Start your Own Medical Billing Service

I'm not sure where you got your info, but you are way off. Many practices still do their billing "in house." The list of duties you mention is far from complete and the suggestion that billing services collect copays is silly. Copays are supposed to be and typically are collected in the office before services are rendered. It takes much more than a certificate from a local college to learn medical billing. The things that are taught in those classes are basic tasks. The most important parts of the job can't be learned there. Those skills are learned on the job and vary depending on insurer policies and state laws. You mention that a CPT coding manual is necessary, but fail to mention the ICD-9 manual which is also needed. Since most billing software now includes CPT and ICD-9 code lookup features that are updated annually there is usually no need for the paper manuals. If you only pay $500 for the software it's probably not very good. That's a low price even for a low end billing software. You should expect to pay $3,000 to $5,000 for a good software and can get decent software in the $1,000 to $3,000 range. You are overestimating the rest of the office expenses. You should be searching billing sites for opinions on billing software, not social networks. You don't need 6 clients to be profitable. You need 1. The first year of my home based billing service I had 1 client paying a rate considerably lower than he should have been. Not only did it leave me a decent profit I actually made more than I did running the billing service I left when I started my own. The fee should be closer to $2000 or more a month. Maybe $1500 for a low volume provider or the client you gave an unbelievably great rate to in order to get his/her business. $800 is a ridiculously low amount and would be a waste of time. Direct mail to physicians is a waste of money and cold calling is a waste of time. You must have and develop relationships in the medical community. When marketing your billing service you are asking a physician to put their livlihood in your hands. They don't take that decision lightly no matter what school you went to or how many times you call on their office. If you don't already have a lot of physician or medical admin contacts you will more than likely never get your first client. Most physicians choose a billing service based on referrals from other physicians. While that does help later on that doesn't mean you no longer have to market. Physicians don't run out and tell all their friends about you. They give referrals when asked. They are not asked unless another physician is having problems with their billing. With the exception of a couple of physicians who were just starting their practice, every new client I've gotten switched to me because they were having problems with their previous billing service. Even then I developed a relationship with them over the course of a year or more before they decided to make the change. I see people all the time lose money trying to get into this industry. Please don't give people advice on business topics you know nothing about. Not only is it unhelpful to them it could be damaging to them financially.