Billing companies that work ophthalmology claims every day. Describe your practice once and compare their proposals.
A few questions about the practice, then billing companies that fit send proposals. You are not committing to anything.
Hand off all of it or just the parts that are breaking. Say which in the form so the proposals match.
Charges entered, claims checked against payer edits, and sent daily so clean claims go out the first time.
Every denial worked, appealed, or corrected, with the root cause tracked so the same denial stops repeating.
Old balances called on and worked by payer and by age until they are paid, adjusted, or written off on purpose.
Certified coders assign CPT, ICD-10, and modifiers from your notes, or audit the codes your providers pick.
New providers enrolled with payers, CAQH kept current, and revalidations handled before they lapse.
Statements, online payment, payment plans, and the phone calls that come with them, handled in your name.
Eligibility checks, prior authorizations, and old AR cleanup go through the same request. If you only need one piece, say so.
There is no right answer for every practice. The usual tradeoffs:
Ophthalmology billing looks simple from the front desk and turns ugly in the claim file. Nearly every visit raises one question: medical eye exam or routine vision exam? The answer sets the code family, the payer, and what the patient owes. A diabetic retinopathy check billed to the vision plan gets denied. The same visit billed to medical without the right diagnosis gets denied for the opposite reason. And modifier 25 on an exam done the same day as a minor procedure fills most ophthalmology AR reports.
Then the testing. OCT, fundus photography, and visual fields carry medical necessity rules that differ by payer, and many plans want the diagnosis, the order, and a written interpretation on file before they pay. Staff who bill from the superbill trip on bilateral services and the RT and LT modifiers. Cataract surgery brings a 90 day global period, so the post-op visits you book are bundled, and any visit you treat as a separate problem needs the right modifier and documentation. Premium lens upgrades add a patient-pay piece that must stay apart from the covered surgery, with the paperwork signed first. Retina groups carry something else: intravitreal injections are buy-and-bill drugs, so you front the cost, and a wrong unit count or a missing step therapy record can leave that money unpaid for months.
Medicare and Medicare Advantage fill most ophthalmology schedules because the patients are older, which makes prior authorization and step therapy more of a daily chore here than in most specialties. In-house billers tend to get the exam coding mostly right and the drug side wrong, or the reverse. A good specialty biller can tell you without looking it up how your payers treat cataract post-op visits, which injections need an authorization before the needle goes in, and why an injection claim bounced for a missing laterality. Outsourcing makes sense when one person is covering the front desk, coding, and denials at once, or when a retina or surgical group has outgrown what one biller can track. In your quote request, give your exam mix, your surgery volume, and whether you buy and bill drugs.
Three steps. Most practices hear from the first billing company within a business day.
Specialty, providers, claim volume, your software, and what you want handled.
Your request goes to billing companies that work your specialty and take on practices your size.
Compare fees, scope, reporting, and contract terms side by side. Pick one, or none.
What practice managers usually ask before they fill out the form.
Describe the practice once and compare proposals from billing companies that fit. No obligation.
Request proposals