Case Study
GynOnc Practice Uses State-of-the-Art Billing Platform to Increase Collections and Grow Staff
Bay Area Gynecology Oncology helps cancer patients, survivors and women with pelvic floor issues. With a state-of-the-art medical billing platform and a team of revenue cycle management (RCM) experts, they’ve been able to expand their staff and help more patients lead full, productive and happy lives.
Medical billing in the United States is at least 10 years overdue for a transformative change. We believe Gentem is the organization that will modernize medical billing in this country.
Ken Winters
Practice manager, BAGO
Company Overview
About Bay Area Gynecology Oncology
Bay Area Gynecology Oncology (BAGO) is a San Jose-based medical practice that specializes in gynecologic cancer treatment, urogynecology services and cancer survivorship care. They provide access to clinical trials and offer a range of gynecologic surgeries. Each patient receives an individualized care plan that’s tailored to their unique diagnosis and treatment preferences.
BAGO’s mission is “to provide patients and their families with the highest quality medical care available anywhere in the world by treating the whole person both during and after cancer treatment.”
Headquarters
San Jose, CA
Services
Gynecology oncology, urogynecology and survivorship services
Date Founded
1999
Longtime Billing Partner Creates Revenue Gaps and Inefficient Processes
BAGO has served the San Jose community for more than two decades. For most of that time, it used the same medical billing service.
Although the billing service had been in place for 15 years, the processes were far from perfect. Its disorganized, manual workflows meant BAGO didn’t consistently bill or follow up on certain services. Ultimately, that led to a considerable amount of timely filing write-offs.
The existing billing service also lacked sophisticated systems and wasn’t able to comprehensively work each claim. Routine processes would stop without warning, and BAGO would discover incomplete work. In one case, the system failed to send all statements and the practice couldn’t collect certain patient balances.
Gentem has delivered record results for BAGO; December 2021 was BAGO’s highest gross collections month in its 23-year history. This success has helped the practice hire another physician and its first physician's assistant.
Finding an Experienced and Responsive Partner
It was clear that BAGO needed a new billing solution. But leaving a 15-year partnership, despite its imperfections, was a big jump.
“Like all medical groups, we heard from several billing companies every year. But we just weren’t interested in making a change without an obvious leap in systems and sophistication,” says Ken Winters, practice manager for BAGO.
BAGO had high expectations of any new billing partner and required a modern solution with reliable processes. The partner had to handle routine billing workflows accurately and consistently, so BAGO staff could focus on other tasks to grow the business.
Modern Billing Software Resolves Financial Pressure and Accelerates Payments
Switching billing services after 15 years felt like a big transition, but BAGO knew Gentem’s AI-powered medical billing platform would be worth the effort.
“Our practice isn’t afraid of being an early adopter of change if that change has real potential. So far, Gentem has met all of our very high expectations.” Winters says. “Medical billing in the United States is at least 10 years overdue for a transformative change. We believe Gentem is the organization that will modernize medical billing in this country.”
BAGO launched with Gentem’s fully-managed RCM platform in July 2021. Winters and his team played an active role in the onboarding process to help with a smooth transition.
Thanks to its state-of-the-art medical billing software and in-house RCM team, Gentem has resolved the financial pressure BAGO felt with the previous billing partner. The platform also accelerated BAGO’s insurance payment cycle, allowing the practice to bill patients quicker and closer to their appointment or treatment date. And more timely billing translates to quicker patient payments.
With their Gentem partnership, BAGO has access to dedicated Gentem customer success and RCM managers. The two teams collaborate on improvements to billing and revenue cycle management (RCM) workflows.
“Our processes today are much less time-intensive because we don’t have to babysit our billing company anymore,” Winters says. “We trust Gentem to perform the core billing and RCM tasks — and they’ve earned that trust through their performance.”
Record Receipts and Continued Growth
Once BAGO finished fine-tuning its workflows, Gentem delivered record results. December 2021 was BAGO’s highest gross collections month in its 23-year history. The following months also saw excellent receipts, leading BAGO to hire another physician. Soon, BAGO will hire its first physician’s assistant.
“We know of many private practices that decided to close because of medical billing issues. But they likely would have made a different decision had they used Gentem,” Winters says. “If Gentem continues to deliver for organizations like BAGO, it will provide a springboard for the resurgence of private practices.”