With a revenue cycle that is measured by claims denials, collaborative data mining by billing and IT can identify origins of financial "bleeding" and turn these problems into actionable items, explain Beacon Partner experts Kevin Burchill, director; Sean McDonagh, practice director; and Ben Tobin, management consultant. Patient-friendly IT can also improve the patient experience on the front end while obtaining data to improve collections on the back end. This is a practice frequently employed by more financially robust providers. The three experts also debate the merits of offering patient discounts for prompt payment and placing patient credit reports in providers' hands. Burchill, McDonagh and Tobin, along with Beacon senior consultant Greg Adams and principal Phil Villacci, provided practical strategies, techniques and tools to improve patient collections without alienating patients during Improving Patient Collections in an Unhealthy Economy: Technologies and Processes to Speed Payments.