Billing
“Yes, we’re primarily insurance-based with some self-pay. That means we’re submitting claims daily, dealing with eligibility issues, and answering client questions about EOBs and denials.”
Do you bill insurance today?
“For couples and trauma, we match clients to a specific clinician based on fit and credentials, but for general therapy intakes we just want the first available licensed provider. Right now we handle both manually and it slows down booking.”
Do you schedule clients with a clinician directly or are you looking to schedule with the first available clinician?
“Every pay period, our operations manager pulls reports, validates clinician totals against deposits, calculates clinician splits, and then rechecks exceptions like refunds or late insurance payments. ”
What is the process you follow weekly/monthly to calculate payroll?
“For minors, parents often share one email login, which is messy when custody situations are complex. Emergency contacts may need access to scheduling but not clinical notes."
How are parents and emergency contacts for minors accessing scheduling, payment, and documentation information for their child/dependent?
"In addition to standard psychotherapy, we offer medication management and some specialty services that require careful tracking and documentation."
Are there any types of prescribed therapies are you offering?
“Denials and slow payer responses are our biggest issue, especially when requirements differ by plan. We spend a lot of time figuring out what went wrong and resubmitting.”
What is the biggest challenge in your insurance business?
“Once we schedule an intake, we manually create the client record, send forms, verify insurance, and confirm the appointment. If anything is missing, we chase it over email. By the time the intake happens, we’ve touched the file 4–5 times.”
“Starting on the calendar, what is your workflow when you take on a new client?”
“Clinicians are supposed to focus on care, while admins handle scheduling and most billing, but some of our providers still collect copays and manage their own caseload.”
What is your expected workflow for your clinicians, are you handling the admin portion for your clinician and they just see clients, or is the expectation that the clinicians bring in their own and work their own caseload, collect their own co-pays?
“We use a separate e-sign tool for certain documents and then upload signed copies back into the chart. Clinicians sometimes forget to attach the signed version, and admins have to chase it."
How are you sending notes and treatments to clients to be signed?
“We have five associates who need supervisor review and sign-off on certain documentation. Our supervisors definitely want an efficient way to review notes and track what’s pending.”
Do any of your clinicians require supervision?
“We pull ERAs when we can, but for some payers we still rely on portal downloads or paper EOBs. Then we match those to deposits and manually post payments.”
How do you handle payment reports currently?
“We like having one calendar view for all clinicians, but it’s hard to manage rules like room usage, appointment types, and provider availability.”
What parts of your calendar do you like with your current EHR, or what do you wish was easier to work with?
“Many of our clients do individual therapy and family therapy with a separate clinician that meets with the whole family. We need each provider to see the shared history and documents, but keep their notes separated when appropriate.”
Do you have clients that see more than one clinician at the same time? (multi speciality practice) How would you want to access the client chart in those scenarios?
“Clients constantly ask for appointment details, telehealth links, paperwork status, and what they owe. Parents also want visibility into scheduling and billing for minors.”
What are the most important things for your clients to have visibility into?
“We’re trying to implement this kind of care tracking - sending periodic symptom check-ins and reviewing trends in session, but it’s inconsistent. Some clinicians track progress, others don’t, and staff spend time reminding clients. We need something that makes it routine without adding admin burden.”
Do you use scored assessments or measurement based care for your clinical process?
“We’d love automation around claim scrubbing, posting, and flagging stuck claims, especially anything pending longer than a few weeks. Right now our biller has to remember to check portals and run reports, and it’s easy for issues to sit too long.”
Is there a part of your billing workflow that you wish could be automated?
“Between our reminder tool, online scheduling add-on, and document e-sign platform, we’re paying close to $500 a month for our practice.”
Do you have any other tools for scheduling and how much do those cost?
“We’re multidisciplinary. We have mostly licensed behavioral health therapists, a few students working toward credentials, a couple of Psychologist who prescriber meds, and a care coordinator.”
What types of clinicians do you have at your practice?
“Our biller runs a list and sends reminder emails, but it’s inconsistent when things get busy. Front desk sometimes schedules anyway, then we realize there’s a balance.”
How are you reminding clients about unpaid balances on an ongoing basis and prior to scheduling a new session?
“We have three prescribers - two psychiatric NPs and one psychiatrist alongside 12 other therapists..”
How many providers at the practice prescribe medication?
“Deposits hit our bank in batches, then our office manager reconciles them against receipts and the client ledger. If refunds or chargebacks happen, it does take time to trace them effectively."
How do you get paid for client payments? i.e. what's the current payout/deposit process?
“Most of our add-on tools don’t truly integrate—they either send emails or require CSV uploads. We’re copying appointment details, re-entering client info, and manually confirming documents.”
Do those calendar functions integrate with your current EHR? If so, what is that workflow like?
"We track clinician productivity, documentation timeliness, and client retention, but it’s mostly manual—supervisors check charts and ops updates spreadsheets. There’s no easy way to see who’s falling behind until it becomes urgent, and then leadership scrambles to intervene."
How are you tracking your team members' effectiveness?
“We send intake packets digitally, but clients often start them and don’t finish, or they attach files through email instead. Our admins chase missing forms and manually upload documents.”
How do your clients complete their intake documentation today?
"Clinicians jot quick bullets during sessions, then finish notes later, often after hours. Some dictate into their phones, others type at the end of the day.”
What's the general process your clinicians use to record their notes?