Adam Torres and Petria McKelvey discuss revenue cycle management for healthcare providers.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify / Stitcher / RSS
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Revenue cycle management is a crucial component of managing a successful healthcare practice. In this episode, Adam Torres interviewed Petria McKelvey, CEO of Precision Medical Billing. Explore the Precision Medical Billing story and book Petria will be launching with Mission Matters.
Watch Full Interview:
About Petria McKelvey
Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in Healthcare Consulting, Healthcare Industry, Physician Relations, Medical Billing, and U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Strong business development professional who attended University of Houston.
About Precision Medical Billing
Precision Medical Billing’s goal is to make it easier for the medical industry to complete their primary mission of providing quality, reliable healthcare to their patients, without having to worry about continuously changing payment regulations in order to get paid for the services they provide. Since our founding in 1995, Precision Medical Billing has expanded our business to offer various services to help improve internal billing departments as well as collect millions of dollars that would otherwise have been lost due to erroneous billing. They are a dedicated billing company, complete with a team of professionals that will work for agencies, administrators and physicians to maximize their revenues.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d love to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today is a very, Special episode. We’re bringing Petr McKelvey on the line, and she’s the c e O of Precision Medical Building billing.
And also I’m proud to announce that she’s an author and one of our upcoming Mission Matters book. So Petr, Hey, first off, just so thrilled to welcome you not only to the show, but to the Mission Matters community. So welcome. Thank you, Adam. Glad to be here All. All right, Petris. So excited to get into Precision Medical Billing and we’ll talk about your business, your roots, really, how you got started as an entrepreneur as well.
But, and also we’ll give a little bit of a teaser on the book. So just for everybody watching this, just so you know, we’re not gonna do a deep dive into the book today, but that’s intentional because while two things, number one, we do sell books. So the book’s not available. Sale yet. But we will be also bringing Petr back on the line and back of the show to do a deep dive into the book and her writing once it’s live.
So we’ll go into that as well. But Petra, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute. So Petr, we at Mission Matters. We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. Petra, what mission matters to you? The mission that matters for me for the past 28 years is helping healthcare providers been an advocate for healthcare providers and getting the money that they deserve for all the hard work that they do from insurance companies.
I believe we fight insurance companies every day to make sure our clients, which are healthcare providers, get paid. It’s great l Love bringing mission-based entrepreneurs on the line to share their mission, you know, why they do what they do, how they’re doing it, and really what we can all learn from that so that we can all, you know, grow together.
That’s what the Mission Matters platform is about, is growing together. So just to get us kicked off, I mean, where did this entrepreneur side start for you? Were you one of those people that were born in Entrepreneur? Did you grow into it? Like, tell us a little bit more about your background. I don’t know.
Mom was pretty much. God-given is what I’m going to say. So I have my, I had my son November 2nd, 1994. Mm-hmm. And when it was time to come off of maternity leave, I didn’t wanna come off maternity leave. Mm-hmm. But I started doing medical billing back in 1989. And so by this time, 19 94, 95, I’d been doing it for a while and actually the female that I was working for at the time told me, okay, go get a dba.
So back in 1995, I had a hybrid situation, and hybrid probably wasn’t even a word back then, but she told me that I could come in two or three days a week and I can work from home. Two or three days a week. So honestly, that is how Precision Medical Billing was born. Wow. And my son of often say that the, the company is, is his twin.
So I had twin, I had two births at that time. I had my son and I had my business. And so after 28 years, here we are. Oh my gosh, what a great story. This is the fir over 5,000 interviews in, that’s the first time I heard heard that one. So yeah, you got, you got a twin. You had two. He said the business is his twin.
He just said that last night when I talked to him, so. Oh, that’s hilarious. So obviously, you know, many years into your business and, and I asked this question because, you know, there’ll be a lot of entrepreneurs that’ll watch this and some are, you know, earlier in their stages of entrepreneurship. Some are maybe a little bit further along, but talking to, let’s just say that fresh crop of entrepreneurs if there was something that you could do a little bit differently in your.
Specifically in the early years now with the hindsight of, you know, being 2020 and being able to look back what kind of things would you have maybe have you have maybe told the, the earlier just getting started petria, what would you have told her? For advice I would say, which is what I did couple of years in, but find you a mentor.
Find you somebody who’s done this before. Because even though I hit my head along the way, yeah. I didn’t hit it as hard because I had mentors in my life to help guide me because they’ve gone through this before. What, you know, the young entrepreneurs are going through. I’ve probably been through already, you know, so mentorship is really, really, Really important.
I love, you know, giving the knowledge that I have of, you know, to help them to not bump their heads so much, you know, because sometimes you’re gonna do things your way, but just to be able to have a mentor, have someone to talk to, have someone to go to, to help guide you that has already done it, already been here before.
It’s valuable. It is invaluable, is what? It, it was for me, my mentor for the past 30 years. Her name is Vicky. Mm-hmm. Vicky Carroll. And she has truly helped me guide me even to today through my company. So I’m forever grateful. So I would tell them to go find you, a mentor, to have to hold to, to, because you’re gonna need it.
