80% Fewer Denials and $3.6M in Growth: The Revenue Your Health Center Is Leaving Behind

80% Fewer Denials and $3.6M in Growth: The Revenue Your Health Center Is Leaving Behind

From Community Health Collective by Jill Steeley

March 18, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 20

About this episode

Jill Steeley discusses healthcare revenue challenges and solutions with Melissa Erlandson, focusing on denial rates and technology's role in improving financial outcomes.

80% Fewer Denials and $3.6M in Growth: The Revenue Your Health Center Is Leaving Behind Hosted by: Jill Steeley | Guest: Melissa Erlandson, Clinical Account Executive, Athelas Episode Overview Health centers are under enormous financial pressure—thin margins, rising denial rates, and providers drowning in documentation. In this episode, Jill sits down with Melissa Erlandson, a former physical therapist turned clinical account executive at Athelas, to break down where revenue quietly leaks out of healthcare organizations, how AI is changing the revenue cycle, and what ambient scribing technology is doing to reduce provider burnout. This is a practical, no-hype conversation about technology that is already working for practices and health centers across the country. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Why payers intentionally design complexity into the billing process—and what the term “float” means for your bottom line The two biggest places revenue quietly leaks out of healthcare organizations (and why most leaders don’t see them) Why industry-wide denial rates run 12–18% (and sometimes up to 30%)—and what a healthy denial rate actually looks like What “first-pass claim rate” means…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jill Steeley, Jill

Guest: Melissa Erlandson

Topics covered

  • healthcare revenue
  • denial rates
  • AI in healthcare
  • ambient scribing technology
  • provider burnout

Keywords

  • revenue cycle
  • health centers
  • financial pressure
  • documentation
  • billing process

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Sophia, Athelas

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