Medical Billing Companies & Consultants in Wakefield, RI

Cornerstone Billing Services, Inc., often shortened to CBS, is a medical billing firm headquartered in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. It handles insurance billing for private and specialty practices throughout New England. Owner Carol Sykes leads the company. Its core focus is behavioral health, meaning mental health clinicians and addiction treatment providers. CBS also works with physical therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and practitioners in other fields.

Billing and Revenue Cycle Services

The firm's monthly billing work covers the full path of a claim, from gathering the information to collecting the money owed. Practices that outsource to CBS can expect support with:

• Electronic claim filing, done promptly so cash flow is not delayed
• Paper claims for insurers that still require them
• Benefit verification for newly enrolled patients
• Follow-up on unpaid or problem claims
• Tracking of authorizations
• Accounts receivable reporting
• Matching sessions delivered against payments received
• Billing of patients for their balances
• Secure, HIPAA-compliant online access to billing accounts at any hour

Practice Management Support

CBS also offers practice management help beyond routine billing. The goal is to free providers to concentrate on patient care. This work includes:

• Maintaining CAQH and NPI profiles
• Watching expiration dates on items such as professional licenses and malpractice coverage
• Pushing demographic changes out to insurers, the IRS and the postal service
• Processing tax ID changes with payers
• Screening patients for benefits, deductible accumulations and authorization requirements
• Obtaining authorizations when they are needed

Credentialing and Contracting

Credentialing is a major part of the company's offering. CBS can manage enrollment from the initial CAQH setup through the signing of payer contracts. It completes the paperwork and handles follow-up with insurers so clinicians do not have to. The firm notes that recredentialing requires essentially the same steps as first-time enrollment.

Its recredentialing support covers commercial insurers, Medicare revalidation and Medicaid renewal. This makes CBS useful both for new practices joining networks and for established ones that need to stay in good standing.

Team and Approach

CBS staffs client work with a small team of named account managers. Sabrina Terilli serves as office manager and also manages accounts. Karen Piluso, Grace Gold, Isabel Generous and Kate Mayberry also serve as account managers. The company describes its working style as persistent pursuit of third-party payments, backed by careful record-keeping and strong ethical standards.

It works directly with insurers with the aim of resolving every claim rather than leaving balances unpaid. Service is tailored to each practice instead of following a single template.

For buyers comparing billing vendors, CBS is a good fit for smaller and specialty practices, especially behavioral health providers. It suits practices that want one local partner to handle claims, authorizations and payer enrollment together. The company states that it is currently taking on new clients and is also recruiting additional staff.