Larsen Billing and Consulting is passionate about creating partnerships that empower our clients to improve patient care. We are more than a medical billing company; we work with you in all areas of revenue cycle management to make sure your practice thrives.
We are honored to share the story of our clients at Ocean View Primary Care located in Millville, Delaware. The team at Larsen Billing reached out to Brad Boyer and Tim Sparta, the owners of this clinic, to learn more about their journey and how our partnership has changed the trajectory of their practice and the well-being of their community. Please read on to learn the importance of partnering with a strong billing company and hear how our services have affected this primary care practice and its patients.
Ocean View Primary Care: The Foundation of Community Care
Brad and Tim are the owners of Ocean View Primary Care and serve their patients as experienced physician assistants. Their community primary care clinic is in high demand in a rapidly growing rural health setting in Delaware. The clinic has three providers and three support staff, including a licensed clinical social worker and a medical assistant.
When planning their practice, Brad and Tim wanted to provide more community-based care to residents. The area is exploding with growth, and the healthcare infrastructure is not keeping up. Therefore, many patients in the community do not have timely access to a primary care physician. The lack of medical professionals and especially primary care providers means people must wait for months to receive care. That is why Brad and Tim’s vision has included providing prompt, accessible care to their community. To do that, they knew they needed to enlist the services of a medical billing company for their practice to be viable.
The Challenges of Billing
Tim and Brad chose to outsource their medical billing and credentialing to a billing company (they ended up switching to Larsen Billing later, but they started with a different billing service first). As a new small business, they didn’t have the resources or expertise to handle things in-house, so they hired a company that assured them they would cater to their unique needs. The billing company’s most critical job was to get the group practice credentialed. Because the billing service neglected to complete paperwork accurately and on time, the opening of Ocean View Primary Care was significantly delayed. Month after month, Tim and Brad were charged for services that were not yielding results.
In fact, the opposite was true. Their worst nightmare began to unfold as they met roadblocks and frustration at every turn. When the billing company finally gave them the all-clear to open the practice, they faced problems with insurance plans right away. Payers were not cooperative because credentialing was incomplete and inaccurate, resulting in denied claims. As experienced providers know, proper credentialing and strong contracts are critical to ensure appropriate insurance reimbursement. In fact, inaccurate credentialing is often the biggest reason practices have issues with claims.
Brad and Tim were forced to fund the practice themselves because they weren’t being reimbursed for the care they were providing. The financial stress overflowed into the office. Because the billing company was not delivering on its promises, Brad and Tim spent hours each week following up with payers, double-checking paperwork, and fixing inaccuracies that were seriously disrupting their much-needed cash flow. They both remember the stresses created by their first billers:
“There were weeks and months when we couldn’t sleep, because we weren’t being told why we weren’t credentialed and why no one was collecting the money.”
The practice wasn’t close to turning a profit, and if something didn’t change soon, they would have to close their doors. This was a devastating possibility.
How Larsen Billing Turned the Tide
Small business owners know the all-consuming pressures of running a company. Day-to-day tasks and big-picture decisions fall on the shoulders of ownership. Brad and Tim felt the weight of this reality and knew that their current trajectory was not sustainable. They came to a crossroads and knew something had to change if they wanted to see their vision through.
That’s when they met Christine Bogard with Larsen Billing. Christine is the Director of Operations for Larsen Billing and knew that her team could reverse the issues caused by the previous biller and help Ocean View Primary Care establish sustainable billing practices.
Christine remembers the onboarding process:
“Credentialing issues were a serious problem, and their Accounts Receivable was much too high. They desperately needed to be paid for services they had already provided months earlier. Because their paperwork was handled so poorly by the previous billing company, they weren’t going to see any of it. They didn’t expect to get this money.”
The experts at Larsen Billing were able to fully credential Ocean View Primary Care and its providers. They fixed the problems caused by the previous billers and implemented practices to ensure total compliance moving forward. Larsen Billing reversed batches of claims denials and significantly changed Ocean View’s bottom line. Now, as it should be, they get paid for the care they provide.
In our interview, Brad shared, “Payers are now online. After just five months, there’s a complete turnaround of our revenue stream! Our business is growing; we have added staff and are considering adding other offices to better serve our patients.”
