New capability aligns bill rates with shifting market conditions while accelerating time to fill
Charlestown, MA, March 11, 2026 – Hallmark Health Care Solutions, the leader in Workforce Intelligence and Enablement, today announced the launch of AI-agent bill rate intelligence within its Total Workforce Vendor Management System (VMS). The new capability helps health systems achieve more accurate, market-aligned bill rates across all categories of contingent labor, including nursing, allied, locums, and non-clinical roles, directly at the point of order creation.
Health systems continue to face rising labor costs, persistent workforce shortages, and growing pressure to make faster, more consistent staffing decisions. With labor representing more than 56 percent of a health system’s operating expenses, every workforce decision carries significant financial consequence. Traditional rate-setting methods are often manual and static, leaving organizations vulnerable to rate inflation, inconsistent pricing, and delays in filling critical roles. These challenges are compounded by regional market variation and differences in experience level and role complexity.
Hallmark’s AI agent uses machine learning, third-party data, and historical hiring data to analyze key factors such as role, region, location, assignment duration, start date, and experience level. It generates data-backed bill rate recommendations that reflect current market conditions while supporting governance and financial discipline.
Fully integrated within the Hallmark VMS, the functionality enables users to compare facility level and regional rate guidance, review recommended ranges, adjust rates before finalizing an order, reduce administrative burden for frontline leaders, improve consistency across programs, and strengthen negotiations with staffing partners.
According to McKinsey, 85 percent of healthcare leaders are already testing or using generative AI, confirming that automation is now a competitive requirement. “Health systems are deploying AI to move faster on credentialing, forecasting, and staffing strategy,” said Bharat Sundaram, CEO of Hallmark. “By embedding AI-agent bill rate intelligence directly into the VMS workflow, we give leaders the ability to set precise, market-aligned rates in real time, accelerating hiring while protecting margin and ensuring access to care.”
Clients are using the capability to support more disciplined rate setting, improve agency negotiations, and drive measurable ROI. “The AI agent supports us in making decisive, data‑driven rate decisions and advances our work to reduce contract labor spend while also remaining competitive,” affirmed Hannah Patch, Manager of Integrated Flex Staffing Resources, Community Health System.
This new AI agent builds on Hallmark’s Workforce Intelligence and Enablement platform, reinforcing the company’s commitment to being the most health-system aligned strategic workforce partner in the industry.
About Hallmark
Hallmark is the leader in Workforce Intelligence and Enablement, providing technology for health systems and provider groups nationwide. The platform combines workforce intelligence, flexible workforce management, total workforce vendor management and provider enablement to help health systems optimize labor spend, integrate physician performance and compensation, and improve workforce engagement and retention.
Serving more than 50 health systems, Hallmark’s technology manages $10B+ in physician compensation annually, enables sourcing of 25K+ clinicians, and supports 100K+ users daily. By delivering real-time insights and AI-enabled automation, Hallmark empowers health system leaders to drive sustainable margin improvement while advancing access, quality, and staff well-being. Follow us on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Ronnie Kihlstadius
VP of Marketing, Hallmark Health Care Solutions
PR@hallmarkhcs.com