Medical Billing Companies & Consultants in Dublin, OH

Overview

ECS Billing & Consulting, Inc. is a healthcare billing and consulting company based in Dublin, Ohio. It is set up as a corporation and has run as a billing business since the mid-1990s. It offers both outsourced claims work and advisory support to healthcare providers. The office is in central Ohio, but listings say it serves providers across the country. It also operates under the name ECS Billing & Consulting South.

Services

The firm's main work is turning a provider's services into paid claims. Its software can send electronic claims to many types of payers, which cuts down on paper submissions. It also offers full revenue cycle management, so clients can hand over the whole process from claim to payment rather than just one step. Its main areas of work are:

• Medical billing and claims handling for healthcare providers
• Billing and consulting for durable medical equipment (DME) companies and suppliers
• Full revenue cycle management
• Electronic claims sent to many different payers
• Consulting on running and improving billing operations

Specialty focus

The company's clearest specialty is durable medical equipment. It has a long history with home medical equipment companies and suppliers. Its roots trace back to a billing operation started inside a business that sold home medical equipment, respiratory and infusion therapy services, and ran a retail pharmacy. That operation later became its own billing company.

This background matters to buyers because DME billing has its own documentation and payer rules that general medical billers may handle less often. The firm's president also gained hands-on experience in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities.

Leadership and team

Cynthia (Cindy) Dunne is the company's president and a partner. She has a bachelor's degree in business administration and computer science, and her background is in health insurance and billing. She is also familiar with commonly used credit card processing systems.

Sarah Hanna is listed as vice president and is linked to the company's start in the home medical equipment field. Business directories describe a team of a few dozen employees. The company says its work is meant to benefit both its clients and its staff.

Industry ties

Listings say ECS is an associate member of several healthcare trade groups. These include the American Association for Homecare, the Ohio Health Care Association, the VGM Group and the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services. These memberships tie the firm to the homecare and medical equipment industries it serves. They also give it a way to keep up with changes in payer and regulatory rules.

Who it suits

ECS is likely to suit DME suppliers, homecare companies and other providers who want a long-established billing partner that also gives consulting advice. Buyers who want a Dublin-area firm with an office they can visit should also consider it. Its long history with medical equipment billing is what most sets it apart from general billing services.

Progressive Healthcare Solutions, often shortened to PHS, is a medical billing and healthcare consulting firm based in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb on the northwest side of Columbus. It works mainly with independent physicians, smaller and mid-sized practices, specialists and home health agencies that want an outside team to handle their claims. The company's stated goal is to help practice owners and smaller groups stay financially healthy while their staff spend less time on paperwork.

Billing and revenue cycle services

The core of the business is outsourced billing that covers the whole life of a claim, from coding through submission, follow-up and collections. PHS concentrates on catching mistakes before claims go out, submitting them promptly to keep cash flowing, and pursuing denied or rejected claims to recover revenue. Clients get live access to their account data and current reports, so they can check where payments stand at any time. Its offerings include:

• Medical billing and claims submission
• Medical coding services
• Denial and rejection management
• Revenue cycle management
• Billing audits and help limiting the impact of payer or Medicare reviews
• EHR support
• HIPAA compliance services

Specialties served

Beyond general practice billing, the firm runs dedicated programs for home healthcare agencies, mental health providers, ophthalmology practices and small practices. Its site lists the usual causes of denials that its process is built to address: missing data, duplicate submissions, services that are not covered, lapsed eligibility and coding errors. PHS says it serves clients across Ohio and the wider Midwest.

How it works with clients

For buyers, a key point is that PHS does not make practices switch platforms. The team works inside whatever EHR or EMR system a client already uses, which is meant to avoid disrupting clinical routines. All billing work is done by U.S.-based staff, and the company stresses that it does not use offshore call centers.

It also says that keeping its own overhead and staff turnover low lets it price services within reach of smaller practices. The firm reports that most clients get about double the return on what they spend, through fewer errors and recovered revenue, and it offers prospective clients a free first consultation.

Background and pharmacy consulting

The company is led by President and CEO Salim Khalife, who was a founding partner of a pharmacy serving long-term care facilities, so he has direct experience owning a healthcare business. PHS describes its team as having three decades of experience. Alongside billing, the firm runs a national pharmacy consulting practice.

That practice covers buying a pharmacy, business plans, start-up guidance, PBM audits, operations, supply chain, automation, policy development and ambulatory pharmacy work. This pharmacy background, including first-hand work in pharmacy billing, collections, system conversions and Medicaid audits, sets PHS apart from firms that only do billing.

A testimonial on its site from a foot care practice praises the firm's responsiveness and reliability.