Revenue Cycle Specialists

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. First calculate all of the expenses of an in-house billing office including payroll & benefits, office space and supplies, clearinghouse and statement costs or those associated with your external billing. It helps to evaluate bids.
Second consider what in your existing process can not change, what could be changed and what needs to change. Bringing in an outside group involves a certain amount of change and it's important that you know where your comfort zone is.
Third I recommend thinking about the kind of relationship you want with the external billing service. Do you want to control the process with external employees, have a partnership with an outside company that relieves you of a certain amount of the day-to-day responsibilities or are you looking to pass the responsibility on to someone else and not be involved? Are you looking for a personal relationship where the staff feels like a part of your team or a large organization which is outside of your team?

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. Medical billing is not successfully managed with a cookie cutter approach. Insurance carriers, even government carriers like Medicare, are different from state to state, specialty to specialty and even practice to practice. It's important that medical billing is handled by what works for your practice with your payer mix and your billing protocols.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. Do you have customers that are similar to my practice and payer mix and if so, what are your key performance indicators?
Do you have certified professional coders (CPC, RCC, etc) and will one work on my account?
What are your responsibilities regarding compliance and how will you communicate issues with my practice?
What kind of detail do you provide monthly regarding my practice and your performance and how do you obtain the information?
What other services do you offer that my practice needs to consider?