Customer Stories

Minnesota Urology's 'Pre-collection Powerhouse'

Written by Alexa Reimschussel | Aug 27, 2025 5:23:18 PM

“Rivet is easier to work than you’d think such a complex system would be. I am confident that we’re collecting more — and faster — because of Rivet.”

 

Ted Berndt has spent the last 19 years in healthcare, and the last 3 years at Minnesota Urology. He has held various positions at Minnesota Urology in patient access and scheduling. Ted is one of Minnesota Urology’s primary Rivet Patient Pricing users since Minnesota Urology started using Rivet in 2022.

Minnesota Urology wanted to enhance pre-collection efforts, but found even collecting copays can be difficult without a cohesive pre-collections strategy.

“Pre-collections only included copays at time of service, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t the whole story. Sometimes even copays would go unpaid. Not because our staff didn’t work hard, it was because pre-collection efforts weren’t streamlined,” Patient Services Supervisor Ted Berndt said.

Cost estimates were a goal for Minnesota Urology, but accuracy was a constant pain point when they created estimates in their practice.

“Creating cost estimates based on where a patient is at with their deductible and max out-of-pocket costs is a hassle at best; and that doesn’t even include the intricacies of reimbursement logic," Berndt said.

Now, Berndt says, they not only offer patient cost estimates, they can easily collect patient out-of-pocket costs.

“With Rivet, we have an accurate solution that takes into account how insurers will pay us so we actually know patient responsibility. And it’s fast, which is always a bonus."

To put speed into perspective, Minnesota Urology creates 200+ estimates each month using Rivet, on average, and that number does not account for all of their locations currently using Rivet since several new Minnesota Urology locations have since implemented Rivet in the past two years.

“We are collecting patient responsibility easily through Rivet and in our office. Patients have come to expect estimates and are honestly happy that they know what they’re getting into before the visit." 

Berndt continued: “Rivet is easier to work than you’d think such a complex system would be. I am confident that we’re collecting more — and faster — using Rivet.”

In fact, over $2.3M has been pre-collected through Rivet since 2022, and that's with gradual location adoption and does not include pre-collection accepted in office. 

"We can confidently ask for up-front payment through accurate cost estimates," Berndt said. "Patient payments are now so easy that we can spend our time and resources elsewhere.”

Berndt went on to describe what made Rivet so easy: “Location branding and estimate types are templated so it is easy to send estimates with the information we need and want. The estimates are clean and staff members can easily break down costs right from the estimate.”

With Rivet, Berndt said they now expect at least partial payment before or at time of service for every estimate created by his team for a total of $1.6M estimated patient responsibility in 2024.

“With Rivet, we have a tool we’re confident is accurate. We can notify patients of their expected cost and collect payment up front and that’s huge — it’s a pre-collection powerhouse.”

Learn more about Rivet's robust underpayment and denials tools now: Schedule a Rivet demo