Outsourced credit balance cleanup: who works the overpayments sitting on your books?
A credit balance is somebody's money. One specialist sorts out whose.
A dedicated, full-time credit balance specialist from Neon Link costs $2,995 a month, month to month, or $2,895 a month on the 6-month plan, with no setup fee. Working remotely from the Philippines or India on your US business hours, they work your credit balance report account by account, find out why each credit exists, fix the ones that are posting errors, and prepare patient and payer refunds for your approval, while tracking the payer overpayment letters and recoupment notices that come with response dates. It fits practices, groups and billing companies with a credit balance report nobody has had time to work, while every refund is approved and paid by you.
Rates come from our live rate card. Page updated .
See 3 candidate profiles for your role
Tell us the role. Within 48 hours our team emails you 3 anonymized profiles from people who applied for this kind of work with us: their experience, their region and the software they use.
What your Linker handles
- Work the credit balance report account by account, largest and oldest first
- Research why each credit exists: a duplicate payment, a primary and secondary that both paid, a payment posted to the wrong patient, visit or date, a missed adjustment, or a patient who paid more than they owed
- Fix the credits that are posting errors by moving the payment or adding the missing adjustment, by your rules, with a note on why
- Prepare patient refunds and payer refunds with the account history behind each one, for your approval; money moves only when you approve it
- Answer payer overpayment letters and recoupment notices, check whether the payer is right, and prepare the refund or the dispute for your sign off
- Track every open refund and payer request to a close, with the date it was found and the date it was resolved
- Flag credits you cannot return, such as a refund check that came back, so you can apply your unclaimed property process
- Send the practice manager a short weekly note on credits cleared, refunds waiting on approval and the balance left
We screen for the systems you run, such as Tebra (Kareo), AdvancedMD, eClinicalWorks, athenahealth, NextGen or Epic, and the payer portals where refunds and recoupments are handled, such as Availity. If a finalist has not used yours, you'll know before they start.
How the work is measured
What your Linker is measured on. The targets are set with you in the first week, from your volumes and your hours, and written into your statement of work.
- Every credit on the report researched and given a reason and a next step, on the cadence you set
- Every refund prepared with the account history behind it and sent to you for approval
- Every payer overpayment letter logged when it arrives, with its response date in front of you
- The credit balance total tracked week to week, so you can see it come down
What a team costs
| Team | Month to month | 6-month plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Linker | $2,995 | $2,895 |
| 2 Linkers | $5,990 | $5,790 |
| 3 Linkers | $8,985 | $8,685 |
| 4 Linkers | $11,980 | $11,580 |
| 5 Linkers | $14,975 | $14,475 |
| 6 Linkers | $17,970 | $17,370 |
Per month. 40 hours a week per Linker. No setup fee. Prices from our live rate card.
How we vet your Linker
Our recruiting team in the Philippines runs a strict screening and review of every applicant, using a process built by our founder, Dan Betthauser, from twenty years running outsourced operations across the Philippines, Costa Rica and the United States. Every Linker goes through:
- A screen of the application against your role: the work, the software and the experience you need
- A recorded spoken English sample, reviewed by our team
- A practical skills test for your work, scored in our own system
- A live video interview with our recruiting team
- An ID check and a background check: NBI clearance in the Philippines, police clearance in India and Pakistan
- A workspace check before day one: a quiet, private room, wired internet, a backup connection and a plan for power outages
- A signed confidentiality agreement before they see any of your data
- Your own interview with the finalist: nobody starts until you say yes
How it starts
- Step 1Tell us the work: a 15 or 30 minute call with our team, or the sixty second scope on the homepage.
- Step 2Get a written quote at the published rate, held for 30 days.
- Step 3We recruit and screen for your work and your software, and you interview the finalist before they start.
- Step 4Your Linker works your queue on your hours. A Neon Link manager runs the account and answers when you need them.
- Step 5If the fit is wrong in the first 60 days, we swap them at no cost.
A good fit, and not a fit
- Practices whose credit balance report has grown for months because the billing team works denials first
- Groups preparing for an audit, a sale or a system change that want old credits explained before they move
- Billing companies that want to offer credit balance cleanup to their provider clients
- Approving or paying refunds. Your Linker prepares each one; you approve it and your office pays it
- Legal advice on overpayment rules or unclaimed property. Ask your compliance advisor or counsel
- Practices whose state Medicaid program or payer contracts do not allow patient data to be handled offshore. Check yours before you start
Open roles behind this page
We recruit for this work now. These are the live postings we hire your Linker from:
See 3 candidate profiles for your role
Tell us the role. Within 48 hours our team emails you 3 anonymized profiles from people who applied for this kind of work with us: their experience, their region and the software they use.
Questions owners ask
How much does it cost to outsource credit balance cleanup?
$2,995 a month for one dedicated, full-time person (40 hours a week), month to month, or $2,895 a month on the 6-month plan. There is no setup fee, and pay, equipment and management are inside that one number. For comparison, a US medical records specialist costs about $5,990 a month fully loaded, using the BLS median wage plus employer costs.
Why does a credit balance need attention at all?
Because it is usually money that belongs to someone else. Patients expect their overpayment back, payers ask for theirs in letters with response dates, federal rules set a deadline to report and return Medicare and Medicaid overpayments once they are identified, and states have unclaimed property rules for refunds you cannot deliver. Your compliance advisor sets the rules your practice follows; your Linker does the research and the paperwork behind them.
Will they refund money on their own?
No. Your Linker researches the credit, fixes it when it is a posting error, and prepares the refund with the account history behind it. You approve every refund and your office issues the payment. Nobody at Neon Link moves your money.
How is patient information handled?
HIPAA requires a business associate agreement before an outside party handles patient information, so one is signed before your Linker sees any. Your Linker signs a confidentiality agreement, passes a background check, and works from a private space where patient information cannot be seen or overheard. We screen for people who understand the HIPAA minimum necessary rule and keep patient records off personal devices, and they work inside your systems with the access you give them. Some state Medicaid programs and payer contracts limit offshore access to patient data, so check yours before you start.
How is this different from hiring a virtual assistant?
You get one dedicated person who handles your work on your hours, inside your software, and a Neon Link manager runs the account: pay, equipment, replacement if it comes to that, and a phone that gets answered. You never run offshore payroll or manage a freelancer alone. It is not a ticket queue or a 24/7 answering line.
How fast can someone start?
We start recruiting when you say go. You interview the finalist before anyone starts, and the start date is set with you once you pick the person. We would rather take the time to find the right fit than hand you whoever is free.
What if the person is not the right fit?
If the fit is wrong in the first 60 days, we swap them at no cost. After that, if they leave, we recruit the replacement at no charge and manage the handover. Training on your process runs at the normal monthly rate.
Do we have to sign a long contract?
No. Month to month is available on every plan. The 6-month plan trades a longer commitment for a lower monthly rate. A written quote at the published rate is held for 30 days.
Related pages
- Medical Billing Companies: Claims follow-up, AR and denials, payer enrollment, the queues your team never gets to.
- Underpayment recovery specialist: What a dedicated specialist costs to find payer underpayments against your contracted rates and work them back, for a flat monthly price instead of a share of what comes back.
- Secondary insurance billing specialist: What a dedicated specialist costs to bill secondary and tertiary payers after the primary pays, check Medicare crossovers and fix coordination of benefits problems.
1 US medical records specialist, fully loaded: ~$5,990/mo How we calculate this
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