The A/R needs its own category

It is Feb 2, 2026. We continue to be in the same rocking boat on the telehealth waivers. It is high time that the powers-be just set in stone the common sense waivers for the sake of patients and providers. It is not just impacting the access to care, but also the financial viability of practices as we are forced to cancel tele appts, pushing their appts much further.

This billing course and Dr @Heather Signorelli need a much deserved appreciation. I came across her podcast a few months ago and after she mentioned about the course, I decided to check it out. I run an independent medical practice in rural California (Modesto) for the past 8 years or so, focused on primary care, Diabetes & Obesity. I would have loved this resource and the podcast. The two resources are a goldmine not just for the medical billing community, but also for all of the office managers, practice managers and owner-Physicians that are responsible for the operations. It gives the most relevant and prioritized checklist to run and improve your bottom-line. A few nuggets of wisdom that I loved (rephrased for clarity and emphasis): 1. Billing (and the RCM cycle) starts the first time your staff engages with your patient. 2. No paper claims, ever! 3. You deserve all of the patient balances in your bank yesterday! 4. You cannot improve what you do not measure (KPIs). The best advice I can give for anyone who is here or on the NatvrevMD podcast is to pick one KPI every week or month this year and improve up on it. But to do that, you need to find a way to get those most critical reports from your practice management tool or the clearinghouse. Then you would know which ones to prioritize that have the biggest impact. For me, it would be: AR > 120 days, writeoffs and denial management. To be honest, I have not been disciplined enough in the past to sit down and work with my external billing team and ask for information (denial categories, for e.g). It is going to change in 2026, thanks to this podcast! With independent practices operating in such a challenging reimbursement environment and significant administrative burden, we need to use as many tools or technologies we can get to (and smart podcasts such as NatRevMD) be super efficient to help us get paid what we deserve and to also learn about updated CPTs and ancillary services that can bring more revenue (Check out the latest episode on the new codes for RPM for 2026!)

The best resource for me has been Google reviews. I've integrated a service that sends a quick survey to patients within 2 hours of the visit. If the patient had a good visit, we encourage patients to post a review on Google. Over the past few years we collected over 250 such reviews. I manage the Google page for my practice and it allows me to link a "Request Appointment" pop-up, that sends me an email when a patient submits it.