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This post is the fourth installment of our “Review, Benchmark, and Improve Practice Revenue” series, where we dive into how to diversify your revenue, lower operating costs, optimize billing procedures, and outshine your competitors.
Your practice’s billing can feel like a leaky bucket — you see patients, submit claims, and wait. Rejections, resubmissions, and delays all drain your cash flow while your staff drowns in administrative calls.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. According to a recent Tebra survey, billing is the fifth-largest operating expense in a typical practice, and mistakes directly cost you revenue. Every delayed reimbursement, coding error, and missing authorization creates a bottleneck that stifles your cash flow.
But some practices have figured out how to plug the leaks and achieve a steady, predictable, reliable cash flow. In this article, we’ll explain how to fix your billing bottlenecks and turn your revenue into a reliable growth engine.
Ready to simplify your billing? Power your private practice with Tebra’s HIPAA-compliant, all-in-one medical billing software. Learn more. |
3 core areas to improve your private practice billing performance
If billing problems are draining your practice’s revenue, you need relief that works quickly. The encouraging news is that the majority of practices report meaningful improvements by focusing on proven strategies for their front desk, back office, and practice-wide policies.
These changes deliver results faster than most expect. One-third of practices see better reimbursement rates in under 2 months, while 88% total see results within 6 months. After applying their efforts to do so, 61% of practices report maximizing almost all reimbursements and payments once these systems work consistently.
Here are the strategies that make the biggest impact.
1. Optimize your front desk and patient check-in process
Your front desk is your first defense against billing errors. The practices with the strongest billing performance — about 64% — invest in front desk staff who understand the financial impact of their roles.
Focus your front desk training on 2 high-impact habits:
- Collect payment at the time of service. You know the frustration of chasing patient balances weeks after appointments. Yet 69% of practices have found a better way: collecting payment during check-in, when patients are present and focused on receiving care. A similar strategy includes collecting payment at the time of appointment scheduling.
- Build strong billing skills. Train your team to master insurance verification, authorization requirements, and the demographic details that prevent claim rejections.
An all-in-one platform like Tebra streamlines this entire process. Tebra automates insurance verification, gives patients digital intake forms to ensure accuracy and reduce manual data entry, and integrates payment processing at check-in, empowering your staff to execute flawlessly.
2. Ensure back-office and clinical accuracy
Clean claims depend on behind-the-scenes precision. Two of the most common bottlenecks are outdated codes and insufficient documentation. Here’s what to do:
- Keep your coding current. When medical codes change and your practice uses outdated ones, it’s like trying to deposit checks written in old currency. Everything looks correct until you try to cash them. 64% of practices with strong reimbursement rates make staying current with coding changes a priority. Assign someone to monitor AMA and CMS updates, and update your practice management software immediately when changes take effect.
- Ensure documentation supports the services billed. A rejection isn’t always a billing error; sometimes it’s a documentation gap. 53% of successful practices emphasize ensuring clinical notes fully support the services billed.
This is where technology becomes a critical partner. A platform like Tebra ensures that your practice is always using the most current medical codes and provides EHR templates that guide clinicians to create comprehensive notes. This relationship between clinical documentation and billing accuracy is key to preventing back-office denials.
3. Establish clear, practice-wide systems
Consistent results come from consistent processes, not guesswork. Formalizing your approach ensures every team member handles every billing task correctly, every time.
- Develop a strong financial policy. 39% of practices operate with a clear, written financial policy that gives staff the confidence to enforce billing procedures.
- Train staff regularly. Your systems are only as effective as the people who use them. 42% of providers conduct regular staff training to keep skills sharp and align the entire team on their role in protecting practice revenue.
Establishing and maintaining these systems is far simpler with a unified platform. An integrated solution like Tebra gives your practice a single source of truth for patient information and billing processes, making it easier to train staff and consistently enforce your financial policies. When your tools support your processes, consistency becomes the default.
Get the tools to improve your practice’s revenue. Discover how to diversify your revenue, lower operating costs, optimize billing procedures, and outshine your competitors to secure your financial future with this free workbook. |
How to quickly reduce claim rejections
Preventing rejections is far easier than fixing them. Tebra’s survey shows that 90% of practices can reduce rejection rates by up to 70% when they focus on getting things right from the start.
Most practices notice changes quickly: 30% see fewer rejections within 2 months, while another 41% achieve a reduction in 2 to 3 months, and 21% achieve a reduction in 3 to 6 months.
Here’s how you can do it, too.
