Author Topic: What should you charge your client?  (Read 6836 times)

williamportor

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What should you charge your client?
« on: June 06, 2014, 04:19:37 AM »
I'm about to make the jump to Physican billing. May I ask, what should a medical biller charge for billing services for physicians?

Sriram_Sub

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2014, 09:45:40 AM »
It depends on what specialty you will be working on and what tasks are included in your billing service and in what volume are they expected to be. Based on this, you may derive the total time that you would be spending for accomplishing those tasks. This groundwork will give you an idea how much you should charge for the billing services. Without these info, it is very difficult to quote a number.
Sriram

williamportor

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2014, 01:43:48 PM »
OK, let us assume about 150-200 claims (dates of service) per month. $ volume at about 15K, follow up on unpaid claims, w/ resubmits when necessary. About 10-20 hrs. per week.

PMRNC

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 03:44:44 PM »
Hate nickpicking..but you don't mention how you want to charge. There's just a lot more that goes into pricing fees.
I prefer the flat fee model which I base on what I want to make per hour. Generally that hourly rate varies by area, experience, etc.  If you are doing a %, then I recommend getting a a few more reports to do a full practice analysis along with the costs associated with that client.
Linda Walker
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One Stop Resources, Education and Networking for Medical Billers
www.billerswebsite.com

williamportor

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2014, 06:11:50 PM »
OK, let us assume I want a flat rate as I think you folks said a % system is not the best. What type of flat rate should I charge? This will be my first MD (I've been doing Chiro and mental health billing). Any ideas?

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2014, 06:11:50 PM »

kristin

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2014, 11:06:48 PM »
I am not sure what you are thinking, but my charge for what you are talking about would be $15 an hour.

djk

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2014, 09:49:07 AM »
I do medical billing part time from my home as a second job for a provider that does a outpaitent clinic one or two days a week for wound care and I get 9% from remits.. then he pays for the clearinghouse fee for sending claims each month,

PMRNC

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2014, 11:14:08 AM »
This might help http://www.billerswebsite.com/medbillingsetfees.htm

Also Alice and Michelle have a pretty good ebook on pricing your services as well.
Linda Walker
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One Stop Resources, Education and Networking for Medical Billers
www.billerswebsite.com

Michele

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2014, 05:17:50 PM »
There is a lot that goes into determining a flat rate fee.  How many providers see patients, how many patients/visits per week/month, how much is the average charge, are they in or out of network, are you doing patient billing too (full service)?  Basically there are a couple of methods you can use.  Determine how much time you think it would take you and calculate based on that, or a flat rate based on how much should be collected, or some type of amount per visit/encounter.  As for the $15 per hour, that is fairly cheap.  It doesn't really allow for the expenses of running your business.  That is just my opinion, not meant to offend kristin.  If I went to work in a medical office where they covered overhead (rent, utilities) and provided me with a computer/software, and paid the employer's portion of my taxes, then $15 would be ok, but when you are self employed you must consider other expenses.  People think they can't charge the provider more than they would pay to have someone in their office, but they save by not having you there as well. 
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Michele

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2014, 05:22:32 PM »
OK, let us assume about 150-200 claims (dates of service) per month. $ volume at about 15K, follow up on unpaid claims, w/ resubmits when necessary. About 10-20 hrs. per week.

Based on this scenario, and this is a very rough quote because there are a lot of variables missing, I would say you are in the $900-$1100 per month ballpark.  (Assuming the $15k is per month)
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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2014, 05:22:32 PM »

PMRNC

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2014, 07:23:19 PM »
Quote
As for the $15 per hour, that is fairly cheap.  It doesn't really allow for the expenses of running your business.  That is just my opinion, not meant to offend kristin.  If I went to work in a medical office where they covered overhead (rent, utilities) and provided me with a computer/software, and paid the employer's portion of my taxes, then $15 would be ok, but when you are self employed you must consider other expenses.

I agree with Michele, and if you want a higher hourly rate but you would rather not have that dangling to the provider.. don't tell them. Create your flat fee for the month based on what you feel your worth, even if you charged $20-25 an hour they are saving money, there's more money involved keeping an employee on staff and in house than not. For example, If you have a client that you come up with $2850  as a flat fee, you can base that on any hourly rate you want and the client does not need to know that.  Your only explanation, contractually and ethically is that your fee is derived of costs and time, PERIOD.
Linda Walker
Practice Managers Resource & Networking Community
One Stop Resources, Education and Networking for Medical Billers
www.billerswebsite.com

kristin

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2014, 09:43:39 PM »
No offense taken, Michele! My price is not based on running a business from my home, I think that is the biggest difference. I do lots of remote billing from home, and $15 is the most I charge any doctor, because I have no overhead/expenses. My laptop is paid for already, software is all cloud-based with the providers...heck, I don't even use a printer. Now, if I was running a business, or had expenses, $15 wouldn't cut it, not at all.

Michele

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2014, 08:53:59 AM »
No offense taken, Michele! My price is not based on running a business from my home, I think that is the biggest difference. I do lots of remote billing from home, and $15 is the most I charge any doctor, because I have no overhead/expenses. My laptop is paid for already, software is all cloud-based with the providers...heck, I don't even use a printer. Now, if I was running a business, or had expenses, $15 wouldn't cut it, not at all.

Not sure what area you live in but $15 might still be low for what you are doing.  They are getting your expertise which is worth a lot!  But if it's working for you that's all that matters.  You obviously are getting a lot of other benefits as well.   :)
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williamportor

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2014, 09:01:54 AM »
Thank You for the input everyone, you folks have given me a lot to consider. Since my state has no problem with percentage billing, I'm thinking my original 7-8% fee is not a bad idea. In the meantime, I'd better get the headset back on my skull, and keep cold calling. ;D

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Re: What should you charge your client?
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2014, 09:01:54 AM »