【正文】 ensuring that this information remains clear and simple throughout the billing and collections process. Patients appreciate knowing up front what they will owe, and how they will be able to manage what they owe. It is important health care provider organizations are careful not to undo the good munications work initiated on the front end by sending out plex and confusing , best practice in munications includes simplifying bills to the greatest extent possible. In addition, highperforming organizations provide patient advocates to assist patients with billing and collections queries, including being able to work with or on behalf of patients who encounter problems with payers that negatively affect patients’ financial obligations. External external munications area covers information patients receive online through the facility’s Web site or in hard copy through printed brochures distributed within the facility and in the greater munity it serves. At highperforming organizations, marketing and revenue cycle management staff members collaborate to ensure all information, whether online or printed—such as a brochure or Web page that explains what patients can expect at registration and in the billing and collection process—corresponds with messaging that occurs through patient access scripts and other live munications with patients and patient families. Highperforming organizations also ensure that Web content is prehensive. For instance, charge and/or cost information for specific, more mon procedures may be noted, or patient portals may be available for patients to check on their bill status or to make online most critical elements of effective munications: consistency and clarity. Regardless of the format in which a message is municated to patients— during a conversation when scheduling a procedure, in a brochure, or online—patients are best served when the message remains the same regardless of format (consistency) and when the message is easily understood (clarity). organization’s culture is prised of shared attitudes, values, and goals that are put into practice. These intangible aspects are critical in developing a sense of mission and vision that can noted by one executive with a highperforming revenue cycle organization: “When you don’t have the right culture, you can only tinker around the edges.” Among highperforming organizations, the right culture springs not from establishing the organization’s shared values, but in gaining employee buyin to apply the values to improve performance. Such buyin is cultivated through actions that include recognizing the importance of the revenue cycle at the executive level, garnering appreciation for its importance from finance and nonfinance staff alike, using patient service as a means to connect employees with a sense of purpose, setting high expectations, celebrating successes, and encouraging innovation. HighLevel Revenue Cycle for the revenue cycle needs to exist at the executive level, and not just from finance executives. Leaders in clinical areas, for example, also must understand and appreciate the critical role that financial performance plays to support care delivery. When leadership in all areas of the organization make the revenue cycle an organizational priority, high performance is from nonFinance revenue cycle organizations achieve excellence by involving the entire organization. Finance cannot a