RCM Connections - Level Up Gamification Transforms Patient Access Teams
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INSIGHTS AND INNOVATION - JUNE 2026

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This issue is brought to you by Abax Health - Transforming Patient Access through AI-powered technology and operational expertise.
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FEATURED PRESENTATION - NAHAM 2026 - INNOVATIVE ACCESS
Level Up: Gamification Transforms Patient Access Teams
Presented at NAHAM 2026 Annual Conference - Chicago

CO-PRESENTER
Ryan Riddle
VP Patient Access - CHRISTUS Health
CO-PRESENTER
Shawn Landin
SVP Operations - Abax Health
 
This issue of RCM Connections features two industry leaders driving innovation in Patient Access: Ryan Riddle from CHRISTUS Health and Shawn Landin from Abax Health. From their recent presentation, we will learn how organizations can leverage gamification, AI-driven visibility, and behavior coaching within patient access teams to increase engagement, quality, efficiency, and performance.
The key to this presentation is its practicality. These are not concepts, but results of operational experience and innovative leadership that have driven both CHRISTUS Health and Abax Health to transform the future of Revenue Cycle.

 
THE CHALLENGE
Patient Access Is Under Pressure - and Traditional Supervision Is Breaking
Patient access teams across the country face a confluence of pressures that are not going away: rising call and scheduling volumes, staffing shortages, burnout-driven turnover, increasingly complex payer friction, and growing accountability from leadership. The result is a workforce doing highly consequential work - a missed prior authorization means lost revenue; a scheduling error means patient leakage - while feeling like the work is invisible and repetitive.
Compounding this is what Ryan Riddle and Shawn Landin called the Supervisor Capacity Ceiling: the traditional 15:1 staff-to-supervisor ratio was already strained, and manually coaching distributed teams at scale has become simply impossible. Leaders needed a new model.
"Gamification is not childish - it's behavior design. People repeat what gets rewarded."
 
THE FRAMEWORK
A 4-Part Gamification System
The solution Abax Health and CHRISTUS Health developed and piloted centers on four interlocking components. Together, these shift the dynamic from reactive management to proactive engagement - employees see their performance in real time and are intrinsically motivated to improve, reducing the supervisory burden while improving outcomes.
 
SCORING
Sample Productivity Scoring
Completed auth submission +10 pts
Verified insurance +3 pts
Rescheduled within 24 hrs +5 pts
Incomplete documentation -5 pts
 
QUALITY FIRST
Speed Without Quality Produces Poor Results
A key design principle of the Abax Health approach is ensuring gamification rewards quality alongside productivity. Metrics tracked include QA pass rate, documentation completeness, payer rule compliance, and scheduling accuracy. Leaderboards are designed to celebrate improvement - not just top performers - and are structured by role and team to ensure fair comparison.
Abax Health's AI-powered platform extends quality review capacity in ways no human supervisor team could: auto-flagging missing clinical documentation, identifying repeated error patterns by individual team member, and detecting payer-specific compliance gaps before they become denials. The shift is profound - from manager oversight to system coaching.
 
PILOT RESULTS
What Happened at CHRISTUS Insight Scheduling

BEFORE GAMIFICATION
The CHRISTUS Insight Scheduling team showed wide variation in call average handle time, with no clear communicated expectations, no performance visualization, and no structured support for team members who struggled.
AFTER IMPLEMENTATION
The team established target talk times optimizing both quality and efficiency, deployed individual performance dashboards, and created peer-to-peer cross-training pathways. Overall performance improved measurably - and engagement followed.
 
IMPLEMENTATION
90-Day Roadmap
1
 Define behaviors and metrics that matter most to your operation
2
 Build a scoring model with input from frontline staff
3
 Launch with a pilot team and measure baseline vs. results
4
 Refine rules based on unintended behaviors or equity gaps
5
 Expand across teams and sustain with quarterly recognitions
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What We Learned
Gamification - when designed thoughtfully - drives consistent, self-directed productivity behaviors without relying on manual oversight.
 
AI-powered dashboards give both staff and supervisors real-time visibility, transforming management into scalable system coaching.
 
Quality must be weighted alongside speed; scoring that rewards only volume creates dangerous shortcuts.
 
Recognition - peer kudos, "Denial Prevention Hero" award, "Patient Access MVP" - is one of the most cost-effective retention tools available.
 
With the right infrastructure, the 15:1 supervision ceiling can be broken - supporting larger, more engaged, better-performing teams.
 
Guardrails matter: HR and legal review, equity checks across shifts, and protections for psychological safety are non-negotiable elements of any implementation.
 
ABOUT ABAX HEALTH
Abax Health partners with health systems to optimize patient access operations through AI-powered technology and operational expertise. The platform provides real-time performance visibility, gamification tools, and quality analytics designed to improve team engagement, reduce denials, and scale supervisory capacity.
Learn More at abaxhealth.com
 
Thank you to Ryan Riddle and CHRISTUS Health, and to Shawn Landin and the Abax Health team, for sharing this important discussion with our RCM CommUnity.
We appreciate the opportunity to continue highlighting the conversations, leadership, and ideas helping move Revenue Cycle forward.
And as always, We Will See You Online.
J
 
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Revenue Cycle Leadership Changes | First Two Weeks of May 2026