SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 8, 2026--
XiFin, Inc., a leader in revenue cycle management (RCM), including billing solutions enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI), announced that it has been ranked the #1 client-rated RCM partner for cross-ancillary and outpatient laboratory services for the seventh consecutive year in Black Book Market Research’s 2025 RCM Outsourcing Survey. XiFin also earned the #1 ranking in outpatient radiology and diagnostic imaging RCM for the second consecutive year, reflecting continued momentum across high-complexity diagnostic services.
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The 2025 survey incorporated validated feedback from 3,275 healthcare executives, revenue cycle leaders, and clinical operations professionals, evaluating vendor performance across 18 operational, technology, and service-delivery criteria that impact reimbursement, compliance, and financial sustainability.
How Black Book Findings Reinforce Market Realities
The 2025 Black Book RCM Outsourcing Survey highlights how industry conditions are influencing provider expectations and vendor performance. The report emphasizes the growing importance of AI-enabled denial prevention, documentation intelligence, and proactive adjudication management that work directly with clinical and financial workflows.
Black Book’s analysis reinforces that leading RCM platforms are distinguished by their ability to orchestrate multiple forms of AI to remove manual work from customers’ billing processes. Minimizing the human intervention required to manage RCM documentation and correspondence, address prior authorizations, work complex denials, and create detailed appeal packages represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the positive impacts that generative AI and Agentic AI can have on claim processing.
AI-Driven RCM as Core Infrastructure
XiFin was recognized for utilizing AI across the revenue cycle to help healthcare providers improve first-pass clean claims, accelerate cash flow, and reduce administrative burden. XiFin’s AI-driven RCM capabilities support laboratories, radiology groups, pharmacies, medical device organizations, and other outpatient service providers by:
These capabilities enable providers to address reimbursement risk and preventable denials proactively, improving yields.
Executive Perspectives
“I’m proud that providers across laboratories, imaging, and other outpatient services continue to recognize XiFin as their top RCM partner,” said Kyle Fetter, COO of XiFin. “As payor requirements, authorization complexity, and patient-pay expectations intensify, our investment in AI that operates within and beyond RCM workflows—including machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI—helps clients move denial prevention and financial accuracy upstream. The #1 ranking in laboratory, ancillary services, and radiology reflects our commitment to continuous innovation, broadening of expertise, measurable performance, trust, and ultimately long-term value for our customers.”
“XiFin’s sustained performance in the 2025 survey reflects its ability to support providers through significant reimbursement and operational change,” said Doug Brown, President of Black Book Research. “As denial prevention and front-end policy management become central to outpatient RCM success, organizations are prioritizing partners that combine AI and other advanced automation, interoperability, and strong client experience. XiFin’s continued leadership across diagnostic services underscores that strength.”
XiFin Ranked #1 Across Critical RCM Performance Categories
In the 2025 survey, XiFin earned #1 rankings in 10 of Black Book’s 18 key performance indicators, including:
These results demonstrate XiFin’s ability to deliver both advanced AI-driven technology and high-quality service execution across laboratory, radiology, and cross-ancillary RCM environments. To learn more about how XiFin’s AI-driven RCM platform helps diagnostic providers improve financial performance outcomes and reduce administrative burden, visit www.xifin.com.
About XiFin
XiFin is a healthcare information technology company that empowers organizations to navigate an evolving and increasingly complex healthcare landscape. The XiFin Empower platform orchestrates a variety of AI-enabled technologies and services to deliver enhanced operational efficiency, increased productivity and workflow automation. Our comprehensive set of solutions – spanning revenue cycle management, clinical workflow enablement, laboratory information systems, and patient engagement – provides healthcare organizations with the tools they need to achieve financial strength, optimize operations, and implement industry-leading strategies. XiFin Empower solutions deliver THE POWER TO DO GOOD ® so that healthcare organizations can do more good for more patients. Visit www.XiFin.com, follow XiFin on LinkedIn, or subscribe to the XiFin blog to learn more.
About Black Book™
Black Book Market Research LLC provides unbiased data and rankings to healthcare IT buyers, media, and investors, delivering independent vendor performance evaluations across technology and outsourced services. With over 3.5 million validated survey viewpoints gathered since 2011, Black Book remains the healthcare industry's largest and most respected customer experience poll. Laboratory stakeholders can download gratis State of the Laboratory Information Systems insight reports also at https://blackbookmarketresearch.com/the-2026-black-book-report-of-the-state-of-healthcare-laboratory-it-solutions. Follow @blackbookpolls on Twitter and Black Book Market Research LLC on LinkedIn for the latest findings.
For the seventh consecutive year, XiFin RCM Solutions has earned the top ranking in Diagnostic and Ancillary Services and, for the second year running, is recognized as No. 1 in Radiology.
