Adventist Health and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center say their recent revenue-cycle deals with R1 RCM's VisitPay will not include outsourcing employees to the vendor, at least not right away.
Health systems like Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City and Ascension of St. Louis outsourced some or all of their revenue cycle work to save money after signing up with R1. But R1's latest customers say that's wasn't their intention when they contracted with VisitPay, R1's recently acquired company that specializes in patient intake, registration and billing technology.
"Rebadging" often means employees from vendors work at the same hospital side-by-side with system employees. The practice can take a toll on company culture and leave workers feeling frustrated.
Adventist Health has no current plans to outsource employees under its five-year contract with VisitPay, but the agreement does not preclude that from happening in the future, said Jason Wells, the Roseville, California-based system's chief strategy officer.
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"It's not something we haven't done before," Wells said. "We're very comfortable with whatever makes sense to have the greatest efficiencies so we can continue to maximize the experience for patients.
VisitPay declined to comment for this article. R1 did not respond to a request for comment.
Adventist Health has a history of outsourcing employees to its revenue-cycle partners. Although the health system provided a specific number of positions it has outsourced, it later retracted that and did not offer a revised figure.
When the health system has outsourced employees, they are "still part of the Adventist Health family," Wells said. "The rebadging is behind the scenes," he said. "They still wore Adventist Health logoed clothes. They still came to our Christmas parties."
New York-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Center Center's collaboration with VisitPay involves using the company's patient payment solution to send hospital bills electronically and to allow patients to pay online, spokesperson Courtney Nowak wrote in an email. "We're essentially adopting the technology—there's nothing to outsource," she wrote.
Adventist Health chose VisitPay to create a less disjointed experience for patients, Wells said. The system doesn't want to make patients download seven different apps to get care, he said.
"Our dream is to present customers with one, seamless experience from that first interaction on a website as they book their first visit with a primary care provider all through the end of that journey with the billing experience," Wells said, "so patients don't feel like they're bouncing around between partners throughout the entire journey."
