Almost four in ten adults in the United States say they are confused by their medical bills, and that confusion often turns into stress, delayed payments, and more phone calls for your staff to handle. When you add rising out of pocket costs and complex coverage rules, billing communication is no longer a side issue, it is a core part of access and trust for your patients.
If you run an outpatient clinic or therapy practice, you feel this in three places. First, access, patients who are worried about old balances may delay care. Second, throughput, staff who spend mornings sorting statements and fielding billing questions have less time to keep the schedule moving. Third, staff workload, a constant stream of billing calls erodes morale and increases the risk of turnover.
Patient statements automation sits right at that intersection. It turns what is usually a manual, error prone process into a predictable workflow that can support better access, steadier throughput, and less strain on the front desk. Platforms such as Solum Health position this kind of automation inside a broader AI front office, with a unified inbox and intake automation that connects directly to EHR and practice management systems and is built to show measurable time savings.
At its simplest, patient statements automation is a set of rules and tools that generate, send, and track patient billing statements without a staff member needing to touch every account. Instead of a person running a report, exporting data, and printing or emailing one by one, the system looks at the events that matter and decides when to send a statement.
Those events usually include a visit that is fully billed, insurance processing that leaves a patient balance, or a balance that has been sitting for a set number of days. The system then creates a statement with the amount due, service dates, insurance adjustments, prior payments, and clear payment options.
The key is consistency. Every patient sees the same structure and the same type of explanation. If your clinic also uses related tools such as automated payment plans or automating pre visit workflows, the statement becomes one part of a larger, coherent experience rather than a surprise document that arrives without context.
The mechanics vary by system, but most automations follow a similar pattern that you can map directly to your revenue cycle.
After a visit, your clinical and billing systems record charges, adjustments, and any payments already made. This is the raw data that will appear on the statement.
Automation logic checks whether the account meets specific criteria, for example, insurance adjudication complete, balance above a certain dollar amount, or a set number of days since the last statement. When the rule is met, the account is queued for a new statement.
The system creates a patient friendly statement using a standard template. The template is where you control layout, wording, and the level of detail. Many operations leaders pair this with a review of their overall solutions stack so that patient statements match the tone and terminology of pre visit intake and reminders.
Statements are sent using the channels your clinic supports, often a mix of mail, email, portal, and sometimes text, depending on consent and policy. The system logs delivery attempts and can record when a digital statement is viewed.
If the balance remains unpaid after a defined period, the automation triggers reminder statements. These can escalate in clarity while still staying respectful, for example, moving from a gentle nudge to a more direct notice of a past due balance.
Accounts that show repeated non payment, returned mail, or disputed balances are pushed into a queue for staff review. Automation is not there to remove your billing team, it is there to focus their effort on the accounts that really need human judgment.
If your clinic is already exploring an AI assisted front office, this same pattern of rules, unified inbox routing, and exception handling is described in more depth on the how it works page and across the glossary.
You do not need a full system overhaul to start. A measured rollout gives you fast feedback without overwhelming your team.
Write down each step from the moment a balance appears to the moment it is resolved or written off. Include who does what, which systems are involved, and where delays tend to appear. This gives you a baseline to compare against.
Before you automate anything, decide what a clear, concise statement looks like for your clinic. Borrow from guidance on improving the patient billing experience from national associations and from your own staff who hear complaints every week. This is also a good time to align language with the rest of your patient communication stack, including tools in your success stories and the broader AI front office.
Pick a simple rule such as, send a statement automatically when an insurance claim is fully processed and the patient balance is above a set threshold. Turn that on for one location or one specialty, then monitor carefully.
Work with your vendor to confirm how data flows between your financial system, your EHR, and your practice management platform. Teams that already use a unified inbox and intake automation layer like the one described on the why us page will often find that plumbing already in place.
Three simple measures go a long way. Time from balance creation to first statement, percentage of balances that are paid within a target window, and number of billing calls to the front desk per day. Track each before and after you enable automation.
Automation does not absolve staff from responsibility. Make sure your team knows which accounts the system will handle and which will still land on their desk. Document how to respond when a patient calls with questions about a new statement format.
A few missteps show up again and again when clinics turn on patient statements automation.
One is overcomplicated rules. If you maintain a tangle of conditions and exceptions, staff will not trust the system and will try to work around it. Start simple and expand only when the basics are reliable.
Another is ignoring the patient perspective. A fast automated statement that is hard to read can be worse than a slower manual one. Research on the patient billing experience highlights that clarity, not just speed, is what improves payment behavior and trust, so use plain language and consistent layout when you build templates.
A third is weak integration. If balances in your financial system do not match what staff see in the EHR, or if your AI front office pulls data from a different source entirely, confusion will rise. Align data sources first, then layer automation on top. If you need a reference point, the high level overview on the Solum Health home page and related articles in the blog and success stories sections describe how one integrated layer can sit on top of existing systems.
A complete automated statement should show the services provided, dates of service, the original charge, insurance payments or adjustments, prior payments by the patient, the remaining balance, and clear instructions for how and when to pay. Some clinics also add contact information for billing questions, which can reduce confusion and inbound calls.
Yes, when it is implemented correctly. Systems that handle patient statements must follow legal and regulatory standards for privacy and security, including strong access controls, audit logs, and encrypted storage and transmission where appropriate. It is your responsibility as an administrator to confirm that your vendor meets these expectations and to keep your own policies and training aligned.
No, it changes the mix of work. Automation takes over predictable, repetitive tasks such as running statement batches and sending reminders. Your billing team still handles disputes, complex payment plans, and patients who need tailored help. In many clinics, staff move from data entry toward higher value exception handling and patient support.
Clear and timely statements tend to increase payment rates, especially when patients understand what they owe and why. Research on patient financial experience shows that confusion is a major barrier to payment, and that more transparent billing communication can improve engagement with payment options. Automation is a tool that helps you deliver that clarity at scale.
Yes, most systems can support multiple statement channels, which might include paper, email, portal messages, or other digital options. You still need to collect and respect patient preferences, and you should test which mix of channels and reminders works best for your population.
If you want to make progress without a long planning cycle, you can move in three short phases.
First, define what a good statement looks like for your clinic. Draft a single template that your team agrees is clear, accurate, and respectful, then align it with the rest of your AI front office and intake experience as described across the solutions and glossary pages.
Second, select one automation rule, for example, post adjudication balances over a certain amount in one location, and work with your vendor to turn that rule on. Verify the integration path to your EHR and practice management systems, and monitor the first few statement cycles closely.
Third, review the results with your team. Look at payment timing, call volume, and staff workload. Use what you learn to adjust templates and rules, then plan a broader rollout that keeps your central aim in view, faster and clearer communication about what patients owe, so that your staff can spend more time on care and less time explaining bills.
