After outsourcing their billing to a previous EHR vendor that offered little support and poor financial results, Forest Hill Pediatrics decided they needed a new RCM partner that offered visibility, transparency and better billing practices to help improve their bottom line.
Forest Hill selected Office Practicum for their pediatric-specific EHR and RCM solution to help manage their clinical workflows and their complex billing issues. After transitioning to OP RCM, the practice has seen a significant increase in revenue.
Since Forest Hill Pediatrics and the OP pediatric revenue cycle management team began their partnership, the financial impacts have been substantial. They’ve experienced a 23 percent increase in charges, a 25 percent increase in insurance payments, and a 43 percent increase in average Payment per Visit (PPV).
The customer service and the support within the RCM team is phenomenal.
Nancy Thomas, Practice Manager, Forest Hill Pediatrics
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Serving patients aged newborn to 21 years old, the knowledgeable and compassionate team at Forest Hill Pediatrics has been delivering exceptional patient care to the greater Baltimore area for more than fifteen years. Like many pediatricians, they started practicing medicine to help patients – not to perform the myriad tasks that it takes to run a business. To focus their attention on delivering exceptional patient care, they chose to outsource their billing. With the practice firmly established as a leader in the community they serve, the team decided to scrutinize the financial health of the practice and found room for improvement – and a pediatric revenue cycle management partner they could rely on.
Back in 2017, the team at Forest Hill was starting to take a harder look at the financial health of the practice. They had outsourced their billing to the previous EHR vendor they worked with, and things weren’t going well.
“We felt like we were losing a lot of money,” says Nancy Thomas, the long-time practice manager of Forest Hill Pediatrics. “There was no transparency, we could not view anything. Everything was hidden from us.”
Nancy and the rest of the team at Forest Hill didn’t just need a new EHR; they needed a group they could truly partner with to build better billing practices throughout the entire office by not only taking a closer look at what the administrative staff does, but also examining actions that could be taken on the clinical side to bill for either additional or higher-cost services. Crucially, they also needed the visibility to be able to report on those improvements. They found the support and transparency they were looking for with OP RCM™.
When making the transition from their previous vendor to OP, Nancy was surprised to see how minimal the disruptions were from a financial perspective. Looking back on that period, she laughs “I was a nervous wreck!” This turned out to be her first experience in seeing the strong level of support from the RCM team: “It was a very smooth, good transition, a lot of that was due in part to our RCM representative.”
Since then, the OP RCM team has had several opportunities to demonstrate value. The team not only helps with complex billing issues, Dr. Grace and Dr. Fridberg were also both given useful feedback to help increase revenue. The OP RCM team worked with the providers, offering specific recommendations related to which CPT codes are best to maximize billable services. Nancy notes that the team has been “so good at notifying me about things we need to do like changes we can make so we can collect this or that. The RCM relationship has been very, very beneficial.”
From a visibility standpoint, OP’s reporting functionality delivered a level of insight they hadn’t previously experienced. There are a variety of in-depth reporting tools available for RCM clients, including the Financial Analytics modules that deliver visualizations and exportable, actionable reporting on myriad billing KPIs for overall financial health, accounts receivable and denials.
“With OP, everything is transparent. And if I can’t find something, somebody will help me find it; nothing is being kept from us at all, and with our last vendor it was the exact opposite. We had access to nothing,” Nancy adds.
Since switching to OP and OP’s pediatric revenue cycle management team, Nancy and the rest of the Forest Hill Pediatrics team is feeling much better about the financial health of the practice. “The A/R was frightening,” Nancy recalls. “And working with OP RCM, we have gotten it to a more reasonable level.”
The other financial impacts have been substantial. Using the tips and tricks taught by their OP RCM representatives, Forest Hill Pediatrics saw a 23 percent increase in charges and a 25 percent increase in insurance payments since they signed on.
In the past year alone, the practice has seen a 43 percent increase in average PPV (payment per visit) as well. OP RCM delivered a partnership that not only made them feel more supported, but also offered more guidance, resources, and financial stability. “Our income is more secure.”
“OP RCM benefits your revenue, for sure,” Nancy continues. “The resources at OP – I think there’s such accessibility that if you do have an issue, it’s resolved – it’s not something where you’re ignored. The customer service and the support within the RCM team is phenomenal.”
