We usually work on a percentage of collections which varies based on specialty, volume and other factors. We also have clients who pay us a flat dollar amount per claim. We strive to be highly competitive and we’re often able to match or beat the rates of other billing services provided that both companies' services are essentially the same. Please contact us and we’ll be happy to provide a formal price quote.

Most of our clients strictly utilize our billing and collection services. We do offer coding audits and consultations along with credentialing or provider enrollment services. We also provide a host of various services that individual clients have requested to meet their unique needs. If in doubt, ask us and we’ll do our best to provide a solution that meets your needs.

We can work with literally any EHR software. If we don’t already work with your software, we may be able to develop a custom interface. Alternatively, we can always extract the data and input it into our software. We might also opt to simply bill through your software. We assess each situation independently and work with our clients to agree on the best course of action.

That said, we currently work with:

• AdvancedMD
• Amazing Charts
• athenahealth
• CareTracker
• CollaborateMD
• eClinicalWorks
• Epic
• Fusion Web Clinic
• Heno
• NextGen Office
• Practice Fusion
• Prompt EMR
• Raintree Systems
• WebPT
• WellSky Rehab

This does not include the systems we log into and export the data to then upload into our billing software.

Billing services are not a commodity and the services provided can vary widely from vendor to vendor. Furthermore, the difference in collection results between the best billing companies and the worst can be enormous. More often than not, you get what you pay for. There are billing companies that simply bill claims and provide no post-billing follow up whatsoever. They charge a highly discounted fee because they’re providing a fraction of the service we provide. In our experience, any amount you might save in billing fees by using a low-cost biller can easily be nullified by lost collections from the lack of follow up.

In fact, most of our clients came to us after having had a negative experience with a previous billing company. Submitting claims to insurance companies requires knowledge and attention to detail but it’s not especially difficult; the hard part of what we do is getting an insurance company to pay a claim they’re trying earnestly to avoid paying. One-half of our employees do basically nothing but follow up on unpaid claims and it’s a huge part of the service we provide. We utilize the same management techniques and quality assurance processes found at world class companies, such as GE Healthcare, and we produce better collection results than most billing service companies. We’re not the least expensive billing service in the business and we’re not the most expensive either. Rather, we strive to offer a good value to our clients by providing an excellent service at a fair price.

Our service agreement requires a one-year commitment. We expend a lot of time, energy, and resources getting new clients set up and operational. Many billing companies charge a separate set-up fee to compensate them for this extra upfront work whereas we consider this a cost of doing business. However, we do require a one-year initial commitment to ensure that we’re able to recoup this cost. It’s worth noting that we include performance language in our service agreement so you have an easy out if we failed to perform.

We bill claims every day but not every claim gets billed within 24 hours. For example, if you submit a claim that fails one of our billing edits, we will hold that claim, contact you to share our findings, and work with you to resolve the conflict. Once we resolve the issue, we will then release the claim. Because our billers only bill claims, they don’t fall behind and they don’t get distracted with other tasks or responsibilities. This is a key part of our success because the quicker we bill the quicker you get paid.

Yes, our clients find great value in having a designated representative. This individual will be your primary point of contact, will handle incoming phone calls from your clinic and your patients, will follow up on your unpaid claims and coordinate directly with your staff on issues that require follow up. In our experience, this facilitates better results as it promotes communication, accountability and continuity.

We provide a thorough monthly report to our clients that includes a monthly/YTD cumulative summary of key billing activity including charges, collections, adjustments, visits and aging, broken down into the classic aging buckets. The summary includes a number of useful collection statistics including charges per visit, collections per visit, collections as a percentage of charges, average days to collect, and more.

We also provide the detailed component reports that substantiate the monthly/YTD summary. The majority of our clients find our standard practice management report to be more than adequate but we have an ample menu of other available reports that we can include in your monthly report package if you have a specific request. We may also be able to create a custom report for you. If in doubt, please ask.

It’s easy to track and trend our collection performance using your monthly practice management reports. We report the data by month and on a YTD cumulative basis. Every month we provide you with several collection statistics including dollar collections per visit and several collection percentages so you can easily compare the data month-by-month and see if the trends are stable, improving or declining.

This varies widely based on things like payer mix and the accuracy of the patient demographic and insurance information you provide to us. Some BCBS plans pay in as little as seven days while worker’s compensation payers can easily take 45 days or longer. If a patient has a secondary insurance or if the patient has co-insurance or an unmet deductible, it adds additional time to the claims cycle time. Two of the variables that have among the biggest impact on your average days to collect are how quickly you finalize your daily charges and whether your front desk staff collects optimal yet appropriate amounts at the time of service to include co-insurance and unmet deductibles. We have many clients whose average days to collect are between 15 and 20 days.

Yes, we take our customer service very seriously and endeavor to treat your patients with the same respect and deference with which we treat our own clients. To illustrate this, we record all of our phone calls, incoming and outgoing. Our staff’s knowledge that we do this keeps them on their best behavior and facilitates training and coaching with our employees. It also provides us with a way to monitor our staff’s interactions with your patients. When reviewing these recorded phone conversations we have yet to have found even one instance of an employee being rude or discourteous to a patient.

