Challenge
Before Athelas
- Homegrown EHR and billing software with no practical path to AI
- Payers automating claim review while paperwork and prior authorization requirements continued to grow
- Claims taking 14 to 21 days to adjudicate
- First-pass rates of approximately 92% to 95% masking untracked resubmissions and unrecovered revenue
- Denial trends lacking the visibility needed to prevent recurring errors
- Documentation spilling into lunch breaks and evenings for clinicians
- Patient financial responsibility being difficult to communicate and collect consistently
- Front-desk teams spending significant time on paperwork, scanning, faxing, scheduling, and patient check-in
- New-patient intake requiring patients and staff to navigate a more cumbersome process
Solution
After Athelas
A Deliberate Transition to Athelas
Oxford did not move to a new platform overnight. The practice initially tested Athelas Scribe and spent roughly six months using it before expanding into the broader ecosystem. The overall trial period lasted approximately nine months before Oxford moved to the full platform.
The rollout was deliberately staged, with workflow validation, training materials, and implementation support before launch. At go-live, the Athelas team spent two days onsite at each of Oxford's 11 locations.
Matt Ernst noted that Oxford had launched multiple EHR systems over his career, but this implementation stood apart.
“We've launched three different EHR systems over my 20 years and this was by far the smoothest launch we've ever had.”
— Matt Ernst, PT, MPT, OCS, COMT, CIDN, Partner
The staged approach also helped bring clinicians and front-desk staff along. While there was some initial hesitation around adopting new technology, the practical benefits became apparent quickly. Within the organization, Scribe adoption became largely organic: clinicians began asking for access after seeing how much time it saved their colleagues.
After Athelas: Revenue Cycle
Most claims now reach payers within approximately two days of the date of service, compared with the previous 14-to-21-day cycle. Oxford reports that claims are now coming back from insurance in roughly eight days on average.
The final denial rate after resubmission and appeal is approximately 0.5%, while more than $250,000 in previously missed revenue has been recovered through resubmitting claims that otherwise would have been lost.
“We've been able to take that 3% and resubmit it and capture over $250,000 that we previously would have missed.”
The system also gives Oxford greater visibility into claim status and denial patterns. Instead of treating each denial as an isolated event, the billing team can identify recurring causes, correct claims, and put processes in place to reduce future denials.
The result is a revenue cycle that is both faster and more measurable.
Revenue Cycle Results
- ~0.5% final denial rate after resubmission and appeal
- >$250,000 in previously missed revenue recovered
- ~97% first-pass claim rate
- ~2 days average time to submit claims
- ~8 days current claims turnaround/adjudication
- 14–21 days previous claims turnaround
- ~13% reduction in prior-authorization losses/write-offs in one month
- ~5% increase in overall collections year over year
- +$6 net revenue per visit year over year
Matt Ernst summarized the year-over-year change: “When we looked year over year at a six month period from last year to this year, we're $6 higher net revenue per visit. We're almost 5% higher on our overall collections.”
Lower Administrative Costs
By automating more of the revenue cycle and administrative workflow, Oxford has reduced administrative labor costs by approximately 40%.
That reduction does not represent simply doing less work. Oxford has been able to reallocate administrative capacity across the organization while giving staff more streamlined workflows.
For the front desk, the changes include electronic forms, automated patient reminders, online scheduling, kiosk check-in, automated insurance and financial-responsibility information, and AI-assisted fax processing.
Julia Kordenbrock, Assistant Front Desk Manager, described the difference:
“You have more time to talk with the patients when they're coming in and checking in.”
Patients can complete paperwork electronically before arrival, upload insurance information, schedule appointments online, receive automated reminders, and check in through a kiosk when they arrive.
The result is less scanning, fewer manual steps, and less time spent tracking down information.
Better Patient Collections and Fewer Surprises
Oxford also changed how it handles patient financial responsibility.
Rather than allowing balances to accumulate until the end of a patient's treatment, the practice can identify expected responsibility and collect applicable copays, deductibles, coinsurance, and balances closer to the time of service.
Julia explained, “We collect payments at the time of service, whatever that may be. And so then they have less of an amount due at the end of their treatment.”
Patients receive clearer information about what they owe, while the front desk spends less time manually managing collections.
The kiosk and automated workflows also make check-in more self-service. Patients can confirm their identity, check in, keep a card on file, and make payments without waiting for a staff member to complete every step.
Faster Referral and Scheduling Workflows
The front desk has also gained a more centralized way to manage new-patient leads.
The lead tracker consolidates information from referrals, website scheduling, and other incoming sources so staff can see the information they need to contact and schedule patients without repeatedly tracking it down.
Online self-scheduling also means patients can book appointments outside normal front-desk hours. The combination of online scheduling, automated reminders, electronic paperwork, and the lead tracker reduces friction between a patient's initial referral and their first appointment.
Clinical Documentation: Giving Time Back to Therapists
The clinical impact is just as visible.Charley Meade has been with Oxford for 15 years and has spent approximately 12 years in a leadership and clinic-management role. He was among the clinicians who initially tested Scribe.
Before Athelas, he estimated spending two to two and a half hours each day documenting.
After adopting Athelas, that fell to at most approximately 45 minutes.
That represents roughly 1.5 hours returned per day, or approximately eight hours per week.
