Billing Company Accountabilities

In settlements and whistleblower cases around the country, the problems that can be created by a billing company (or as it is referred To in hospital world as ‘revenue cycle management’) have increased recently. Alice has addressed the major problems lurking here in the past in her article on billing company accountabilities. As we have reviewed more and more of these contracts for our clients, and have received more and more complaints about problems created in these relationships, we think it important to reassert issues that must be addressed in the contract for billing and collection services: (1) standards of performance, particularly with respect to timeliness of claims submission, collection rate, and aging of accounts receivable; (2) the obligation to bring billing concerns to management before going anywhere else; (3) getting a representation that the company and its personnel have not been whistleblowers in the past. There are plenty of other issues but those three are critical and frequently absent.