We send patients statements monthly when they have a balance due. If they ignore their statements we follow up with a series of up to three reminder phone calls over a three week period. In our experience, most calls go to voicemail and we leave carefully worded messages. The wording is structured quite deliberately to incite action on the part of a delinquent patient who failed to pay their bill while maintaining civility and professionalism.  If they pay their balance due at any point after the first call, we stop calling them, otherwise they’ll get all three calls.

The key to this approach is that the language gets progressively more urgent and direct if they continue to ignore their balance due. By the time they receive the third call, they know they’re accountable for paying their bill.  At the end of the call campaign, after a patient has taken 60 days and ignored two statements and three phone calls, it’s pretty obvious that they’re not planning on paying their bill.  At this point, we’ll recommend assigning the account to a licensed debt collections agency. Of course you’ll always have the prerogative to offer payment plans or allow a patient more time to pay and we’ll gladly implement your wishes. We find our process to be highly effective in collecting your patient balances and are surprised that most billing companies don’t do this.

We first review the documentation to determine why it wasn’t paid, whether this was an error, and what the appropriate course of action is. Often times it’s simply the patient’s responsibility as they had an unmet deductible or the claim was processed as a non-covered service, etc. at which point we transfer the balance to the patient and send them a statement. In some cases, insurance companies deny claims in error or they deny them on ambiguous grounds such as “not medically necessary”.

In these cases, we compile the chart notes and physician referrals/prescriptions and draft appeals to substantiate medical necessity or to dispute whatever the erroneous denial happens to be. We will coordinate with you or your staff appropriately should a letter supporting medical necessity be needed. We’re responsible for following up on your unpaid claims and taking the appropriate actions to get them paid. We devote significant resources to this critical task as we recognize that our value to you hinges on our ability to produce superior collection results.

First, you’re responsible for maintaining your EHR software to include creating your patients’ charts and updating their demographic and insurance information at the point of intake and anytime it should change. This includes making sure that you’re providing us with accurate information such as whether to bill Medicare or a Medicare-replacement plan, for example. In conjunction with this, you should verify insurance eligibility and benefits for any new patients at least at the point of intake to include securing and managing any required authorizations. You should collect co-pays at the time of service and, to the best of your ability, we recommend collecting toward co-insurance and any unmet deductibles that might apply. You will need to report to us any collections you secure at least once per week so we can credit the patient’s ledger accordingly. We strongly recommend actively monitoring your queue to make sure that no visit goes unbilled because the provider failed to sign and finalize their notes.

Additionally, you will need to forward your EOBs and copies of checks to us for posting. We can electronically retrieve ERAs for any EFT payments you receive but we’re dependent on you to provide copies of your paper remits. We strongly recommend utilizing a lockbox service with your bank of choice. The money goes into your bank account promptly and we can secure scanned images of your EOBs and checks without you having to lift a finger. This approach is highly efficient and highly secure. Alternatively, you can scan them to our HIPAA-compliant web-based filing cabinet or you can have your mail come directly to us.

As long as you use a merchant services vendor who will allow us to process your transactions remotely, usually over the internet, we will gladly process your credit and debit card payments for you at no additional cost. If you need assistance with setting up a merchant services account, we’ll be happy to help you do so.

We bill in arrears and you can generally expect to receive your monthly practice management report and our corresponding invoice between the 10th and 20th of the month. Our payment terms are net 15 days.

There’s a lot of reasons to outsource your billing. Most healthcare practitioners outsource their billing and collections because they simply don’t possess the knowledge, expertise, or tools to do it efficiently or effectively. To do it right, you must have the right software, tools, and people with specific skills, knowledge and experience. Using a billing service like Flatirons Practice Management also provides built-in redundancy so you need not worry about turnover or people taking vacations etc. We’re highly skilled at what we do and we’re equipped to manage the many headaches associated with medical billing so you can simply focus on treating your patients. Click here for more information on why outsourcing may be the best solution for you.

Most billing service companies, including Flatirons Practice Management, charge a percent of actual collections so it’s actually cost-effective at any volume of claims, high or low. When you account for all costs associated with doing your billing in-house to include software, clearinghouse fees, payroll, benefits, postage, overhead, etc., it’s often less expensive to use a billing service company. According to the American Medical Association, an average physician's practice with in-house medical billing spends 10% of their income on billing related expenses. If you think it’s costing you less than that you’re probably not including all related expenses. Furthermore, doing billing in-house means that more of your expenses are mostly fixed. Even when patient visits are down, you still have to cover payroll and pay for your IT technology so what you pay as a percent of what you collect can vary dramatically. Outsourcing your billing makes it much easier to plan and budget. Click here for additional information on the benefits of outsourcing your billing.

We bill for many specialties and are adding new specialties on a regular basis. You can see a list here of the more common specialties for which we bill. If you don’t see your specialty listed, please contact us and ask.

You can click here to Contact Us or call us at (877) 546-9158.