging “high risk” accounts (high deductible, self-pay, multiple past-due balances)
• Real-time dashboards integrating eligibility + claim status + patient payment behavior
• Workflow triggers (e.g., prompt early-out collections or financial counseling) based on risk scores
• Outcome metrics: reduction in days in AR, fewer first-pass denials, increased self-pay collections