Independent guidance on the services practices actually buy. The full provider directory sits behind every topic.
Paneling, payer enrollment, CAQH, timelines, vendor selection.
In-house vs outsource, pricing models, coding, payer contracts.
EHR selection by specialty, migration, practice-management software.
Consultants, MSOs, startup engagements, vetting and costs.
Billing Company Fit · 2 minutes · no email required
"No matter who does your billing, no one cares more about your money than you do." That's why the choice of which kind of billing company matters. Answer six questions about your specialty, volume, payer mix, and what you actually need handled, and this maps you to the profile of billing company that fits — plus the questions to ask any of them before you sign.
Independent — GetPracticeHelp does not sell billing services or take placement fees for rankings. No named vendors here, no ranking. You get a profile and neutral evaluation criteria, then a vetted shortlist if you want one.
The full list of questions to put in front of any billing company before you sign — net collection rate, fee structure, what's included, denial ownership, reporting cadence. Emailed, not gated behind a sales call.
It comes down to four things: your specialty, your claim volume, what you need handled (billing only, full revenue cycle, or billing plus credentialing), and your payer mix. A solo therapist with five commercial panels needs a different kind of shop than a six-provider orthopedics group with worker's comp and Medicare. This quiz maps your answers to one of five billing-company profiles and gives you the questions to ask before you sign — it does not rank named vendors or take placement fees.
Billing-only typically means claim submission and posting — they send the claims and record what comes back. Full revenue-cycle management (RCM) adds denial work, accounts-receivable follow-up, patient statements, and often eligibility checks. The gap matters: a billing-only shop that doesn't work your denials quietly leaves money on the table, and that loss never shows up on an invoice. Confirm in writing who owns denial follow-up before you sign anything.
Ask five things: the audited net collection rate on practices in your specialty over the last 12 months; the exact fee structure and what triggers add-on charges; what is included versus billed separately (denials, patient statements, credentialing, reporting); who owns denial and appeal work; and the reporting cadence and which KPIs you'll see. Get the net collection rate as an audited 12-month figure for your specialty, not a headline number for their best client.
Most charge a percentage of what they actually collect, not what you bill. Typical ranges run 4-8% of collections for behavioral health and 5-10% for most medical specialties, with low-volume or complex specialties sometimes higher. Some shops charge a flat per-claim fee instead, which can be cheaper at high clean-claim volume. Whichever model you're quoted, compare it against your collections, not your charges — a percentage of charges is a different and usually worse deal.
This quiz assumes you've already decided to outsource and helps you pick which kind of company to hire. If you're still deciding whether to outsource billing at all, start with the In-House vs Outsource Billing Calculator — it runs the cost of an in-house biller against a billing company's percentage fee and gives you a break-even before you shop vendors.