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Patient Payments: Moving from Manual to Modern
0 Playsin 8 minutes
Patient payments don’t have to be complicated. In this week's episode, we kick off our Patient Payments series with a practical guest conversation on what “good” looks like in 2026: integrated processing, fewer manual steps, faster reconciliation, and an easier way for patients to pay.
We cover where workflows commonly break down, why manual reconciliation and disconnected tools create errors and wasted time, and what to look for in modern payments and reporting.
We also close with quick headlines: CMS’s rural health transformation push, new research linking pre-surgery stress to worse recovery in older adults, a CEO transition at Compass Surgical Partners, and why the South is becoming a hotspot for ASC growth.
Subscribe for weekly ASC news and ops insights.
Resources mentioned:
CMS Establishes Office of Rural Health Transformation, Unveils $50B in State Awards: What ASCs Need to Know (Ambulatory Surgery Center News)
Stress among older adults linked to worse surgery recovery (Duke University School of Medicine)
Compass Surgical Partners Names Mark Langston Chief Executive Officer (Compass Surgical Partners)
Why ASCs are surging in the South (Becker’s ASC Review)
Brought to you by HST Pathways.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to This Week in Surgery Centers. If you're in the ASC industry, then you're in the right place. Every week, we'll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with our featured guest, and then we'll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers.
00:00:16
Speaker
We're excited to share with you what we have, so let's get started and see what the industry's been up to.
Modernizing Patient Payment Workflows Series Introduction
00:00:24
Speaker
Hi everyone, welcome back to This Week in Surgery Centers and Happy New Year to each and every one of you. In today's episode, we're kicking off a series on patient payments with a conversation that gets right to the point.
00:00:35
Speaker
How ASCs can modernize patient of payment workflows without adding chaos for staff and friction for patients. If your team is still piecing together a patchwork of portals, statements, phone calls, and manual reconciliations, you're not alone and you're not stuck.
Good Practices for ASC Payment Workflows: 2026 Edition
00:00:50
Speaker
Our guest, Chris Hall, is a Senior Strategic Partner Manager at Global Payments, and we talk through what good actually looks like in 2026. Integrated payments, easier ways for patients to pay by text or email, cleaner reporting, and the operational payoff of reducing the work that eats up so much of your day.
00:01:08
Speaker
It's one of those topics that sounds simple until you're the one trying to make it work across real people and real workflows, so we keep the conversation grounded in what teams are doing right now. After that, I'll take you through a short news segment with a few stories worth having on your radar this week.
00:01:24
Speaker
CMS's latest moves on rural health transformation and why that could create new partnership opportunities for ASCs. A new study connecting pre-op stress to worse recovery outcomes in older adults and the implications for pre-op workflows.
00:01:40
Speaker
a leadership change at Compass Surgical Partners, and why the South is increasingly being treated as the epicenter of ASC growth, especially as policy shifts like certificate of need reform changed the playing field.
00:01:54
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and here's what's going on this week in surgery centers.
Meet Chris Hall and Global Payments
00:02:08
Speaker
Well, hello, Chris. Thanks so much for joining the podcast today. It's great to have you on Before we kick things off and talk about patient payments and ASCs, I would love to have you just give our listeners a quick introduction about you and your business.
00:02:22
Speaker
Hi, thank you for having me, Alex. My name is Chris. I am from Global Payments Integrated. Global Payments is an industry-leading business. payment processing company. We've been an industry leader for close to two decades now, and we support all sizes of businesses from your small to medium sized businesses all the way up to enterprise level. And today we're going to talk about patient payments, collecting patient payments, partnering with a payment processor. But to kick things off,
00:02:53
Speaker
Let's talk about the benefits to an ASC of having a patient payments tool and an integrated payment processor, like a partner to do
Benefits of Integrated Payments in ASCs
00:03:02
Speaker
that. Why should an ASC be thinking about this if they don't already have one in place?
00:03:07
Speaker
Definitely, you know, so it's super important these days to have integrated payments at your ASC locations. The number one reason, in my opinion, would be the United workflow. You know, the integrated payments just eliminates the need to do a lot of things manually that you may be doing today.
00:03:22
Speaker
That just increases efficiency, allows you to focus on what you do best at your ASCs. Staff can collect payments, verify balances, and post patient accounts.
00:03:36
Speaker
all from the same platform that they already use every day. This reduces duplicate data entry and significantly cuts down on cost. This also just cuts down on human error. You know, so you don't need to worry about ah multiple data point entry points. It's all handled in one system, which again increases efficiency across the board. Absolutely.
