When Jodi Strock came to Physicians Urgent Care as a practice administrator in 2017, she was met with an EMR and billing system that was difficult to work with. “There wasn’t a lot of transparency into the financial pieces. Even just running some of the accounts receivable reports...when you cross-referenced them with other things, they weren’t accurate,” Strock recalled.

Additionally, as a multi-location practice, it was critical to have separate financials for all four clinic sites. However, with their previous system, they could not create new locations under the same tax ID.

The billing team was also unable to produce operational reports with specifics on missing or inaccurate charges. This left Jodi and her team without valuable knowledge on adjustment summaries, write-off information, and charge aging.

“Especially when you have new clinics, you’ve got to know where the trouble spots are,” Strock explained. Without these separate insights, Physicians Urgent Care struggled to pinpoint, strategize, and resolve problems.

In 2019, Physicians Urgent Care signed on with NextGen Office after being recommended by their billing company.

From supportive implementation to better billing platform capabilities, Strock saw swift improvements with NextGen Office.

Implementation was a strong jumping off point, delivering a smooth experience with training modules that gave providers a quick transition to their new system. In fact, the Physicians Urgent Care team still leverages the NextGen Office training modules when onboarding new providers, and Strock still taps into additional support via the Success Community.

Above all, when Jodi Strock worked on her first operational report with NextGen Office after two years without simple and valuable billing insights, she was met with a surplus of organic information that she could sort by provider, code, and clinic.

“This is where NextGen [Office] changed everything for me,” Strock emphasized.

Better insights

Not only did NextGen Office help Jodi Strock create reports and manage data more efficiently, but it also allowed her to identify the source of roadblocks within their billing operations.

When looking within their reports, Strock noticed one bank account where there was a clear slowdown. Strock pulled up-to-date information thanks to auto-posted payments that update each hour.

Along with the A/R and insurance ledgers, Strock was able to pinpoint the 90-day timeframe in which the revenue slowdown seemed to be occurring.

“I go click in there, I can see the list of patients. I can also tell that it’s this particular code or this particular reason. Because the truth is that when there’s a problem on one side of the payer, it’s usually duplicated across multiple patients. Within five minutes, I’ve addressed a very large macro problem with a phone call to the billing company,” Strock detailed.

Without the insights provided through NextGen Office, Strock would’ve been unable to identify the exact cause of her problem, or it would have cost her more time and energy.

“It allows me to manage something that would have taken me hours before NextGen Office,” Strock emphasized.

Better decision making

NextGen Office has also helped Physicians Urgent Care proactively make decisions backed by data.

Strock notes one specific case related to Durable Medical Equipment (DME) and the uncertainty their team faced around flat rate payers and payment from self-pay patients. While the team discussed options, Strock turned to the data.

“Within a minute or two, I had found the right report to find the dollar amount and the actual number of crutches, slings, boots, etc. As far as a percentage of our revenue and the percentage of what we do, this is like 1%,” Strock explained. As a result, her team took the data, made a decision, and resolved an operational issue that eliminated the need for patients to face unexpected DME expenses at the conclusion of their visit.

Success by the numbers

The Physicians Urgent Care team works more efficiently, gains more timely insights, makes better decisions, and thus drives more revenue thanks to NextGen Office.

Being able to identify hold-ups in their revenue cycle has decreased the amount of write-offs they make on missed charges. Specifically, they have seen a drop from around 3% to less than 1%.

Similarly, in urgent care and primary care, Physicians Urgent Care sees a high patient volume with low dollar amounts per visit. Thus, Strock explained that “$5 more per patient on the revenue side is huge.” At Physicians Urgent Care, from 2019 to 2021, they saw about $10 more per patient in revenue after switching to NextGen Office.

Greater financial efficiency has made a difference at Physicians Urgent Care, and Jodi Strock doesn’t undervalue the role NextGen Office has played in their success.

“I can’t get bogged down in the financial pieces all the time and let money slow down. Nobody can. No health care company can do that. I think NextGen Office has been tremendous with the financial side of healthcare,” said Strock.