Revenue leakage – those lost opportunities to collect money earned – has been a topic of conversation in healthcare for years. Granted, revenue leakage is a moving target, thanks to healthcare reform, constantly changing payer rules and frequent technology advancements. This pervasive problem, however, continues to tighten the squeeze on already compressed margins.

There are no easy answers, but there is tremendous upside to finally finding and fixing current revenue leakage root causes and preventing new sources in the future. After all, McKinsey & Company estimates revenue cycle ine ciencies including claims processing, payments, billing and bad debt – among the leakage sources explored in this paper – eat up 15 cents of every healthcare dollar.