00:03:58
Speaker
And in thinking about ASCs that you've worked with, what does it look like when they don't have this in place? and You talked about it a little bit, but what are some of the pitfalls that you can run into if you are relying on manual processes to collect patient payments?
00:04:13
Speaker
It could be a mess, you know, it could cause additional work for, you know, your employees themselves. um It can also prevent you from collecting that payment because you the old traditional ways of, you know, mailing bills, you may have to rely on, you know, snail mail, which can take months and you may not ever collect that payment.
00:04:32
Speaker
Where if you have an integrated payment processor, where you can send out and a bill by a simple text,
Easing Transactions and Reducing Manual Work
00:04:38
Speaker
you know, you can ah email over the payment link for that customer to pay. You can do that post or pre-op.
00:04:44
Speaker
So that again, you're given that customer many different ways that they may be paying for different things today, such as like a cell phone bill or paying for their cable service. You're just modernizing the way that you do business.
00:04:57
Speaker
And that just makes it a lot easier for everyone involved. Not only your employees, but your patients. They're going appreciate the ease of making that payment. So they don't have to pick up the phone to call you to make that payment. I know personally, that's a lot easier of an experience for me.
00:05:13
Speaker
And I'm more apt to make that payment if it's easy to make. I'm not going to chase down someone to give them my money. ah So again, you know, just making it more simple for everyone involved.
00:05:25
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think there's an expectation amongst consumers who live out in the real world, right? They're buying things, they're buying services and making it easy to give you money is critical and actually collecting that money, especially since so many younger people are not even carrying wallets.
00:05:41
Speaker
They're just using their phone to pay for everything. Exactly. And it just, again, it allows you to send out a reminder, ah which I think is super important too. You have the ability to do so, but when you're not using and integrated software, a lot of those just go wayside or you forget, or you have to rely on your employees to remember to send out those reminders. And again, this is all done by a simple click of the button, or you can set up for this to be automated, which again, just increases everyone's efficiency and increases your likelihood of getting paid.
Features of Modern Payment Tools
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about that. What is a patient payments tool? And we can just talk broadly about what it looks like to move from that paper-based process to a more automated system. What is the experience for the person in the ASC? Sure. So, you know, you still have your traditional payment options. And what I mean by that is your simple credit card terminal where you can tap or swipe your card to pay or dip.
00:06:42
Speaker
But with an integrated solution, you have additional ways to collect those payments. So again, Consumer can pay with their phone and they can do that different ways.
00:06:52
Speaker
They can scan their phone. The ASC can actually send out a a link via text or via email. And they can also have a patient portal where they can log into to make these payments.
00:07:03
Speaker
So again, by texting a link to pay, emailing a link to pay, you're just figuring out different ways to attack and collect those payments. You can also set up customer profiles and you can set up, you know, different settings. So that way, you know, after seven days, 14 days, however you want to set it, it can send out reminders to collect those payments.
00:07:25
Speaker
So again, you're just staying on patients that may have forgotten to pay or just need a reminder that, Hey, I have a bill due that again, increases the likelihood of collecting that payment sooner and more efficiently.
Simplifying Reconciliation and Reporting
00:07:39
Speaker
And I imagine that there's also some backend benefits on the other side, right? From like a reconciliation and reporting perspective. No, absolutely. The finance team is going to love this the most because again, all the payments return directly into ah the software. So the finance teams can run their End of day, end of month reports all with one single click versus going you know through multiple systems.
00:08:03
Speaker
A lot of non-integrated solutions are doing a lot of things by, by hand. So the old paper and pen method, or they're running in a separate accounting software. This is all done in one single source. So that way you can click of a button and you could run your reports, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, cetera.
00:08:24
Speaker
And the other thing. It really makes easier audits because everything is right there in front of you. So you can click and have all of your data that you're looking for. It eliminates the headache of downloading multiple spreadsheets and having to run multiple reports for everything that's handled right here in one single system.
00:08:44
Speaker
How much time is all of this saving across the board for each part of this process? What would you estimate people are are getting back to do other things? It's a tremendous time saver for me to put an actual...
00:08:55
Speaker
Amount on it would be very hard just because when someone writes something down wrong or transfers over the wrong information because they were doing it manually, it can spend hours and hours trying to reconcile a single transaction or this is all handled for you.
