Client Spotlight: Sentrii RCM
Tyler Lewis
Founder & CEO
Sentrii RCM
We sat down with Tyler Lewis, Founder & CEO of Sentrii RCM to chat about how OpenPM has helped his company stand-out as a leader within the anesthesia RCM market.
Tell us about your journey in medical billing and how it started.
When I finished my MBA I had an opportunity in medical billing because it was our family business. My grandfather was entrusted by physicians to start a company and provide medical billing services to physician practices back in the 60s. He had proprietary software that he developed at that time, which was one of the first IBM vendors in the country. For the longest time he and my father ran two businesses, a billing company and a software company. It’s been a nice change for me to run a billing company without having to worry about running a software company too. There’s a lot that you need to worry about. It’s nice to be able to trust a team like Open Practice to cover that for me, and I can focus on running the billing business and not the software business.
Was anesthesia always your billing specialty?
Anesthesia wasn’t always our specialty, and isn’t our only specialty. We put a focus on it because it’s a specialized service that requires technical knowledge that we can deliver.
Why were you seeking a software solution?
I had the inability to expand our efficiencies. We were seeking a solution that could support anesthesia. Not every RCM platform or billing software can perform what is necessary to do anesthesia billing, so we needed a system that we knew could follow everything that we needed. We needed a system that could work with all of the variables. I wanted a partner who was willing to listen.
What did you find on your search of the market?
We did a national search for an anesthesia-specific billing software. We needed a platform that could accommodate all specialties, but one that had the sophistication to do anesthesia billing. We looked into vendors across the country, and specifically looked at some national software packages that are headquartered in Kansas City. We even traveled there to do our diligence in person and quite honestly, we were disappointed in the flexibility with some of those options. Open Practice offered us a solution and a team that was committed to helping us develop what we needed and take customization as far as we needed it to go for our needs.
Also…
I think that the options for anesthesia billing software are limited. Lots of the large vendors don’t support anesthesia billing because it’s hard. It’s a specialty that has a lot of rules and many systems don’t want to devote the resources to making the system perform what it needs to. Many systems can do simple things in anesthesia, but when it gets more complicated, whether it be care team billing, split claim billing, unit billing, or time billing, a lot of the things that you need in a platform aren’t there in most RCM packages. So, you have to find a specialized package that can actually do anesthesia billing.
You collaborated with our development team for some custom workflows. How was working with our team?
Working with the team is great. It’s helpful when a team isn’t just a few people, rather a large team with a lot of different perspectives and knowledge in billing. It was a great experience not only for me, but for my team and for our operations folks as they had never engaged with a software vendor before. Our previous package was, “here it is, you do it this way,” and we didn’t have any ability to change things around or improve it. That was refreshing to find with Open Practice, the ability to change things, because we were truly able to commit to that. It’s all well and good to say that we’re going to customize and give you better ways to work, but being able to actually deliver on that was great for me and my team. One of the best parts about Open Practice is dealing with their development team and their client management team. We signed with OpenPM in February of 2020, and then the pandemic hit, and we were making a big transition as a business. We launched in May and we didn’t miss a beat! Their team was there for us while they were dealing with changes in their business. We got off the ground and didn’t miss a deadline, and we haven’t looked back. That was a big undertaking for us, as well as Open Practice, and everyone adjusted.
How has Sentrii RCM grown since implementing OpenPM?
We’ve seen growth in the way we provide service. We are a company that wants to do things very simply. I want to eliminate paper. I want to eliminate inefficiencies. I truly want to compete with the best team, and to find the best team you have to have a tool that works quickly in today’s world. Using a browser-based technology that’s responsive and available anywhere, allows my team to work efficiently and that’s how we compete as a business.
The right tool..
Using a billing system and teaching a team is hard if you don’t have the right tool. OpenPM is a tool that I can rely on to be efficient, to work the way that it needs to for my team, to be responsive, to not be offline all the time, and to give them the ability to work seamlessly anywhere. I’m always asking questions of Open Practice because everyone’s asking me “can the system do this? Can it do that?” There’s never been a time when Open Practice has told me no. It’s not a hard no at least, it’s a “we’ll look into that. If you need it, I’m sure someone else needs it, and we’re going to consider it as a company,” which is great for us. I don’t expect my billing software to make decisions solely for me, but when I know that they’re considering what might be best for companies like me, doing the things that I’m doing, it gives me peace of mind. I’m always thinking about how to improve and I encourage my team to do the same thing, and with Open Practice I’m able to deliver on that.
What advice would you give someone going through a software evaluation?
There’s a huge learning curve with a new software. You can’t expect to know how everything is done. You can’t expect that you’re doing everything the best way. When you are considering a solution, you should consider a team that’s going to support your growth and your learning. You’re bound to miss something or you’re going to need to teach someone a new way of doing something, and without a team to support you, it’s too much to overcome. I would advise any company looking to evaluate a software to first look inward and be honest with yourself, are you ready to learn and grow? Do you have a team that wants to come along on that journey with you? You’re going to have a software team that’s there to support you, but is your team ready to do that same level of growth? It was a big undertaking for us, preparing our team to work with a software team that supports them. It was a new experience. Our team learned very quickly how to write support tickets, how to frame things in a way that a software company could understand, and once we did that we became a better company.
What would you tell someone who’s evaluating OpenPM?
I would tell them to ask a lot of questions. The nice thing about Open Practice is their sister company, Etactics, is also a resource for information. It’s nice to have perspectives from all RCM angles, where it’s the clearinghouse, it’s the software, it’s statements, it’s all there. So, ask all the questions and make sure that you understand everything that is available for you through Open Practice. You might find some things that you can eliminate in using them not only as a software vendor, but also a statements vendor and a clearinghouse.
Would you recommend OpenPM?
I would, and I would recommend them if you want to improve, you want to be efficient, and you want to compete. A lot of people don’t understand what software is capable of. I’m comfortable knowing that I’m pushing Open Practice, and they’re pushing themselves, to improve what they’re offering. They’re able to work with many different platforms, many EMR’s, and lots of different payers. You have to be flexible and dynamic in this world, and they’ve been able to support us and all the things that we’ve encountered. There’s never been a problem too big or too small that they haven’t been able to help us with.
Sentrii RCM
With Sentrii, we make things simple. We have a great team that listens and reacts to problems that we face. We have a system that allows us to find things before they find us. We deliver a service that is competitive and efficient in a marketplace where a lot of folks are sending services overseas, using global options, and using more people to solve the same problems. We’re doing the opposite of that, where we’re using technology to solve problems, and it sets us apart and allows us to compete in a competitive marketplace. Visit sentrii.com to learn more.