Reducing Accounts Receivable (AR) While Building a Resilient, Consistent Billing Function

Overview

Waukesha County Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) serves more than 50,000 Wisconsin residents each year through a wide range of behavioral health and human services programs. To support its mission while navigating increasing billing complexity and ongoing workforce challenges, the county engaged with Netsmart on Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) services to strengthen revenue cycle operations and maximize the value of existing technology investments.

Addressing Staff Retention

Staffing challenges within public sector agencies can often lead to frequent onboarding and retraining, slowed revenue cycle operations, claim denials, billing delays and a growing backlog of aging accounts receivable (AR). Like many public sector agencies, Waukesha County HHS strove to maintain consistent billing expertise while simultaneously combatting staff turnover. For Waukesha County HHS, having strong, consistent RCM resources that could thoroughly review older claims and determine which balances could still be recovered was a huge priority. Gaining a stable, reliable workforce was the must-have goal, but difficult to achieve without the right relationship. That’s where the Netsmart RCM services team stepped in.

The Financial Impact of Reliable, Trusted RCM Resources

An unmatched advantage to the RCM services relationship has been tapping into the availability of Netsmart RCM specialists. Bi-weekly meetings take place between Waukesha County and the Netsmart RCM team that focus on RCM key performance indicators (KPIs) and outstanding claims. The mix of strategic, performance-driven conversations and day-to-day operational needs helps keep the billing function running smoothly. These scheduled interactions also allow Waukesha County HHS team members a second set of resources to determine what’s impacting claims and repayments, often leading to course corrections.

Netsmart RCM specialists have quickly proven themselves to be a reliable extension of the Waukesha County HHS team. This trust and expertise is a critical element to maintaining the financial foundation of a behavioral health agency serving tens of thousands of individuals. Working with an experienced RCM team on a regular basis helps mitigate financial surprises and ultimately sets agencies like Waukesha County HHS up to continue providing meaningful services in their community.

Outcomes Driven by Trusted RCM Expertise:

Reimagining RCM Workflows for Greater Efficiency and Standardization

In addition to driving strong financial performance, the Netsmart RCM Services team worked alongside Waukesha County to evaluate existing billing workflows and introduce a more standardized approach to revenue cycle management. Together, the teams transformed operations to restructure billing responsibilities, improve denial management reporting and optimize how the county uses myAvatar® to support daily operations.

"Working with the Netsmart RCM team gave us the ability to re-look at how we were doing things and dig into how we can make processes more efficient,” said Randy Setzer, Administrative Services Manager.

The RCM services engagement also helped Waukesha County HHS better leverage capabilities already available within myAvatar. By increasing billing frequency, improving denial tracking and adopting the AR Console as a central communication tool, the organization established a more proactive revenue cycle process.

The communication we have with the billing staff at Netsmart feels like they're an extension of us. We've had a very collaborative relationship."

- Randy Setzer, Administrative Services Manager, Waukesha County Department of Health & Human Services

^*As of June 2026; based on data gathered from inpatient (Nov. 2023 – June 2026) and outpatient (Sept. 2024 – June 2026) combined.