“They Went Above and Beyond”
From the first interaction, Brad and Tim knew they were in good hands with Christine and the rest of the team at Larsen Billing. Tim recalls,
“Larsen Billing took it upon themselves to aggressively handle our credentialing and billing issues. They went above and beyond. We expected them to fix the problems moving forward, but they went back a year and fixed all past errors created by our first billing company.”
Larsen Billing identified 16 months’ worth of credentialing issues in just three days. After that initial assessment, Brad said, “They did more work in two months than our previous company accomplished in an entire year.” He added, “Doctors aren’t well-versed in billing; Larsen Billing is.” That expertise has been evident through every step in the credentialing and billing process, yielding spectacular results for Ocean View Primary Care.
The Measurable Difference with Larsen Billing
At the beginning of their practice, Brad and Tim felt responsible for reviewing all paperwork submitted by their first billers. There was a lack of communication, quality work, trust, and peace of mind. But all that changed once they chose to partner with Larsen Billing.
Larsen Billing’s vision is to help physicians in private practice thrive by providing all the back-office support needed. Consistency among team members and consistency in communication results in a high quality experience for providers, office staff, and patients.
Brad highlights this consistency: “At Larsen Billing, we’ve dealt with the same group from day one. The same team has been answering our questions and solving our problems within just a day or so. Larsen Billing ensures we understand what’s going on with our accounts. They provide meetings every two weeks, and everyone is on the call. In the past, we had to stay on top of our billers. That’s not so with Larsen Billing. They take care of it all, and they do it correctly the first time around.”
Physicians understand the importance of access to providers. Brad and Tim felt the same way about having access to their billing team: “We have access to our biller, Kelsey, whenever we need to talk to her. Even before she was assigned as our biller, she was willing to help us. The team always makes time for us. They can facilitate our needs.”
Tim shared, “You can find experts, but it’s the extra attention to detail that sets Larsen Billing apart. They know what they’re doing and when to do it to get results.”
Addressing the Issue of Accessible Care
Tim and Brad’s partnership with Larsen Billing is improving access to care in their community: “Larsen Billing allows us to be present in the office, practicing medicine; they take our financial concerns off the table so we can focus on patients. We don’t have to sit there every day in the office and wonder what’s going on with credentialing or cash flow.”
In the community where Ocean View Primary Care is based, people wait six months to a year for primary care access. This is a problem across the country. Brad shared, “We love where we live, and we got tired of people waiting months for prescription refills or access to a general practitioner after being discharged from the hospital.” Now that Larsen Billing fixed the issues for Ocean View Primary Care, the community has access to quality, prompt primary care. Tim added, “Things have become easier in our office. We don’t have to worry about making sure our billers are doing their jobs. We have gained hours every week that we can spend caring for our patients.”
Partnerships that Go Beyond Billing
When Larsen Billing partners with a practice, they commit to the success of the client, no matter what it takes. Because Larsen Billing has unique resources and talent, they can cater to clients like Brad and Tim to successfully execute all credentialing and billing needs. Christine shares the benefits of partnering with Larsen Billing:
“When you hire Larsen Billing, you have access to a large and experienced talent pool, and it’s not just for billing. There’s a lot more to it, including expertise from certified coders, which many practices don’t have access to. You have someone specifically trained in all areas, including charge entry, coding, credentialing, contracts, patient collections, denial management and more. We become completely invested in your success.”
Brad and Tim agree that it truly is a partnership. At the end of our conversation, Brad shared this final thought, “It’s important to develop strong relationships with people we can count on, and our team at Larsen Billing is one of those relationships. They’re truly like family.”
Partner with Larsen Billing Today
Far too many physicians in private practice can relate to the hardships Brad and Tim faced. Not all billing companies know how to complete credentialing accurately and secure strong insurance contracts. Owning and operating a medical practice necessitates implementing a robust credentialing and contracting strategy. At Larsen Billing, we bring a vast amount of expertise in dealing with Medicare, Medicaid, managed care plans and all the commercial payers. Partnering with our team eliminates the stress of attempting these processes in-house; enjoy peace of mind knowing you are working with a proven company you can trust to deliver the results you need.
Contact the team at Larsen Billing and Consulting today to learn how we can position your practice to succeed, grow, and provide quality patient care.