Key Takeaways Practices rarely decide to leave a billing vendor over one incident. It’s usually the accumulation of smaller, unresolved issues that eventually forces the decision. The reasons span the entire relationship, claims accuracy, communication, compliance, even how patients experience billing, not just one type of failure. Several of the most common reasons have nothing […]
Chris Saviano
Chris Saviano serves as the vice president of business development for Physicians Group Management. He has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance and business development. Prior to joining PGM, Chris was a member of the corporate finance departments of Lehman Brothers and Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in London. At Societe, he held various positions in departments focusing on equity capital markets, corporate derivatives, and leveraged finance. His work largely centered on debt and equity capital markets transactions in the healthcare sector across the Americas and Europe. Chris earned his MBA from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, with concentrations in strategic management and finance.
Posts by Chris Saviano
What to Look for in a Medical Billing Company
Key Takeaways Specialty experience is the most important differentiator among medical billing companies. Dedicated account management improves communication, accountability, and long-term financial results. Performance-based pricing aligns your billing partner’s incentives directly with your practice’s revenue. Strong denial management and pre-submission claim scrubbing are measurable indicators of billing quality. Technology only produces results when it is […]
What Credentialing Delays Really Cost Your Practice
Key Takeaways Provider credentialing typically takes 90 to 120 days — and during that window, in-network billing is not yet possible. Services rendered before enrollment is complete are either denied outright or subject to narrow retroactive billing windows that vary by payer. Medicare’s retroactive billing window is narrow by design — services rendered well before […]
Common Denials in Medical Billing: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How to Prevent Them
Key Takeaways Medical claim denials cluster into a small number of categories — most practices are dealing with the same types, even if the specific codes and circumstances differ Coding-related denials are the most prevalent and most preventable; they trace to claim elements that don’t align with each other or with payer rules Medical necessity […]
Orthopedic Billing Codes: The Errors Costing Surgical Practices the Most
Key Takeaways Global period exceptions require specific modifiers, and each carries a documentation requirement that, when unmet, turns a legitimate claim into a denial or a compliance flag. The multiple procedure reduction rule applies automatically to multi-procedure surgical cases; correct sequencing and modifier 51 exemptions still have to be managed manually. Modifier 22 is warranted […]
What Is a Clean Claim Rate? Benchmarks, Calculations, and What the Number Won’t Tell You
Key Takeaways A clean claim rate measures the percentage of claims accepted by the payer on first submission, without rejection or request for additional information Industry benchmarks, including those referenced by HFMA, put the target for high-performing operations at 98% — most practices land between 85% and 95%, and that gap has a direct dollar […]
Cardiology Billing: The Coding Errors That Keep Costing Practices Money
Key Takeaways Catheterization CPT code selection depends on whether the procedure was diagnostic or interventional and which components were performed — and both have to be right. Errors in this code family are among the most audited patterns in cardiology billing. CPT 93306 requires 2D imaging, M-mode, spectral Doppler, AND color flow Doppler — all […]
Chiropractic Billing Codes: How CPT Selection, Modifiers, and Diagnosis Alignment Drive Denials
Key Takeaways The CPT code for chiropractic manipulative treatment is determined by the number of spinal regions documented as treated — a mismatch between the code and the clinical record is one of the most consistent sources of denials. ICD-10 diagnosis codes must reflect the specific regions being treated; vague or non-specific codes leave claims […]
The Billing Gap Between Telehealth and In-Office Mental Health Visits
Key Takeaways Telehealth and in-office mental health visits require different place-of-service codes, and submitting the wrong one is one of the most common sources of avoidable denials. Modifier requirements vary by payer — and modifier rules for audio-video telehealth have shifted over time, so assumptions based on older workflows may no longer be accurate. Documentation […]
How to Use a Medical Claim Scrubber: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Key Takeaways A medical claim scrubber reviews CPT codes, modifiers, diagnosis codes, and claim structure before submission to flag errors that lead to denials Different specialties produce different types of claim errors — the same pre-submission review process surfaces different issues depending on the claim context AI-powered claim scrubbers identify relationships between coding elements that […]