ANSWERS · PRACTICE FINANCE

How do I tell if my billing company is doing a good job?

Judge a billing company on net collection rate, days in A/R, and — most tellingly — what it does with denials and underpayments, not on how fast clean claims go out. The common blind spot is the tail: many billers optimize first-pass throughput and quietly let denied and underpaid claims age out, which looks fine on a dashboard while money leaks.

Practice OwnerPractice Manager

What actually matters

  • Ask for net collection rate, days in A/R, and the over-90 bucket — and how they trend, not just this month's number
  • Probe the denial workflow specifically: how many denials do they appeal, at what win rate, and how fast?
  • Ask whether underpayments are worked at all — most billers don't check allowed-vs-contract, so those losses are invisible
  • Look at the aged-A/R report yourself; a fat over-90 bucket is unworked denials the biller isn't telling you about
  • Confirm what's in scope in writing — denials, appeals, and underpayment recovery are often excluded from the base fee

Common questions

What's the biggest thing billing companies miss?

The denied and underpaid tail. Clean-claim throughput is easy to show on a dashboard; working aged denials and catching underpayments is labor-intensive and often skipped. A good net collection rate with a fat over-90 bucket is the tell.

Where Volari fits: Volari works alongside your biller on the part they usually can't get to — the denied and underpaid tail — so you can see exactly how much of it was recoverable.

Related answers
How do I lower my practice's denial rate?How do I reduce days in A/R?How do I know if I'm being underpaid by insurers?In-house billing vs. outsourcing: which is right for my practice?How do I renegotiate payer contracts for better rates?How do I fix my prior-authorization workflow?

See the revenue you're owed but never collected.

A free assessment shows your real recoverable number from denied and underpaid claims. No risk, paid only on what we recover.

Get your free assessment →Watch the agents work →
Volari AI · answers for independent practices · all answers →