Conditional discovery paths that branch by ownership and Kipu status. What to ask and when.
Most discovery call templates are linear. Question 1, Question 2, Question 3. They assume every prospect is the same shape. They're not. A PE-backed COO who manages 6 residential facilities has fundamentally different pain points than a nonprofit ED running a single PHP program on Medicaid reimbursement.
This template is conditional. The questions you ask in minute 5 depend on the answers you got in minute 2. The follow-ups branch based on ownership structure, Kipu customer status, payer mix, and clinical documentation maturity. You don't need to memorize all paths. You need to know which branch you're on.
The goal of deep discovery isn't to fill out a form. It's to understand whether this prospect has a problem we can solve, whether they know they have it, and whether they're in a position to act on it. If the answer to all three is yes, you're qualified. If any is no, you know exactly where to invest or disengage.
These questions apply to every prospect regardless of archetype.
"Walk me through your organization. How many locations, what levels of care, and who owns the revenue cycle decision?"
Purpose: Establishes archetype, scale, and decision authority in one question. Listen for ownership clues.
"How does billing work today? In-house team, outsourced, or a mix?"
Purpose: Maps current workflow. Determines competitive displacement vs. greenfield.
"What prompted this conversation? Was there a specific event or is this exploratory?"
Purpose: Urgency calibration. Event-driven (denial spike, biller departure, audit) vs. exploratory has completely different timelines.
"What EMR are you running, and how integrated is your billing workflow with clinical documentation?"
Purpose: Kipu vs. non-Kipu immediately changes the conversation. Also reveals clinical-billing gap.
Based on answers to Phase 1, follow the appropriate branch.
Questions:
"What does your board expect from rev cycle performance this quarter?"
"How are you measuring billing performance across sites: is it centralized or per-facility?"
"When your biller misses a prior auth, how long until someone notices?"
"What's your current net days in A/R? Do you know the number by payer?"
"If I could show you a 15% denial rate reduction in 90 days, who else needs to be in that conversation?"
Listen For:
• Board pressure on specific financial metrics
• Multi-site inconsistency in billing processes
• Lack of visibility into denial root causes
• Third-party biller underperformance frustration
• M&A integration creating billing chaos
If they mention board reporting gaps, pivot to dashboard/visibility discussion.
Questions:
"How much of your personal time goes into billing oversight each week?"
"When's the last time you audited your biller's work? What did you find?"
"If your billing person left tomorrow, what happens?"
"Are you thinking about succession planning or a future sale? How clean is your financial data?"
"What's the biggest billing surprise you've had in the last year?"
Listen For:
• Personal stress around billing ("I lose sleep over it")
• Single point of failure in billing staff
• Surprise write-offs or unexpected denials
• Succession or sale considerations
• Distrust of current biller but no alternative
If they mention wanting to sell the facility, pivot to valuation readiness.
Questions:
"How does your billing data flow into your grant reporting?"
"When SAMHSA or your state agency asks for outcomes data tied to services billed, how long does that take to pull?"
"What percentage of your revenue comes from grants vs. insurance billing?"
"Has a billing issue ever jeopardized a grant renewal?"
"How does your board evaluate financial sustainability?"
Listen For:
• Manual reconciliation between billing and grant systems
• Fear of audit findings
• Board pressure on financial sustainability metrics
• Underbilling due to conservative compliance posture
• Staff wearing multiple hats (billing + clinical + admin)
If they mention audit anxiety, pivot to compliance documentation capabilities.
Questions:
"How does your BH division's revenue cycle fit within the broader hospital system?"
"Is BH billing handled by the same team as acute care, or is there a dedicated BH billing function?"
"What's the IT approval process for new clinical or financial systems?"
"How does your BH division's margin compare to other departments?"
"If we could improve BH revenue without requiring system-level EMR changes, who would champion that internally?"
Listen For:
• BH treated as afterthought in system priorities
• Acute care billing team struggling with BH complexity
• IT gatekeeping preventing BH-specific solutions
• BH division subsidized by other departments
• New BH expansion initiative needing financial justification
If IT is a blocker, identify the clinical champion who can build internal case.
Questions:
"Walk me through your dispensing documentation workflow. How does it connect to billing?"
"How confident is your compliance team about the next SAMHSA survey?"
"Are you tracking take-home dose authorizations in the same system as billing?"
"How are you handling state-by-state regulatory variations across your network?"
"What dispensing systems are you integrated with? ScriptPro? Omnicell? Manual?"
Listen For:
• Disconnected dispensing and billing systems
• Manual tracking of take-home dose authorizations
• State regulatory variation causing workflow inconsistency
• SAMHSA survey anxiety
• Medicaid reimbursement delays specific to OTP services
If dispensing documentation is disconnected from billing, that's the primary value prop.
This is where deals are made or disqualified. Revenue cycle breaks at clinical documentation.
• Clinical notes completed within 24 hours of service
• Standardized templates aligned to payer requirements
• Clinical champion who understands the billing connection
• Clinician turnover below 25% annually
• Prior authorization tracked proactively
• Documentation audits conducted at least quarterly
These prospects are ready for RCM. The clinical foundation is there.
• Clinical note backlog exceeding 48 hours
• Clinician turnover above 30%
• No standardized documentation templates
• No clinical champion identified
• Prior authorization tracked on spreadsheets or not at all
• Failed technology adoption in the last 18 months
These need EMR remediation first. RCM alone won't solve the problem.
"What's your average time from service delivery to completed clinical note?"
"Do your clinicians use standardized templates, or is documentation free-form?"
"Who on your clinical team understands how documentation affects reimbursement?"
"What's your clinician turnover rate? How does that affect billing consistency?"
"When's the last time you audited clinical documentation against payer requirements?"
"Have you tried implementing new clinical technology in the last two years? What happened?"
At each stage, confirm before proceeding.
Does the prospect acknowledge a specific revenue cycle problem? Not "we could always improve." A named pain point with measurable impact.
If no: educate, share benchmarks, revisit. If still no after 2nd attempt: park the opportunity.
Have you confirmed who signs? Not who evaluates, not who influences. Who signs. And do you have access to that person?
If no after 3 attempts to identify: Tier 3 at best. Likely disqualify.
Is there budget allocated, can budget be created (ROI justification), or is this a "maybe next fiscal year" situation? Each has a different playbook.
If "next fiscal year": set calendar reminder, provide ROI doc for internal advocacy, move to nurture.
Is the clinical documentation foundation solid enough for RCM to work? Or does the prospect need EMR remediation first?
If clinical foundation is broken: recommend EMR engagement first. RCM on top of broken docs = failed implementation.
Does the prospect's timeline match our implementation capacity? Is there an external event creating urgency (audit, board review, grant deadline, M&A)?
If no urgency: create it through benchmark data and competitive intelligence. Or accept the longer timeline.
Same questions, different depth. Existing Kipu customers skip the EMR evaluation entirely.
Skip: EMR evaluation, integration feasibility, technical assessment
Focus on: Current billing process, denial patterns, A/R aging, biller performance
Key question: "You're generating great clinical data in Kipu. How much of that is actually translating to clean claims?"
Faster path: Can often move to demo after single discovery call
The integration story is already told. Focus entirely on revenue recovery.
Add: EMR identification, integration compatibility, IT stakeholder mapping
Focus on: Full workflow assessment plus technical feasibility
Key question: "What EMR are you on, and what's the integration story been like with other financial systems?"
Longer path: Typically requires technical validation call before demo
Integration confidence is the unlock. If IT says no, everything stops.