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Manuel,

I'd like to respond to your post, however, in the interest of full disclosure and honesty, please note that I am the IT Pro and Developer for a medical billing company.

6% may or may not sound like a lot, but before making any decisions, consider the following details:

* Is this billing company charging 6% of what is billed out or 6% of what is collected? There is a big difference between the two. 6% of what is billed out means the billing company gets their money whether or not you get yours. Just because something is billed out doesn't mean it gets paid. If the biller is charging 6% of what is collected, then that means the biller doesn't get paid unless you do. The biller has every reason to go after every dime of every claim that they can.

* Is the billing company willing to integrate with Amazing Charts? If so, how much will this integration cost?

* Can the billing company generate custom reports for you? Many billers can provide only those reports that come from their billing software. If your request isn't one of those reports, the answer is often no. Creating custom reports is something I do all the time.

* Does the billing company do daily follow-ups?

* What is your collection rate going to be? Will the billing company collect 90% or more of receivables?

* What is the cost of the billing company versus the cost of hiring someone to work in-house and the cost of a billing software? What percentage of receivables do you expect an in-house employee and your own billing software to collect considering this employee may have other responsibilities? Are you willing to pay a bigger wage to hire someone with billing experience or are you going to hire the cheapest person you can find?

These are questions to consider before getting stuck on the 6% service fee charge your billing company is going to charge you. You have three choices:

* Stay with the billing company you have now.
* Go with another billing company.
* Pull billing back in-house.

Make certain your decision is an informed one before taking any action.

JamesNT