Modeling revenue integrity success through collaboration

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Editor’s note: Stephanie Ellis, RN, BSN, COC, CHRI, CRCR, and Irene Sachakov, MBA, CHRI, CRCR, CHFP, CSBI, will present “Cross-Functional Collaboration: A Model for Revenue Integrity Success” on day one of the 2026 Revenue Integrity Symposium, which will take place September 24–25 in Savannah, Georgia. Ellis is the director of revenue performance and audit management at UChicago Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. Sachakov is the director of revenue integrity at Northeast Georgia Health in Gainesville, Georgia. Download the 2026 RIS brochure to learn more about the event! Use NAHRI’s justification letter template as a guide to gain your organization’s support for attending. Consider applying for the NAHRI Scholarship, which awards free registration to RIS (the application deadline is June 19).

Q: In what ways does your session challenge attendees to think outside the box?
Ellis and Sachakov: Our session challenges the traditional view of revenue integrity as a downstream auditing function. Instead, we position revenue integrity as a strategic, cross-functional infrastructure that connects clinical operations, coding, compliance, and finance. We push attendees to rethink ownership, moving away from siloed accountability toward shared responsibility across the care continuum. This includes embedding revenue integrity into clinical workflows, not just retrospectively reviewing them.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge in revenue integrity and/or revenue cycle right now? How does your session help tackle this?
Ellis and Sachakov: A common challenge across organizations is the gap in understanding the partnership needed between clinical departments and revenue integrity teams. Clinical staff often expect revenue cycle to fix billing issues, while revenue cycle teams may not fully grasp clinical workflows. True success requires collaboration and mutual understanding, not expecting one side to “fix” everything alone.

Q: What’s one of the key pieces of information you would like people to take away from your session?
Ellis and Sachakov: One of the key takeaways from our session is that revenue integrity is most effective when it is operationalized, not centralized. Sustainable improvement doesn’t come from downstream audits alone—it comes from embedding revenue integrity into everyday operations. That means building controls directly into clinical and operational workflows, creating real‑time feedback loops between teams, and establishing transparency across departments so issues are identified and corrected upstream.

Q: What are you most excited about for this year’s conference?

Ellis and Sachakov: We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with a proven revenue integrity subject matter expert in developing this session. Recognizing that each organization’s Revenue Integrity function varies in reporting structure and staffing, we understand the importance of implementing strategic measures that ensure accurate charge capture and reimbursement in a consistent and compliant manner. Bringing together clinical and revenue perspectives offers a unique and valuable approach, and we hope this collaboration will be equally engaging and insightful for our audience. Each year the sessions are more informative and more engaging. Each of the presenters brings expertise that they are willing to share to help elevate the profession and help organizations improve their revenue integrity processes. It is exciting to attend.

Q: What’s a great piece of advice you’ve received regarding revenue integrity and/or revenue cycle? Or, what advice do you like to give people about revenue integrity and/or revenue cycle?
Ellis and Sachakov: One of the most valuable pieces of advice is: “If you don’t define ownership, you’re accepting risk.” In revenue integrity, ambiguity is one of the greatest drivers of both compliance issues and revenue loss. The advice we share is: