Medical Billing Companies & Consultants in North Canton, OH

51 Oakwood is a medical management firm in North Canton, Ohio. It handles the administrative and financial work of medical practices so physicians can put their attention on patients. A physician and an attorney founded the company together, and its website says it has managed more than 200 practices. It serves practices of any size and presents itself as more than a billing vendor: it offers a wider set of business services covering revenue, compliance and day-to-day operations.

Billing and Revenue Cycle Services

The core service is claims processing. Before submission, every claim goes through a four-stage internal review. Claims are processed within one day of receipt, and rejected electronic claims are fixed and resent within the same window. The firm says its clients average 14 days or fewer in accounts receivable. It also says that, as long as patient information is accurate, difficult claims get resolved within 90 days. Its staff take care of the ongoing follow-up work, including:

• Printing and mailing patient statements at the firm's expense
• Following up on patient balances and setting up payment plans that match each practice's financial policy
• Processing patient refunds when they apply
• Answering calls from patients and insurers through a toll-free line
• Working and appealing denials, and reprocessing aged claims
• Filing secondary and tertiary claims

Practice Management and Technology

Clients don't have to change their electronic health record system. 51 Oakwood sets up a VPN connection to the practice's current EHR at its own cost. For practices without an EHR, it can supply one. The team checks patient insurance eligibility automatically before appointments and trains front-office staff on referrals and pre-authorizations. Each client gets custom monthly reports, and the company stresses transparency about practice performance.

Fee Scheduling, Coding and Legal Support

Having an attorney in-house is what most sets 51 Oakwood apart, and the company cites more than twenty years of legal practice. The legal and coding staff review CMS fact sheets, local coverage determinations and payer rules for each specialty. They also analyze par and non-par reimbursement and upcoming Medicare fee changes.

Certified coders track quality and incentive programs such as MIPS, PQRS and Meaningful Use. The firm negotiates carrier contracts to get higher fees, handles provider enrollment and credentialing, and keeps track of license renewal and revalidation deadlines. It notes that undercoding carries risk, just as overcoding does.

Auditing, Consulting and Training

For practices worried about audits, the company will visit on-site to review patient charts for CMS compliance and documentation quality. It also verifies or re-credentials providers, supplies regional or national reimbursement benchmarks, and looks over accounts receivable balances. Staff can also run training sessions at the client's office.

Client testimonials on its site come from a Stark County women's clinic, an internal medicine group and a radiation oncology physician who has been a client since 2005. This suggests experience with both primary care and specialty practices. The company's copyright notice dates its operations back to 2003.

Custom Billing Service of Ohio is a medical billing firm based in North Canton, in the Canton area of northeast Ohio. It handles the business side of medical offices for healthcare professionals in Ohio and nearby states. The firm presents itself as an outside billing team that works almost like an in-house department, run by people who live in the same region as their clients. That suits practices that want a nearby billing partner instead of a distant call center.

Who It Serves

The firm mainly works with independent physician practices and other provider offices. Some have only a part-time biller, some keep losing billing staff, and others worry about what happens if their one billing expert is out. It also offers to cover patient billing questions during full business hours, which a small office often can't do on its own.

A Canton internal medicine physician quoted on the site says the team kept billing running smoothly while the practice moved to an electronic medical record and changed practice management systems. According to the 2023 acquisition announcement, the company has served specialties including behavioral health, cardiology and chiropractic.

Services

• Charge entry and submitting claims to payers
• Posting insurance payments
• Working and appealing denied claims
• Preparing and sending patient statements
• Answering patient billing questions during full business hours
• Physician credentialing
• Step-by-step follow-up on accounts receivable
• Local mail pick-up and delivery of reports

Its owners have backgrounds in accounting and software, so beyond medical billing the firm also offers custom billing and bookkeeping work tailored to each client. It works inside practice management and EMR/EHR platforms such as CollaborateMD and Henry Schein MicroMD. That lets practices keep their current software instead of switching to a vendor's system.

Expertise and Track Record

The team keeps up with regulatory and operational topics that affect provider revenue. These include coding standards, contracting and credentialing, MyCare Ohio, the Ohio behavioral health redesign, value-based payment, data security, HIPAA compliance, EDI clearinghouses, cloud-hosted software and fraud prevention.

The firm has particular depth in behavioral health and addiction treatment billing, which is useful to Ohio providers dealing with state Medicaid changes. It also earned a place in the TriZetto / Gateway EDI 99 Percent Club, which recognizes submitters whose claims go through the clearinghouse error-free at least 99 percent of the time.

Ownership

In June 2023, Billed Right bought the company. Billed Right is a revenue cycle management firm founded in 2006 and based in Longwood, Florida. The Custom Billing Service name and website are still in use, and the Ohio clients now have the backing of a larger national billing organization. For buyers in the Canton area, the firm offers a local office and staff who know Ohio payers, supported by the larger company's resources.