About the Company

How long has Hart been in the medical practice billing business?
We've been in the professional billing business for more than 30 years. Over the course of that time, we've grown into a respected, financially sound, customer-focused expert in medical billing and receivables management.

Where are you located?
Our offices are located at 3 Allied Drive in Dedham, Massachusetts, just off Rt. 128. That means we're convenient to medical practices in Greater Boston and, for that matter, throughout New England.

What types of practices do you typically work with?
All kinds, actually. They include Primary Care, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, OB-GYN, Pediatrics, Oncology, Mental Health, and more. Altogether, we provide billing services to more than 30 medical practices in the Greater Boston area. We also provide all of the billing services for the State of Massachusetts for its Childhood Lead Prevention Program.

What is the approximate gross billing that Hart processes?
On an annual basis, we process in excess of $300,000,000 of charges.

Do you provide billing services to hospitals?
We don't. We focus exclusively on physician practices.

How have you managed to grow so consistently over the years?
We're proud to say that virtually all of our growth has come the best possible way – through word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied clients.

About the Billing Process

What are the goals of your billing process?
That's simple – to help our clients capture every dollar to which they are entitled, to minimize denials, to resolve issues quickly, and to make the entire process as smooth, clean, and understandable as possible.

What makes the Hart billing process so effective?
It's our software. Our Billing and Accounts Receivable Management software is proprietary to us, and it's extraordinarily comprehensive. In fact, it integrates all of the processes of the billing cycle. Our FACT (Financial and Clinical Transaction) system is accompanied by a powerful, web-based reporting software Data Analysis Tool (DAT) that allows us to report on virtually all financial and clinical aspects of a practice. Our system also includes registration and appointment scheduling modules, thus enabling a closed loop billing process.

Does the fact that you have proprietary software mean that that's our only option if we use you for billing?
No. In some instances, particularly medical practices associated with larger hospitals, we work with the hospital's existing billing system.

How do you deal with denials?
Our Claims Resolution staff reviews insurance claims and patient liabilities on a regular basis. Their sole responsibility is to resolve denied and/or unpaid claims. To do that they work with the insurance carrier, the patient, and our client to pursue information that may have been missing, correct information that may need updating, or to clarify information that wasn't clear to the carrier. In other words, we make sure that all avenues are pursued to get denied claims paid – and paid quickly.

Do you do coding?
Absolutely. We employ professional coders certified by the American Academy of Professional Coders. In fact, every single coder at Hart enjoys that certification. We're also part of the AAPC's Extern Education Program. Coders in training spend three months with us learning how to code. Yes, most of them go elsewhere for employment when they leave us. But the fact that we provide this training is a measure of our ongoing commitment to quality coding and indicative of the confidence the AAPC has in us.

What metrics do you use to measure your performance?
There are four primary ones: 1) How quickly do our clients get paid? 2) What percentage of their accounts receivables are over 90 days? 3) What are their credit balances? and 4) What kind of collection rates are we generating? In every instance, Hart has a habit of outperforming industry benchmarks.

About Reporting

Have you found a way to expedite and improve the reporting process?
We certainly think so. DAT, our proprietary Data Analysis Tool, gives medical practices online access to a wide range of information about their financial processes and enables them to quickly diagnose revenue and productivity problems. For example, a practice can instantly monitor its A/R, analyze revenue shortfalls, identify denial trends, locate contracting issues and plug revenue holes and compare its business units, providers and departments. DAT also makes it possible for practices to evaluate their performance against national benchmarks.

What are some of the typical queries clients are using DAT for?
Numerous ones: Where are we experiencing our biggest denial volume? What are our largest denial types? Are they for particular services? Are they focused within a particular payor? Which providers are generating the highest level of RVUs? Which are generating the lowest? How do we compare to our peers?

Do we have to use Hart for medical billing to access DAT?
No, you don't. Some DAT clients use us strictly to help them intelligently analyze their financial data even if they use someone else for billing.