The Sneaky Metrics Sabotaging Your Revenue Cycle — and How to Fix Them, with Aaqil Khan

On this episode of the MGMA Insights Podcast, Sr. Editor and host Daniel Williams sits down with Aaqil Khan, RCM consultant at Collectly, to uncover the “sneaky metrics” hiding inside your revenue cycle. These overlooked indicators can quietly erode patient collections, increase costs, and create friction in the patient financial experience.

Aaqil brings deep experience in healthcare administration, Six Sigma process improvement, analytics, and revenue cycle leadership to show practice leaders where the real problems hide — and how to solve them using clearer ownership, automation, better data definitions, and patient‑centric design.

Key Takeaways

• [02:13] Aaqil Khan’s background
  How he shifted from a planned medical career to healthcare administration and revenue cycle leadership.
• [08:13] The importance of estimate accuracy
  Bad estimates create bill shock and lower collection rates.
• [09:32] Why critical revenue cycle KPIs fall through the cracks
  Competing priorities, systems issues, and fragmented ownership.
• [15:01] "Sneaky metrics" and patient collection rate pitfalls
  “Good” numbers hide deeper conversion problems.
• [17:40] Impactful patient experience and payment reform
  Patient experience and frictionless payments directly influence collection performance and loyalty.
• [21:47] The hidden story inside patient AR days and patient inquiry volume
  A diagnostic metric you’re probably overlooking.
• [26:15] Looking ahead
  The future of digital payments, automation, and behavioral analytics for patient financial engagement

Resources

• Contact Aaquil on LinkedIn
• Collectly
• MGMA Revenue Cycle Management Resources
• “All the Queen’s Horses” documentary on Amazon Prime
  (Local scandal of Rita Crundwell mentioned in Aaquil's introduction)

This episode is sponsored by ModMed.
Every denied claim costs time and money to rework — for care you’ve already delivered. While payers sharpen their own AI tools, ModMed RCM Services pairs seasoned billing specialists with AI designed to help flag claims at risk before they go out the door, so your team can fix issues upfront instead of appealing after the fact. Learn more here.