“I'm probably saving myself eight hours a week in terms of documentation time… I'm spent either treating patients or doing what I want to do after work.”
The change is not simply about speed. Charley says the reduced documentation burden allows him to focus more directly on patient care and staff development. He also reports being able to see approximately two additional patients per day without feeling the same documentation burden.
Across the practice, the operational data shows an increase of approximately one additional visit per provider, per day.
More Time With Patients
The clinical workflow is designed to keep providers engaged with patients rather than dividing their attention between conversation and documentation.
Rob Schwab described the difference between manually documenting during the patient relationship and using Ambient AI:
“The easiest thing for me is that I don't have something in front of me that I have to put something down and try to talk to my patient and type it, so they know that I'm fully engaged in what they're there for, and I'm listening to them.”
Charley described the broader impact similarly. “More time doing what I love, which is treating patients, and less time thinking about and figuring out how I'm going to write down or document what they've just told me.”
For Oxford, that time has also become part of the practice's recruiting story.
The practice has hired three new physical therapists who specifically wanted to work at Oxford because of the AI documentation workflow. Students and new clinicians can experience a documentation process where the technology captures the encounter while they focus on patient care.
“I was about to leave outpatient physical therapy because I was burned out and I couldn't take it anymore. And he said, ‘Now I remember why I got into this and it's fun again and I love it.’”
— Matt Ernst, PT, MPT, OCS, COMT, CIDN, Partner
Better Documentation, Not Just Faster Documentation
Oxford's clinicians also report improvements in the completeness and consistency of their notes.
Charley noted that information he might previously have forgotten, omitted, or captured imperfectly is now incorporated into the documentation.
The system also gives clinicians access to functional outcome measures within the evaluation workflow, allowing them to compare patient scores over time and incorporate those measurements into their assessment of progress.
The result is a documentation process that Oxford describes as both faster and more comprehensive.
A More Connected Front Desk
The operational improvements extend into the patient experience. Julia Kordenbrock has worked at Oxford for approximately nine years and has spent roughly seven and a half to eight years as Assistant Front Desk Manager.
Before Athelas, the front desk dealt with challenges around patient portals, new-patient paperwork, collections, scanning, faxing, and scheduling.
Today, patients can complete forms electronically and receive automated text and email reminders. The kiosk reduces check-in friction. AI-assisted fax processing reduces manual scanning and routing, and the lead tracker centralizes referral information.
The front desk can also see more financial information in real time, helping staff collect copays, deductibles, coinsurance, and balances more consistently. Julia says the transition was initially a learning curve for patients, but that the experience has become smoother as they have become accustomed to the new workflows. “I think for them it's a lot smoother and they can just get in here and they can get started on their physical therapy, which is why they're here.”
Result
Key Improvements
Operational Results at a Glance
Built to Support the Next Stage of Growth
Oxford's adoption of Athelas has moved beyond a documentation project or billing-system replacement. The practice now uses the platform across clinical documentation, revenue cycle management, front-desk workflows, patient communication, scheduling, collections, and authorization management.
That broader infrastructure matters as Oxford plans for its next stage of growth.
The practice has 11 locations today and a goal of doubling its company size within five years.
Matt Ernst believes the new infrastructure changes what is operationally possible:
“We have 11 locations across the city and our goal is to double our company size in the next five years. I can confidently say, I believe that's possible now before instituting Athelas and the AIR system. I don't know that we would have had that capability.”
For Oxford, the value of the platform is ultimately measured in more than claims and collections. It is measured in time returned to clinicians, administrative work removed from staff, fewer financial surprises for patients, and the capacity to grow without simply adding more operational complexity.
As Charley Meade put it, “Athelas has allowed us to be able to gain our time back, improve the care we're able to provide to patients, and lessen the burden from an administrative standpoint on our staff and improve efficiency overall.”
The Bottom Line
Oxford Physical Therapy spent years building and maintaining its own software infrastructure. Rather than layering more manual processes onto that system, the practice took a deliberate approach to evaluating AI, testing seven solutions before selecting Athelas and starting with a focused Scribe rollout.
The results now span the practice:
- More than $250,000 in previously missed revenue recovered
- Final denials reduced to approximately 0.5%
- Claims submitted in approximately two days, compared with a previous 14-to-21-day cycle
- Claims returning from insurance in approximately eight days
- Approximately 40% lower administrative labor costs
- Approximately $6 more net revenue per visit
- Approximately 5% higher overall collections
- Approximately one additional visit per provider per day
- Up to eight hours per week returned to clinicians like Charley Meade
- More automated scheduling, check-in, collections, referrals, and patient communication
- Three new physical therapists recruited in part because of the AI documentation experience
- A five-year extension signed with Athelas
For Oxford, the transformation is not simply about replacing an EHR or automating documentation. It is about connecting the clinical, financial, administrative, and patient sides of the practice on infrastructure designed for AI.
“A day at Oxford before Athelas was full of charts and papers and chaos, and now we have an organized system using Scribe and using the AI and Air solutions, where everything is smooth, our providers are done with notes early, and they go home happy.”
— Matt Ernst, PT, MPT, OCS, COMT, CIDN, Partner
Ready to see what an AI-native platform could change across your practice? Schedule a demo with Athelas, powered by Commure, today.
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