00:09:15
Speaker
It's just an, a tremendous time saver for everybody involved. Cause again, the patient is able to make that payment right there and then versus having to wait to make that payment.
00:09:27
Speaker
So again, you have the payments a lot faster too, as well as just the overall time saving of not having to worry about running multiple softwares for
Transitioning to Integrated Payments
00:09:38
Speaker
accounting. Cause that's one of the more common things that a lot of ASCs have done over the years without integrated payments is, you know, separate accounting softwares, or they have an accountant in house that's doing everything on a completely different platform and system.
00:09:54
Speaker
And again, there's a lot of headaches that are also saved by doing everything in one single software. I bet. So I'm an ASC that wants to overhaul this process, what kind of change management am I preparing for here? Is this something that can be done in a week?
00:10:10
Speaker
Is this something that takes months to do? i think that's important for people listening to kind of ah understand because if they are like, yeah, don't need something like this, you know how should they be be preparing their teams, talking to their owners about what this project looks like?
00:10:26
Speaker
Absolutely. I think that's a loaded question too, because again, it depends on how many centers you have, because obviously, you know, the more centers you have, the, you know, the more lift it may involve, but it's really a seamless transition because everything is automated.
00:10:41
Speaker
If you are a brand new ASC that's never accepted payments before, I would say that you can get up and running in a matter of days. If you're an existing center with multiple centers, I would say that but you need to give yourself a good month to actually make the transition and, you know, go through the actual boarding and implementation process.
00:11:02
Speaker
Now I'm probably a little, you could probably do it a lot faster too, but you know, for a, you know, a good launch with, you know, a handful of locations, I would say you want to give yourself a little bit of
Choosing the Right Payment Partner
00:11:14
Speaker
time.
00:11:14
Speaker
Got it. That makes sense. Let me ask you this. If I'm in AOC shopping, right, for a partner to to do patient payments, what should I be looking for in terms of capabilities, differentiators?
00:11:30
Speaker
What should be high on my list of priorities as I'm evaluating potential partners? Sure. you You know, you want to look for... Something that would make, you know, lives easier. And just with the way that the workforce is shifting, a lot of the younger generation just wants things automated. And that's what integrated payments provides.
00:11:51
Speaker
Uh, you don't have to worry about hiring, um, an accountant for the back office to, or even bill collector or something, people like that, because again, it's all handled for you ah in an automated fashion.
00:12:04
Speaker
So you don't need to, ah you know, the accounts payable team probably should block their errors here, but you know, it's it's all done automated for you. So that's something that you definitely want to look for is the ability to automate your payments. It allows consistency across multiple payment channels, if that makes sense. So what I mean by that is All your payments, whether they're coming in from the front desk or from an online portal or from one of the cell phones or emails, everything flows into the same system. So you want to look for that, just, you know, unified payments or consistency across multiple payment channels.
00:12:43
Speaker
Make sure that you're looking for a an integrated payment partner that is really focused on ASCs and supporting ASCs because they're going to help figure that confusion out and make it a lot easier for you to do business and focus on, you know, providing the services that you do at your, you know, at your locations.
00:13:06
Speaker
Fantastic. All right. Well, I have one final question for you, and it's something that we ask our guests every week on the podcast. But what's one thing that ASC leaders can do this week to improve their surgery centers?
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, so what I would recommend is I would either yourself or check with whoever's reconciling your books. You know, look at the clock, have them time themselves, you time yourself, see how long that is taking you to do, because that's one of the most burdened things to do at ASCs and see how long it's taken. You know, you're probably going to be surprised or shocked about how many manual hours that you're putting in on a daily, weekly basis. And when you multiply that by a month to a year, it's going to really add up.
00:13:48
Speaker
And knowing that if you were to add integrated payments, it's done with a click of a button. So it just, it just increases efficiency. So that's one thing I just recommend. See how much time you're spending to reconcile your books on a daily basis or even a weekly basis.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then quantify that and just know that if you were to look more into going the integrated road, you're going to save time tremendously. And I think that's highly beneficial and something I would recommend all ASCs to do today if they're not currently using an integrated software.
00:14:20
Speaker
I love that. Get yourself a cold, hard number so that you know how much time you can have back for more strategic work or really anything else that needs to be done because there's countless things that need to be done around an ASE every day. So this is a great way to save time and improve the patient experience for sure.
00:14:36
Speaker
Chris, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure to talk to you and have you on the podcast today. i really appreciate it. Yeah, likewise. Thank you again for having me and I look forward to doing it again someday.
