Texas-based FinThrive, a healthcare revenue management company, recently published the 2026 Transformative Trends and Data-Driven Insights Report, in which RCM (revenue cycle management) leaders ranked artificial intelligence (AI) and automation as their top investment priority, especially across prior authorization, denials, underpayments, and clinical documentation.
In a press release, FinThrive announced that, for the first time since the company started tracking RCM leaders' goals and investment priorities through the Transformative Trends survey in 2023, patient experience has become the top organizational goal (71 percent), along with increasing revenue (58 percent) and reducing costs (36 percent). Leaders are increasingly relying on AI, automation, and better-integrated systems to reduce friction across the revenue cycle, deliver clearer financial communications, accelerate resolution, and ultimately support stronger collections and lower cost-to-collect.
"This reordering indicates that revenue cycle leaders are starting to move away from short-term fixes, such as aggressive cost-cutting and narrow reimbursement strategies," said Hemant Goel, president and CEO of FinThrive, in a statement. "Organizations are shifting from reactive crisis management to deliberate recalibration focused on rebuilding stability, rethinking growth, and advancing technology's role in the revenue cycle to improve patient satisfaction."
According to the news release, over 70 percent of respondents expect to reduce their reliance on third-party revenue cycle vendors, and nearly 60 percent plan to consolidate RCM vendors within the next three years, indicating that providers are seeking long-term strategic partnerships with trusted vendors to support them across the platform, rather than multiple quick-fix point solutions.
Additional key findings of the report included:
- Seventy-six percent of revenue cycle leaders say implementing automation solutions is their top initiative for 2026.
- Seventy-three percent are using AI and automation to streamline prior authorization, while 67 percent are deploying it to manage denials and underpayments.
- Fifty-six percent report that automation and AI represent their single largest area of investment, signaling a shift from experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment.
- Eighty-five percent of organizations report changing their strategic investment in RCM technology in response to recent cybersecurity and clearinghouse disruptions.
