How Ignite Medical Resorts Boosted Cash Flow and Billing Efficiency to Support Growth

Ignite Medical Resorts specializes in short-term rehabilitation and skilled nursing delivered in a concierge-like environment the company calls LuxeRehab. With clinical programming for orthopedics, stroke, cardiac, and respiratory care, the organization blends resort-style hospitality with high-quality medical services to help patients recover quickly and comfortably.

Since opening its first location in 2018, they’ve grown to more than 26 skilled nursing and rehabilitation sites and eight assisted living facilities across the country. But with their high-touch approach and rapid growth came a high-stakes challenge: keeping the revenue cycle running efficiently.

“We’ve grown quite a bit in the last six years,” said Emily Kopsias, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions. “Cash flow is everything.”

As the organization expanded, so did the complexity of its billing operations. They needed to reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and speed up claims processing – all without adding unnecessary overhead.

That’s when they turned to Inovalon.

Before using Inovalon’s solutions, revenue cycle operations at Ignite Medical Resorts were slowed by disconnected systems and manual data entry. Billers had to toggle between PointClickCare and external systems to manage claims, eligibility, and payer enrollment. It was time-consuming, error-prone, and unsustainable for a growing business.

“We needed integration – something that connected PointClickCare with a billing clearinghouse like Inovalon,” Kopsias explained. “Now, census data and billing flow automatically into Inovalon via the 837 billing electronic files. Our billers don’t have to go into separate systems.”

The impact was immediate. With PointClickCare integrated directly into Inovalon software, billers can generate UB-04 forms automatically and submit claims without rekeying data. On the back end, remits are fed directly into the system for easier reconciliation.

“We’re saving time on billing and cash entries, and we’re reducing errors,” Kopsias said. This integration also made a tangible difference in meeting tight billing timelines. “We have a five-day window to get our billing out. With PointClickCare and Inovalon, the data is readily available, and it gets submitted faster. That definitely impacts our cash flow.”

But even the best billing process starts with accurate insurance data – and for Ignite Medical Resorts, that begins with eligibility.

The financial risk of admitting a patient without accurate benefit information is high, especially in skilled nursing – making eligibility verification a critical part of the organization’s workflow. With Inovalon’s Eligibility Verification Pro™, Ignite Medical Resorts can confirm Medicare and managed care benefits both before admission and throughout a patient’s stay.

“We’re checking their Medicare benefits, managed care, the number of days used – it’s all tracked weekly.” Without confidence in that data, Kopsias explained, billing could collapse. “If you don’t know a patient’s payer or if their insurance terminated, you can’t bill, which results in a loss of revenue”

Having that data accessible through Inovalon gives the team certainty and helps them avoid costly delays.

Clean claims are critical to a healthy revenue cycle, and Inovalon’s Claims Management Pro™ makes it easier to get them out the door without delays or denials.

“Inovalon automatically reviews claims for any errors. It scrubs them by payer and sends them out,” said Kopsias. “We’re seeing 99% clean claims returned from the payers.”

Before Inovalon, the organization’s clean claim rate hovered between 75–80%. Today, it’s nearly perfect, which is a significant improvement for a business that bills millions of dollars monthly.

“We mostly use Claims Management Pro and Inovalon’s Claims Management Medicare Pro™ because we’re skilled nursing, and that’s where most of our billing is. It lets us get those claims out clean and quick,” she noted.

For Medicare claims, Inovalon’s direct connection to the DDE (Direct Data Entry) system proved to be another critical time-saver. “We can clean up claims without going into external programs. That’s huge. We also get cash projections and reporting errors right from the system.”

As Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Kopsias is no stranger to complexity. The organization frequently grows through CHOWs – Change of Ownership transitions – which can involve billing under both old and new ownership during the handoff period.

“Inovalon allows us to have multiple entities – old and new – which lets me bill under both owners per the operating agreement,” she explained. That capability is rare, Kopsias said, and has become essential to support the organization. “I think Inovalon is one of the only systems that allows me to do that,” she said. “This enables us to get that cash flow coming in in order to grow our business.”

She added that reporting capabilities in Claims Management Pro and Claims Management Medicare Pro are key to maintaining that flow: “I report a lot of information to our accounting department, our banks, our investors. And that information is readily available.”

For Kopsias and her team, Inovalon has become an indispensable part of the daily workflow. “There are two things I open every morning: PointClickCare and Inovalon,” she said. “I check the cash reports and request remits. That’s my job, every day.”

And it’s not just leadership relying on the software. “My staff are in it all day, every day. They send out the first round of billing, and Inovalon scrubs the claims, and tracks acknowledgments, rejections, and denials.”

Having the right partner enables more than a smoother process – it brings peace of mind. “The billers are comfortable with it. That makes a difference. The ease of the interface, the layout, the reporting – it all matters when you’re using it constantly,” Kopsias said.

Beyond the software, Kopsias credits the support from Inovalon’s team for understanding Ignite’s business and helping her optimize. “Our account rep knows our business and understands the CHOW process, the new sites, and how we operate.”

That understanding makes each implementation smoother and ensures that every new location is billing-ready from day one. After two decades using Inovalon, her confidence hasn’t wavered. “There are other systems out there, but they don’t do what Inovalon does. It’s how we grow. It’s how we keep moving. And we’re not changing that anytime soon.”