1. Verify everything before the patient arrives
Verifying coverage 24 to 48 hours before each appointment is the single most powerful step you can take to catch issues when there’s still time to fix them and prevent claim rejections. A patient might have switched jobs, changed plans during open enrollment, or had their coverage terminated without realizing it.
During verification, confirm these critical details:
- Current coverage status and effective dates
- Copay amounts and deductible responsibilities
- Prior authorization requirements
- Referral needs for specialist visits
“Insurance verification when our patients schedule their appointment, along with collecting payment at the time of their visit, has drastically improved our downstream collections,” Jesse P. Houghton, MD, FACG, senior medical director of gastroenterology at Southern Ohio Medical Center, says. “Gone are the days when you could bill patients after the fact and still reliably collect payment for services.”
“Insurance verification when our patients schedule their appointment, along with collecting payment at the time of their visit, has drastically improved our downstream collections.”
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2. Use the right software to improve billing processes
Your practice management system should be a safety net that catches potential problems before claims leave your office. Modern billing software includes claim-scrubbing technology that automatically reviews each claim for common errors — like missing patient information or coding inconsistencies — and alerts you to fix them before submission.
For instance, Tebra’s all-in-one platform includes integrated billing capabilities that automatically scrub claims and maintain current provider network data. As a result, it helps practices reduce rejections while streamlining their processes.
3. Create a rejection prevention team
Billing problems rarely stem from a single department. A front desk error in demographic data collection can cause a billing rejection. A clinical documentation gap can lead to denials in medical care. A coding mistake can trigger payment delays. The most effective solution involves creating accountability across all departments that touch the revenue cycle.
Form a small team with representatives from your front desk, clinical staff, billing department, and management. Meet monthly to review rejection patterns and discuss process improvements.
“Team meetings are key to catching problems early and making sure everyone involved is aware of these issues. A new billing or reimbursement issue may surface in one section of your office, while the rest of the office may be completely unaware,” Dr Houghton says.
“Team meetings are key to catching problems early and making sure everyone involved is aware of these issues.”
In-house vs. outsourced billing: Which is right for your private practice?
Perhaps no billing decision causes more sleepless nights for practice owners than this one: whether to outsource billing or keep it in-house. The reality is that both approaches can work well — when they match your practice’s specific situation.
- Outsourcing appeals to practices that struggle with billing staff turnover, training, or compliance. About 78% of practices that outsource do so to avoid the burden of hiring and managing billing staff, and 64% say it helps them stay current with regulations.
- In-house billing offers more direct control over the revenue cycle, and patient and practice familiarity. Roughly 70% of practices manage billing internally for these reasons, while 43% cite cost as a barrier to outsourcing.
To decide, evaluate your specific situation by asking these key questions:
- Cost: What is our true internal cost (salaries, benefits, training, software, infrastructure, management time) compared to the cost of an outsourced service?
- Control: How important is it for us to have direct, daily oversight of our billing processes and patient financial interactions?
- Expertise: Do we have the in-house expertise to manage coding updates, compliance changes, and complex claim appeals effectively?
- Staffing: Can we consistently hire, train, and retain skilled billing staff?
Download the free worksheet for further analysis to secure your practice’s financial future.
Tebra Managed Billing connects your practice to medical billing experts who can handle the important details of claims management. Learn more. |
Stop billing and insurance bottlenecks with Tebra
You don’t have to accept that your practice’s revenue will trickle in through a leaky billing system. Many practices like yours have successfully plugged their financial leaks by starting with just one systematic improvement, whether it’s better staff training or adopting an all-in-one practice management system. What matters most isn’t which improvement you choose first — it’s that you commit to making it work consistently.
Over time, you and your team can focus on what drew you to healthcare in the first place: helping patients feel better and live healthier lives.
Ready to move to a concrete action plan?
Download our free worksheets to benchmark your current processes, identify improvement areas, and set clear goals for a healthier revenue cycle.
Take a step further by booking a free Tebra demo, taking a tour, or getting customized pricing to learn more about how the right medical billing software can elevate your billing and promote financial sustainability
Learn more about medical billing:
- Beat insurance and billing challenges: Juggling various codes, navigating insurance claims, and ensuring your practice stays financially healthy has never been more complex. Get free tools that you can start to use now.
- Top 5 administrative tasks to automate in your practice: Say goodbye to tedious tasks and get time back in the day.
- Best medical billing software for private practices: Compare the best medical billing software for private practices in 2025, including features, pricing models, and tools.
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