Case Study: Syracuse Community Health Center achieves 20% higher net collections and faster payments with NextGen Healthcare

Syracuse Community Health Center Reenergizes Its Financial Foundation

Syracuse Community Health Center is a federally qualified health center serving more than 34,000 patients across Greater Syracuse and Onondaga County, NY, with a mission to provide care to all regardless of ability to pay. Serving a largely low‑income population (about 85% on Medicaid), the center relied on manual, paper-based billing and needed to modernize its administrative and financial systems to sustain community-based care and improve revenue performance.

The center implemented NextGen Enterprise EHR and PM, partnered with NextGen RCM Services, and added the NextGen Charge Review Rules Engine, paired with focused training and leadership-driven full electronic adoption. Results included faster cash flow (net payment lag reduced to 16 days), roughly 20% improvement in net collections over 12 months, a >20% decline in total A/R days (insurance A/R averaging 26 days), and about a 10% reduction in gross denials, plus improved compliance and streamlined support for COVID testing and vaccine operations.

Syracuse Community Health Center

Carol Jones

Billing Manager