HIMSS25: Opportunities for Financial Optimization

The annual HIMSS conference has long served as a point of convergence for healthcare technology, healthcare policy, education, and networking and collaboration. HIMSS25 promises to continue in that tradition. Interoperability, security, patient care, clinician enablement—these remain at the forefront of the technology discussions sure to take place in Las Vegas.

But there’s also a multitude of realities underpinning those conversations. It’s a reality of regulatory and technical complexity, financial uncertainty, and staffing constraints. A reality where economic and payor dynamics drive evolving patient impacts. A reality where emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to elevate financial performance. A reality where no one’s role is pigeonholed and siloed, where we all can drive meaningful improvements for our organizations and the communities we serve. For hospitals and IDNs as well as specialty physician groups—and the providers who work with them, these conversations are important.

At XiFin, we’re excited to be a part of these conversations and be partners in problem solving. Here are some of the common themes we expect to hear—and what they mean to all of us.

Artificial Intelligence

When it comes to the impact of AI on clinical care, we’re only scratching the surface. From interpreting clinical images and to structuring narrative data and optimizing staffing, it’s a lot to take in—and navigate.

AI, however, also brings tangible benefits to the revenue cycle. And as payors scale up its usage in managing claims, providers can leverage AI to keep pace. Align staff to the most valuable tasks. Reduce bottlenecks in patient registration. Simplify payor interactions and automate actionable follow-up. These are a few of the concrete benefits AI brings to the table, and we look forward to helping healthcare leaders identify an AI-enabled path to ROI.

New Pathways to Financial Sustainability

For hospitals and IDNs, current dynamics are straining traditional cost structures.

Key among those dynamics is the continuing shift of care delivery from acute to ambulatory and ancillary settings. What we’re seeing, however, is that many hospitals are struggling to manage the high-volume, lower-dollar claims frequently found in these settings. And it makes sense. EHRs are primarily designed for clinical care delivery and patient records, while enterprise financial systems are designed to handle higher-dollar acute encounters. Mitigating denials for smaller claims isn’t worth valuable staff time in the acute world. Keeping up with payor changes is a hassle for lower-dollar claims. Often, the net result is bad debt and write-offs. And as you see more and more outpatient encounters, that can become a big problem.

Reframing the organizational mindset toward ambulatory financial performance and thinking of those settings as less of a cost center is essential. It also requires a strategy and technology solution purpose-built for these unique dynamics that:

• Optimizes processing for high volumes of claims
• Complements enterprise systems for a complete revenue cycle technology suite
• Delivers accurate, enhanced data and analytics for informed decision-making
• Reduces unbillable charges, write-offs, and denials

At HIMSS25, we look forward to helping providers solve the financial and associated technical challenges in delivering ambulatory, outpatient, and ancillary care.

The CIO—and IT—as a Financial Stakeholder

At its heart, HIMSS has long been an innovation- and technology-driven conference, drawing CIOs, CISOs and IT leaders from across the world. Leveraging technology to empower the healthcare enterprise to deliver on its mission is core to the CIO role, requiring them to address compliance requirements, needed operational flexibility, cybersecurity, interoperability, innovation and feasibility.

Cost management is also a big deal in the CIO’s world. As financial pressures continue to mount, however, the CTO/CIO’s consideration of financial dynamics and performance must transcend standard departmental, technology, and vendor focus. Rather, as a leader armed with technology expertise, they stand uniquely informed—and positioned—to identify and bring solutions to the table that elevate clinical and financial performance. After all, everyone in the hospital C-Suite plays a role in ensuring the hospital’s capability to deliver sustainable care. The CIO or CTO is no exception. Interested in evaluating your technology strategy and ecosystem through the lens of organizational growth and sustainability? Let’s talk.

Technology and Data as Currency

Data matters. Data drives informed decisions. Data empowers effective patient care. And given structure and context, data can surface meaningful insights—within and beyond your organization. I invite you to stop by our HIMSS booth #4407 and see financial data in action at the Payor Rate Transparency Monitor kiosk. Using the kiosk, you can see the type of data your internal financial customers need such contracted reimbursement rates for multiple diagnostic billing codes across four major payors. We encourage you to engage with XiFin experts who can speak to the types of metrics and strategies CFOs need so that CIO and other tech leaders can bring forward valuable solutions to the c-suite. And finally, at HIMSS25, we will also showcase our award-winning RCM solution. Purpose-built for ambulatory, outpatient, and ancillary services, it unifies the best of automation, data analytics, and AI to facilitate end-to-end connectivity and workflow optimization from the initial patient encounter to a zero-balance bill. Offering real-time data exchange and interoperability among multiple diagnostic and pharmacy systems and data sources, the platform connects providers, payors, and patients to get the information they need when they need it, ultimately streamlining operations, achieving stronger finances, and enhancing the patient/provider experience. Stop by to see how we can identify opportunities for technology-driven solutions to your ambulatory and ancillary financial challenges.

Going to HIMSS? Have a conversation with us. And if you’re not, sign up for our blog alerts to be notified about a post-event wrap-up—and learn how those conversations will impact your organization. Or simply call us – (866) 934-6364.