Billing Case Study 3: Two Physicians Setting up a New Group Practice

During the planning process for the opening of their new practice, two ophthalmologists contacted PMRG to discuss how our billing service and practice management solution could be a smart business move.

In the course of these discussions, it became apparent that the initial capital expenditures of starting a new practice could be dramatically reduced, and the long term expenses lessened by contracting with PMRG. Further, they would be relieved of the chore of having to manage a billing staff, as well as all of the difficulties involved with owning a complex piece of software and the hardware and network required to run it.

They choose to go with PMRG for billing and computer systems - and in so doing, saved the following costs:

• Almost 2/3 of the business office start up costs ($8,000 vs. $22,000)
• 5% of the predictable annual costs

These savings did not include the intangible costs of extra space, training, computer maintenance, back-ups and upgrades, etc. In addition, it did not factor the added value PMRG brought to the practice in compliance monitoring, records documentation and practice management consulting.

Since the practice had no "track record" of collections, there could be no comparison of collection performance. However, PMRG provided the practice with a collection target based on their fees, contracts, and payor-mix. The physicians acknowledged that they did not have these distinctions or the available time to manage their business processes professionally. After six months of PMRG billing, the physicians gained a level of sophistication about their business process and collection performance, and were able to interact with and relate to PMRG staff as their "partners", realizing the optimal income levels for their clinical services.