R1 is a provider of technology-driven solutions that make healthcare work better for both providers and patients. Pulse 2.0 interviewed R1 Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Steve Albert to learn more about the company.
Steve Albert’s Background
What is Steve Albert’s background? Albert said:
“After getting my liberal arts degree, I went on to get an MBA. I did a few years of consulting, but then spent the bulk of my career building and commercializing data and analytic products for major financial services, retail, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) clients. I’ve worked at both large companies and startups, and I’ve led many functions, including commercial and marketing teams.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Albert’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Albert shared:
“Earlier this year, a major vendor had an outage due to ransomware that was an extreme disruption to our business. In this crisis, our technology, operations, and customer facing teams came together to build new technology and transition processes within days. It was just amazing to see what the team was able to accomplish, and it built a lot of bridges across teams. Moreover, it helped our customers tremendously by improving the client’s ability to train and delight patients while streamlining the patient billing and payment experience.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Albert explained:
“We provide revenue cycle management solutions for health systems and physician groups. Our solutions are a suite of technology and services that help our clients to improve their financial performance and provide better patient satisfaction. Our technology is extensive, ranging from solutions that enable patient self-scheduling and payments, to advanced rule engines that identify reimbursement opportunities that were missed, to AI-powered automated medical coding solutions.”
Evolution Of R1’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Albert noted:
“Initially, R1 was primarily a services company, but over time technology has become an increasingly critical part of our value proposition. In the early days, the technology focus was primarily on workflow—moving work to the right person. Over time, the company evolved in several ways. It added patient-facing solutions for scheduling, registrations, and payments. It added technology that identifies additional reimbursement opportunities with machine learning. And today we are very focused on embedding AI into our solutions to achieve the next level of automation and patient satisfaction.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Albert about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We partner with 95 of the top 100 health systems across the country, and they rely on us to help them stay ahead of the curve so they can deliver the quality care and empowered experience their patients deserve. We recently completed a year-long joint project with a client to integrate our patient payments into their new patient portal and app. This is an incredibly important project from a patient experience perspective and for their leadership team. It was very complex and required collaboration across many vendors. It recently went live on time to excellent reviews, and the client is thrilled. This is exactly the kind of work that builds deep client relationships.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Albert affirmed:
“I would highlight three areas:
- We offer a technology portfolio of solutions that deliver financial performance, patient experience, and service quality that is highly differentiated.
- We operate at a much larger scale than our competitors with our own global workforce, made up of our own employees, rather than contractors.
- Since R1 acquired Cloudmed, we have the most complete portfolio of solutions across the client revenue cycle.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Albert pointed out:
“Our goal is to become the best technology-enabled platform in the industry. We have aggressive growth goals because we believe we have very compelling solutions to health systems and physician groups, many of whom are struggling financially. Our solutions improve client results, lower costs, and expand revenue, enabling them to focus on what they are best at, which is patient care.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Albert concluded:
“I believe there is a lot of runway for technology within healthcare, which will create better experiences for patients and providers, make people’s jobs easier, and lower the cost of care. There are some unique challenges, but I’m bullish on the potential and am excited to help R1 accelerate on that path.”
