5 Ways Straight Through Processing Fixes Healthcare Cash Flow Fast
When margins are thin and more revenue depends on patient responsibility , you can’t afford to wait 60–90 days for cash that’s already been approved.
CSG Forte’s Straight Through Processing (STP) turns mailed virtual cards and manual keying into next-day deposits with clean remittance data—without ripping out your EHR or practice management systems.
Here are 5 key points healthcare finance leaders need to know.
1. Traditional virtual card workflows are “digital” in name only
Payers mail virtual card letters to your practice or lockbox.
Staff open envelopes, key card numbers into terminals, and chase remits across systems.
Deposits and reconciliation can lag weeks or months behind approval.
2. Your payer mix may look familiar on paper, but the cash story has changed
High-deductible plans shift more of each encounter to the patient.
Patient-owed balances are harder to predict, harder to collect, and more likely to be written off.
That makes every predictable insurer dollar more important.
3. Mail-based virtual card workflows eat up time you don’t have
Opening and sorting envelopes.
Keying card numbers into terminals and systems.
Manually matching deposits and remittances days or weeks later.
4. Every mailed card is another exposure point
Intercepted letters and stolen card details.
Card testing fraud on exposed numbers.
Misapplied or lost payments that never reach your operating account.
5. Many “automation” initiatives stall because
They require invasive changes to core systems.
Payers can’t keep their existing adjudication processes and virtual card models.
Modern healthcare organizations can’t leave cash flow to chance
Not with:
Thin margins and uneven recovery.
Rising patient responsibility and falling collection rates.
Tight labor markets in revenue cycle and billing.
Existing HR, practice management, and RCM systems aren’t compatible.