7 Signs Your Practice Needs a New Billing Company
Switching billing companies feels like a big undertaking, which is why a lot of practices stay with underperforming partners for too long. But a bad billing company isn’t a neutral choice: it’s actively costing you revenue every month.
Here are seven signs it’s time to look for someone better.
1. Your denial rate keeps climbing
A denial rate above 5% to 8% is a problem. If your current billing company can’t tell you your denial rate off the top of their head, that’s also a problem. Denials that aren’t tracked aren’t being managed.
2. Nobody can explain your financial reports
If your monthly reports are confusing, incomplete, or just don’t arrive consistently, you have no visibility into your own revenue cycle. A good billing company makes your numbers easy to understand. You should be able to see collection rates by payer, AR days, denial trends, and cash flow at a glance.
3. Your AR days keep rising
If your average days in AR has climbed from 35 to 55 to 70 over the past year, money is sitting longer and collecting less. This usually means claims aren’t being followed up consistently.
4. You’re finding out about problems from patients, not your billing company
When patients call about bills they don’t understand, or when a patient tells you their claim was denied for a service you expected to be covered, your billing company should have caught that first. If you’re learning about billing problems from your patients, something in the process is broken.
5. Denied claims disappear
Ask your billing company what their process is for following up on denied claims. If the answer is vague, or if you’ve noticed that your write-offs have been increasing, denied claims may be going unworked. Sixty-five percent of denied claims are never appealed industry-wide. A good billing company should be well below that average.
6. Communication is slow or hard to get
You should be able to reach your billing contact easily and get a clear answer when you have questions. If emails go unanswered for days, if you’re shuffled between representatives, or if you can’t get a straight answer about a specific claim, the relationship isn’t working.
7. Collections have been flat despite more patients
If your patient volume has gone up but your collections haven’t moved proportionally, revenue is leaking somewhere. Either more claims are being denied, AR is aging longer, or patient balances aren’t being collected. Your billing company should be able to pinpoint the reason.
Switching isn’t as disruptive as you think
A good billing company manages the transition so there’s no gap in claim submissions. Most switches are complete in two weeks. The short-term disruption is worth it compared to months or years of lost revenue.
If any of these signs sound familiar, FluxCura offers a free audit to show you exactly what’s happening in your revenue cycle. Request your free audit.
