Kansas rural hospital went from $0 to $352K digital collections with Phreesia

The problem

Before Phreesia, Ellinwood Hospital & Clinic was not collecting copays at the time of service, and after discontinuing its previous online payment system due to security concerns, patients had spent nearly two years paying primarily by check or in person.

The challenges extended beyond payments. Intake was still highly manual, with paper forms and downstream scanning, and after-hours clinic calls rolled to the ER. For a hospital working to keep up with patient expectations and limited staff resources, adopting Phreesia also meant creating a better patient experience, a more efficient intake process and a simpler way to communicate.

The need

Ellinwood needed a way to increase digital collections, collect more money up front, improve the patient experience and reduce the manual work tied to intake and communication.

The solution

Ellinwood first learned about Phreesia through an employee who used the platform as a patient at another regional provider and saw its benefits firsthand. That recommendation, combined with the need to improve collections, helped move the project forward.

With Phreesia, Ellinwood restored secure digital payment options, giving patients more convenient ways to pay before, during and after visits. The hospital could now offer the kind of flexibility patients increasingly expect, while also creating a more consistent process for collecting copays and balances earlier in the visit journey.

“It opens the door for collection of money up front that we never had before,” Moore said.

The impact was immediate. In a single month, Ellinwood collected $59,551 across 351 digital transactions. Over six months, that momentum added up to $352K in digital collections — $317K collected after the visit. Patients are now 4.5x more likely to pay through Phreesia’s digital tools than through staff-assisted collection.

Phreesia also helped the hospital create more structure around payment plans. Instead of relying on inconsistent arrangements, Ellinwood could offer self-service payment plans that let patients choose an amount and schedule that worked for them, making it easier to get paid with more flexibility and compassion.

As collections improved, Ellinwood expanded its use of Phreesia across the organization. Digital intake helped reduce paperwork, streamline registration and create a more consistent experience for patients and staff. Self-service check-in reached 83%, even with a patient population that is roughly 75% Medicare.

Phreesia also improved patient communication. With Phreesia OnCall, staff began replacing phone tag with secure messaging for follow-up instructions, post-op outreach and routine results communication.

“The ability to securely text patients is way more important than I imagined,” Moore said.

For Ellinwood, Phreesia helped create a new standard: stronger digital collections, a more efficient intake process and better patient communication.