Download our case study: St. Mary’s Healthcare Decreases A/R Days by 26%, Creates Sustainable Revenue Cycle Foundation With Expanse

About: St. Mary’s Healthcare (Amsterdam, NY), an independent organization with deep roots in the Fulton-Montgomery region, employs over 1,600 team members and operates a 130-bed hospital. It provides a comprehensive range of inpatient and outpatient services.

Challenge: After breaking away from a larger health system, St. Mary’s Healthcare faced a critical juncture: The organization needed a strong, sustainable revenue cycle foundation to maintain its independence and ensure long-term success. It faced several obstacles that hindered cash flow and operational efficiency. Outdated and inefficient back-end processes that relied on legacy systems created bottlenecks, slowing down the entire billing and collections workflow. Patient billing was a source of difficulty, often due to frequent and confusing statements that showed unresolved insurance balances. This lack of clarity increased patient calls and delayed payments.

Execution: Director of Patient Accounting Grant Norton developed a strategic plan focused on leveraging automation to simplify processes, accelerate cash flow, and enhance patient communication. A key step was consolidating most of St. Mary’s outpatient practices, along with the acute hospital system, onto a single Expanse EHR. This integration enabled the organization to deploy a modern, integrated revenue cycle solution, allowing it to implement new billing and patient engagement strategies and proactively monitor its fiscal health.

Results: St. Mary’s achieved dramatic, measurable improvements in financial health and operational efficiency, setting the stage for long-term sustainability. This includes creating a more positive financial experience for patients by improving transparency and simplifying the payment process.

• Decreased A/R days by 26% 

• Decreased A/R days over 180 by 90%

• Increased self-pay collections by 40% 

Quote: “We recognized that modernizing our processes and technology was essential to navigate these financial complexities. Moving to MEDITECH’s Expanse EHR and its integrated Revenue Cycle solution was a strategic decision aimed at creating a streamlined, sustainable revenue cycle foundation.”

Grant Norton, MBA
Director of Patient Accounting
St. Mary’s Healthcare