A quarterback reportedly reneging on a lucrative deal to hit the transfer portal, only to return to his original school. Another starting QB, this one in the College Football Playoff, awaiting approval from the NCAA to play next season, an expensive NIL deal apparently hanging in the balance. A defensive star, sued by his former school after transferring, filing a lawsuit of his own.
It is easy to see why many observers say things are a mess in college football even amid a highly compelling postseason.
“It gets crazier and crazier. It really, really does,” said Sam Ehrlich, a Boise State legal studies professor who tracks litigation against the NCAA. He said he might have to add a new section for litigation against the NCAA stemming just from transfer portal issues.
“I think a guy signing a contract and then immediately deciding he wants to go to another school, that’s a kind of a new thing,” he said. “Not new kind of historically when you think about all the contract jumping that was going on in the ’60s and ’70s with the NBA. But it’s a new thing for college sports, that’s for sure.”
Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. said late Thursday he will return to school for the 2026 season rather than enter the transfer portal, avoiding a potentially messy dispute amid reports the Huskers were prepared to pursue legal options to enforce Williams’ name, image and likeness contract.
Edge rusher Damon Wilson is looking to transfer after one season at Missouri, having been sued for damages by Georgia over his decision to leave the Bulldogs. He has countersued.
Then there is Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who reportedly has a new NIL deal signed but is awaiting an NCAA waiver allowing him to play another season as he and the Rebels played Thursday night's Collge Football Playoff semifinal against Miami. On the Hurricanes roster: Defensive back Xavier Lucas, whose transfer from Wisconsin led to a lawsuit against the Hurricanes last year with the Badgers claiming he was improperly lured by NIL money. Lucas has played all season for Miami. The case is pending.
Court rulings have favored athletes of late, winning them not just millions in compensation but the ability to play immediately after transferring rather than have to sit out a year as once was the case. They can also discuss specific NIL compensation with schools and boosters before enrolling and current court battles include players seeking to play longer without lower-college seasons counting against their eligibility and ability to land NIL money while doing it.
Ehrlich compared the situation to the labor upheaval professional leagues went through before finally settling on collective bargaining, which has been looked at as a potential solution by some in college sports over the past year. Athletes.org, a players association for college athletes, recently offered a 38-page proposal of what a labor deal could look like.
“I think NCAA is concerned, and rightfully so, that anything they try to do to tamp down this on their end is going to get shut down,” Ehrlich said. “Which is why really the only two solutions at this point are an act of Congress, which feels like an act of God at this point, or potentially collective bargaining, which has its own major, major challenges and roadblocks.”
The NCAA has been lobbying for years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over the new landscape — and to avoid more crippling lawsuits — but bills have gone nowhere in Congress.
Collective bargaining is complicated and universities have long balked at the idea that their athletes are employees in some way. Schools would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation. And while private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state; virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.
Ehrlich noted the short careers for college athletes and wondered whether a union for collective bargaining is even possible.
To sports attorney Mit Winter, employment contracts may be the simplest solution.
“This isn’t something that’s novel to college sports,” said Winter, a former college basketball player who is now a sports attorney with Kennyhertz Perry. “Employment contracts are a huge part of college sports, it’s just novel for the athletes.”
Employment contracts for players could be written like those for coaches, he suggested, which would offer buyouts and prevent players from using the portal as a revolving door.
“The contracts that schools are entering into with athletes now, they can be enforced, but they cannot keep an athlete out of school because they’re not signing employment contracts where the school is getting the right to have the athlete play football for their school or basketball or whatever sport it is,” Winter said. “They’re just acquiring the right to be able to use the athlete’s NIL rights in various ways. So, a NIL agreement is not going to stop an athlete from transferring or going to play whatever sport it is that he or she plays at another school.”
There are challenges here, too, of course: Should all college athletes be treated as employees or just those in revenue-producing sports? Can all injured athletes seek workers' compensation and insurance protection? Could states start taxing athlete NIL earnings?
Winter noted a pending federal case against the NCAA could allow for athletes to be treated as employees more than they currently are.
“What’s going on in college athletics now is trying to create this new novel system where the athletes are basically treated like employees, look like employees, but we don’t want to call them employees,” Winter said. “We want to call them something else and say they’re not being paid for athletic services. They’re being paid for use of their NIL. So, then it creates new legal issues that have to be hashed out and addressed, which results in a bumpy and chaotic system when you’re trying to kind of create it from scratch.”
He said employment contracts would allow for uniform rules, including how many schools an athlete can go to or if the athlete can go to another school when the deal is up. That could also lead to the need for collective bargaining.
“If the goal is to keep someone at a school for a certain defined period of time, it’s got to be employment contracts,” Winter said.
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Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (6) runs the ball during the second half of the Fiesta Bowl NCAA college football playoff semifinal game against Miami, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
