We recently attended the 2025 HBMA Innovation Conference, and wow, what an amazing experience it was! As attendees and proud sponsors, we got to meet tons of inspiring medical billing company owners and industry leaders, all eager to transform the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) landscape.
One of our favorite moments was seeing how much everyone loved the little notebooks we tucked into the event tote bags. Honestly, nothing beats seeing people genuinely enjoying something you've poured your heart into—it's the best feeling ever!
Now, onto the juicy stuff from the conference...
No surprises here: AI (and a bit of cybersecurity) was the talk of the town. Everyone seemed to either be building, selling, buying, or at least talking about AI.
Although at CombineHealth, we're also building some cool Generative AI solutions for RCM companies, we promise this isn't going to be another sales pitch or a super technical AI breakdown. Instead, let’s chat about some cool insights and practical takeaways we learned from the conference.
AI can boost your company’s value (for real!): Everyone talks about AI efficiency, but here's something even cooler—we spoke with a bunch of RCM owners who previously had valuations at about 1.2x their revenue, but thanks to AI integration, they're now aiming for valuations around 2-2.5x. Now that's smart leverage!
Not all AI is created equal (Hint: RPA ≠ AI): Pretty much every RCM company says they're using AI, but it comes in many flavors. Some are into RPA (think billing automation, a tech around for about 20 years now), others use predictive intelligence (popular since the 2010s), OCR (hit the mainstream around 2015-2016), NLP (2018-2019 tech), autonomous coding (brand new, about 2 years old), or even voice AI agents (the advanced kind are less than 2 years old). With so many different levels of AI, everyone’s on the AI train—but with varying degrees of success, challenges, and benefits.
AI is your partner, not your replacement: Despite flashy headlines, the most successful companies are those that combine human expertise with AI in smart ways. This combo is highly personal and depends on how your business runs. Finding the perfect marriage between human know-how and AI is where the real magic (and value) happens.