00:14:53
Speaker
The new year may have just begun, but the ASC industry hasn't slowed
Opportunities for Rural ASCs
00:14:57
Speaker
down. Let's jump into a few of the recent headlines and see what's been going on over the last week. CMS just took two big steps on rural health that could ripple into outpatient care.
00:15:07
Speaker
First, the agency formally created the Office of Rural Health Transformation, a new group inside of CMS that's going to oversee their rural transformation work. At the same time, CMS announced $50 billion dollars in rural health transformation awards across all 50 states paid out over five years.
00:15:26
Speaker
For 2026, states' first year awards averaged around $200 million, dollars ranging from roughly $147 million to $281 million. Half the money is split evenly across the state, and the other half is based on things like rural need, state policy actions, and the projected impact of each state's plan.
00:15:46
Speaker
Why should ASCs care? a lot of these plans focus on workforce, tech modernization, telehealth, infrastructure, and new care models designed to keep care local, which could create partnership opportunities for rural-serving ASCs as states start implementing in FY 2026.
Impact of Pre-op Stress on Recovery
00:16:03
Speaker
In a new study from the Duke University School of Medicine, researchers found that pre-surgery stress, even when it doesn't feel severe to patients, can meaningfully worsen outcomes for older adults.
00:16:15
Speaker
The study, published in the journal Anesthesiology, links having more worries going into surgery with higher risk of post-op delirium, more uncontrolled pain, and longer hospital stays.
00:16:27
Speaker
One of the most interesting takeaways wasn't just that it was the intensity of stress that was felt, it was actually the number of stressors piling up for patients that best predicted worse outcomes.
00:16:39
Speaker
More than 4 in 10 older adults scheduled for major surgery reported moderate to high distress, and the authors describe an overwhelmed patient profile where small stressors stack up and hinder recovery.
00:16:53
Speaker
The practical implication is that a quick pre-op distress screen and simple interventions like better communication, clearer prep, and support around family or logistics could be an underused lever to improve outcomes.
Leadership Change at Compass Surgical Partners
00:17:07
Speaker
Compass Surgical Partners just announced a leadership change that's worth watching if you keep an eye on ASC development and management companies. Mark Langston, who had been Compass's chief development officer, has just been named chief executive officer, effective as of the announcement on January 5th.
00:17:24
Speaker
The outgoing CEO, DJ Hill, isn't disappearing per se. He's staying closely involved as board chair and the company frames this as a planned succession. Compass positions the timing around what they call an accelerating shift toward ambulatory surgery driven by reimbursement, regulation, physician preferences, and patient demand.
00:17:43
Speaker
Langston's quote is essentially that growth is ramping up across partnerships and they're eyeing new health system partnerships in 2026. So his focus as CEO will be building the teams and systems to scale in a disciplined way while keeping care strong at the local level.
00:17:58
Speaker
They also highlight an emphasis on strengthening operational infrastructure, specifically putting real-time data and actionable information in the hands of ASC leaders to improve efficiency while maintaining clinical quality and physician engagement.
ASC Growth in the South
00:18:13
Speaker
And finally, Becker's is reporting that the South is becoming the epicenter of ASC growth and big operators are treating it less like a secondary market and more like the next strategic frontier.
00:18:23
Speaker
One example is that Solara Surgical Partners says it plans to put more strategic focus on the Southeast, especially Florida, over the next five years, potentially shifting from mostly de novo growth toward more acquisitions as consolidation opportunities appear.
00:18:39
Speaker
The momentum is backed by both demand and deal-friendly conditions. The piece notes that in 2025, more than 20 ASCs opened across the South, with North Carolina seeing eight new centers, Texas four, and Alabama and Mississippi three each.
00:18:55
Speaker
Regulation is also a big part of the story, especially certificate of need reform. Georgia's recent changes are highlighted as an example of how policy tweaks can quickly unlock development while North Carolina still faces ongoing CON-related friction.
00:19:10
Speaker
The bottom line, strong population and procedural demand, improving business dynamics, and shifting CON policies are helping pull capital and health system partnerships south.
00:19:21
Speaker
And that wraps up today's episode. be sure to check in next week for the next episode in our patient payment series. And if you found today's episode helpful, be sure to leave us a rating or review wherever you get your podcasts to help others find us.
00:19:35
Speaker
As always, thank you for spending a few minutes out of your week with us, and I'll see you again next time.