The US healthcare sector is facing heightened financial headwinds as a result of recent tariff strategies introduced by the Trump administration. A new 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports – alongside targeted duties on key medical supplies – is compounding cost pressures across hospitals and provider networks. Coupled with persistent staffing shortages, narrowing margins and rising administrative burdens, these economic shifts are straining operational sustainability. According to Everest Group’s recent viewpoint, Stabilizing Healthcare in Unstable Times: Revenue Cycle Management’s (RCM’s) Vital Role, these issues are destabilizing an already fragile financial landscape and challenging the long-term viability of care delivery.

The scale of disruption facing providers is unlike anything we have seen before. RCM is now mission-critical – not just to survive, but to adapt and scale sustainably.

The Challenge: Margin Pressure Meets Operational Complexity

The headwinds facing healthcare providers are intensifying. Labor shortages persist across clinical and administrative functions, with billing and coding roles particularly hard hit. Legacy systems and fragmented workflows only magnify the impact, creating bottlenecks that delay reimbursement and increase denials. Meanwhile, reimbursement uncertainty and payer-specific variances put even more stress on liquidity.

Compounding these financial hurdles are shifting patient expectations. Consumers today demand transparency, digital-first interactions and flexible payment options – expectations that many legacy RCM systems were not built to support. The result is a widening gap between provider capability and patient needs, with tangible consequences for both satisfaction and revenue capture.

The Opportunity: RCM as a Strategic Growth Engine

As the Everest Group report notes, traditional approaches to RCM are proving inadequate in this unstable climate. A new RCM mandate is emerging – one that blends technology, analytics and patient-centered strategies into a cohesive performance engine.

Forward-looking providers are turning to RCM transformation partners to provide key levers for a proactive RCM function. Enablers include:

• Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led workflows to streamline claims processing, eligibility verification and payment posting
• Denials management powered by predictive analytics, targeting root causes and reducing re-work
• Patient engagement solutions that drive self-service, improve collections and build trust
• Outcomes-based commercial models that ensure shared accountability between providers and RCM partners

In our experience, the right mix of technology and expertise can unlock 20-30 percent process efficiencies – gains that can be re-invested into front-line care, digital transformation or margin improvement. More importantly, this points to a future built not just on automation but on harmonizing digital tools with human insight, with technology amplifying judgment rather than replacing it.

Enabling Financial Resilience with Intelligent RCM

For a digital-led business transformation and services firm like WNS, this inflection point is a generational opportunity to re-shape the financial backbone of healthcare. Our approach goes beyond transactional processing, helping clients re-imagine revenue operations as a dynamic capability that delivers measurable value across clinical, financial and operational dimensions.

By combining Generative AI (Gen AI)-led automation, real-time analytics and deep domain partnerships, we are helping transform revenue operations. The result? Stronger financial outcomes, better patient experiences and a more resilient provider enterprise.

Crucially, success lies in building a harmonized future – one where digital capabilities and human intelligence work together to drive more responsive, empathetic and efficient care. Intelligent RCM does not just digitize, it contextualizes, enabling providers to act on real-time insights with confidence and precision.

The most effective end-to-end RCM models integrate all the building blocks of transformation:

• Hyperautomation to accelerate high-volume workflows and reduce manual errors
• Denial prevention frameworks driven by longitudinal data and payer insights
• Digitally enabled front-end strategies that support better eligibility, authorization and patient financial engagement
• Flexible pricing models that align with provider cash flow realities and risk tolerance

In parallel, investing in modular, ready-to-deploy Gen-AI use cases – particularly in claims coding, audit preparation and patient communications – builds targeted levers for quick wins without disrupting core operations.

Navigating a Shifting Landscape

Everest Group’s report rightly cautions that this transformation will not be easy. Economic uncertainty, evolving regulations – such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Regulation V – and rising import costs are tightening margins. Providers may defer capital-intensive investments unless they can prove clear ROI, fast payback and minimal disruption – especially in rural or safety-net settings.

Collaborating with the right RCM partner – one who brings that trifecta of speed, scale and reliability – will empower healthcare leaders to set the pace in this next chapter. Those who cling to legacy systems or treat RCM as a cost center risk falling behind in a market where resilience and responsiveness are paramount.

The Way Forward

Designing smarter healthcare businesses means building systems that are not only efficient but also empathetic – systems that amplify human decision-making with the precision of AI while never losing sight of patient context. RCM is central to this transformation.

As the healthcare industry braces for continued turbulence, it is time to view revenue cycle transformation not as a back-office upgrade but as a front-line strategic imperative. Financial viability, patient experience and digital innovation are now inseparable – and the RCM function sits at the intersection of all three.

Partnering with a forward-thinking RCM transformation provider can help healthcare organizations move toward a more harmonized future, where digital precision is paired with human empathy to deliver efficient and sustainable outcomes.

Whether you are looking to reduce denials, modernize patient engagement or deploy Gen AI across the revenue cycle, the right collaboration brings the expertise, technology and executional scale to help you lead through disruption.

Contact us to explore how WNS can help your organization strengthen revenue, improve patient satisfaction and future-proof RCM operations.