“Our list of claim denials had reached 80 pages. A huge amount of our working capital was tied up with insurance companies, and we weren’t getting the cash flow we deserved. We knew if we were going to make things better, we had to find an experienced revenue management company with a more complete list of capabilities,” she said.

Physician’s Primary Care, while located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is part of the greater Louisville, Kentucky metro area. With two offices just minutes from the Ohio River, the practice offers specialties ranging from family medicine to advanced imaging, women’s health and more. Its range of services means it works with a wide range of patients, insurance plans, payers, and payment options. Having a seasoned, end-to-end revenue cycle management provider is critical to its success.

Based on a recommendation from a value-added reseller, Stultz looked into ZirMed® and its comprehensive lineup of revenue services. “ZirMed is clearly a one-stop shop,” she recalled. “It offers everything from pre-verification to billing and payment plans. And it has relationships with thousands of payers across the U.S.”

ZirMed®, also headquartered in Louisville, takes revenue management far beyond the services provided by clearinghouses. It serves as a full management partner to healthcare providers of all sizes, providing greater payment efficiency, profitable value-added services, and timely, valuable claim information that allows the provider to improve its insurance claim reimbursement performance.

Provided as a Web-based service, ZirMed’s end-to-end revenue cycle management service set helps level the playing field for small-to-medium sized practices. It can enhance cash collection, set benchmarks for internal controls, and reduce claim errors. “From the start, I could see that ZirMed would be easy to learn,” Stultz said. “Once we made the decision to use ZirMed, the switchover process was very streamlined, including integration with our practice management system.”

Physician’s Primary Care uses GE Healthcare’s Centricity Practice Management System (PMS) for patient and financial management. Stultz especially liked the way that ZirMed’s suite of services synched with the GE platform. “With ZirMed we have a seamless solution. It’s very easy for our billing team to work with, even our new employees. They pick up the interface very quickly,” she stated.

By putting the entire ZirMed suite to work—eligibility verification, patient payment options, claims submission and tracking, Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) automation, collections, cash management, reporting/analytics and more—Physician’s Primary Care has seen significant improvement in its payment efficiency, cash flow and profitability. Since it began its relationship with ZirMed some three years ago, the practice’s accounts receivable days have dropped by 75%. Z Pay, ZirMed’s Web-based credit/debit card payment system, has increased and simplified patient co-pays at the front desk, at the time of service. And as Stultz notes, ZirMed’s reports have given her practice the “ammunition” it needs to resolve disputes with payers.

“Many insurance companies, along with Medicaid/Medicare, are trying to hold our money longer. Back in 2008, when Medicaid started requiring NPI [National Provider Identifier] numbers on claims, we were getting a huge number of denials. ZirMed helped us get over that problem. It automatically flags claim errors before they’re submitted—but more than that, its reports, like its Submitted Claims vs. Remits report, helps us stay on top of outstanding and stalled claims.”

ZirMed’s full spectrum of revenue cycle management tools has put Physician’s Primary Care on top of its finances, and enabled it to stay there. “I wish all our outside vendors exhibited the quality ZirMed does. Its customer service, its timeliness in jumping on problems and resolving them, is exceptional,” Stultz states. “The battle for gaining payment is daily and never-ending. With ZirMed on our side, we’re finally able to win the fight.”

About ZirMed:

Founded in 1999, ZirMed is a nationally recognized leader in delivering revenue cycle management solutions to healthcare providers. ZirMed enables healthcare providers to leverage the power of technology to cure administrative burdens and increase cash flow. ZirMed solutions include eligibility verification, credit/debit card processing, check processing, claims management, coding compliancy and reimbursement management, electronic remittance advice, patient statements, patient e-commerce solutions, provider credentialing, and lock box services. ZirMed solutions are designed to complement provider workflow and to provide innovative, creative and flexible solutions for healthcare’s most pressing administrative challenges. For more information about ZirMed, visit www.zirmed.com/pr.