Bolt-on technology is the fastest growing segment in health information management and patient financial services. Examples of bolt-on technology include on-line scheduling, local medical review policy (LMRP) editing, real-time insurance benefits/eligibility verification, electronic billing clearinghouses, integrated voice response (IVR) and most recently, denial management systems. This presentation will provide ways to use both bolt-on technology in your revenue cycle and become more competitive in today's marketplace. Today's legacy systems cannot keep pace with regulatory and managed care changes. As a result, a niche industry has sprung up to supplement the revenue cycle in areas such as LMRP, benefits and eligibility, physician order entry, billing, follow-up, integrated voice response (IVR), and denial management. Bolt-on technology can streamline the revenue cycle, reduce the amount of rework in the business office, and reallocate resources to more value-added job functions. HIPAA is changing the technical landscape of health care's revenue cycle daily. As an industry, we are only beginning to experience the effects of HIPAA. Depending on the organization, HIPAA will either simplify or magnify problems inherent to the revenue cycle. Streamlining the revenue cycle will depend on harnessing technology--both through legacy systems or by use of bolt-on products.