With more than 40% of rural hospitals operating at a loss and federal relief slow to reach hospital operating budgets, CFOs and COOs cannot afford to wait. Two operational areas worth prioritizing now: (1) audit payer contract performance by validating actual payments against contracted rates. Manual review catches only a fraction of discrepancies, and small variances compound quickly across high-volume claims. (2) Review vendor invoices against contract terms before payment is finalized, as overbilling often goes undetected when contract documents live outside of accounts payable workflows. Addressing these two areas can help rural hospitals recover revenue they’ve already earned, without waiting for federal relief.