And it, it’ll help you. It’ll help you a along the way. And I, and I love that you don’t really sugarcoat this. Like there’s, there’s gonna be ups, there’s gonna be downs, everything in between. When you’re an entrepreneur, I feel like sometimes the, the new group of entrepreneurs out there, whether they’re looking at, you know, Instagram or whatever it is, just maybe sometimes get this pressure put on themselves that they’re supposed to have everything figured out immediately or they’re supposed to.
But to me, and in my understanding, and I. My understanding as an entrepreneur is, you know, it takes some time and there’s gonna be some bumps along the way, but that perseverance or that thing that kind of gets you through it whatever that thing is, is gonna be what makes the difference. So I guess what I’d ask you is what helped, what kind of helped you along on the tough times?
Like what helped you push through? What helped me push through, what I’m gonna say is my family, my parents, my, my faith in God, and, and yes, most importantly my, my children, cuz I was a single mom. So it was, it was those, those things that helped me, you know, say I can’t fail. And that’s what I tell people all the time now, as long as you don’t stop, you won’t fail.
As long as you don’t quit, you will not fail. Mm-hmm. If you keep going and keep persevering, you will go. You, you will win. And that’s another thing that I’d like to tell people if you can find out. And what I try to do with, did do with my kids and mm-hmm. I try to tell different people. If you can find out.
What your giftedness is or what your child, your child’s giftedness is. The youngest, the, the sooner you can do that, the more successful they will be. I was just blessed. I’ve always loved money and numbers working with money and numbers, you know, so I never thought about healthcare though, you know? Yeah.
But once I got in healthcare, cuz I would faint at the sight of blood, I never thought about the, the operational or the administrative side of healthcare. I always thought about being a doctor or a nurse and. I will gag and, and faint, you know, at something like that. But never thought about the you know, administrative side of it.
And it’s still money and numbers. That’s, that’s what I deal with all day, every day is money and numbers. Yeah. And so finding out what your passion is, you know, we hear that all the time, of course. Mm-hmm. But it’s so true. If you can find out what you love, find out what you like, it don’t even feel like work.
I’ve been doing this for 30. Oh my God. 30 something years. Yeah. But I still love it. Mm-hmm. I still absolutely love what I do, so I think that’s very important too. If you can find out what that is mm-hmm. You’ll have longevity because how can I not be good at something I’ve been doing for 35 years?
Yeah. And so we, we’ve talked a little bit from the standpoint of maybe some, some advice for those, those younger entrepreneurs or those middle career, let’s just say entrepreneurs. Let’s talk maybe to some of the individuals like yourself that have been business for a while and maybe handle that mentorship question from the other side if they’re not already doing it.
Like what are some of the benefits of maybe being a mentor and paying it forward that you’ve found in your. I think for me, roundabout, cause we’ve been in business 28 years, so probably roundabout the 10th year, you know, surrounding myself with people that are better than me, right? Yeah. So I, you can’t be the best at everything.
You will never be the best at everything. Finding out what your strengths. And then complimenting your strengths with other people that you need from having a great attorney and having a great cpa, having a great mentor, having a great HR person, you know, whatever that is, where you’re weak. Even with, with sales, I’ve been having the same salesperson.
Even she’s been with me for over 12 years, having a great sales and marketing person. You know, cause that wasn’t that, that’s not my niche that I’m, that’s not my, as I would say, my giftedness. You know, so I always try to surround myself with people smarter than me in those areas that are experts in those areas where I am not.
And that is, I would say that is probably the best advice. And I, people laugh all the time, but I tell ’em I always wanna be the dumbest person in the room. Yeah. I, I’ll do, I wanna always surround myself with people that are way smarter and there are a lot of people out there that are way smarter than me.
And I always wanna be in a room just learning, listening, grabbing Yeah. Their concepts and, you know, teaching me that’s valuable. And that’s what I would tell them. If you’re the, if you are the echelon person mm-hmm. In the crowd, find you a different crowd. Mm-hmm. Cause that crowd is not serving you at.
Yeah. That’s great. Great advice. I wanna, I wanna jump around here a bit Petr. So let’s let’s talk a little bit more about your business. So Precision medical billing tell, tell us a little bit more about what you do. So that’s our name. I mean, that’s, that’s a lot of what we do. We’ve been doing that for the past 28 years and we do medical billing.
Basically, so healthcare providers, your physician, you may go to the doctor and he doesn’t have anyone, he or she, he doesn’t have anyone in their office. That builds your insurance. So that he can get paid, he or she can Can get paid. Yeah. So he outsources that to a company like mine, precision Medical Billing.
Mm-hmm. And we have to build insurances and collect, you know, collect the monies and get the receivables and revenue that they need to keep their doors open for them to stay in business and keep doing what, what they’re doing. So that’s what we do. We do from billing. You know, insurance verifications, all of that stuff.
Eligibility, anything that has to do with healthcare, dealing with all the different healthcare giants. I think that’s all we do is fuss with them all day. No, pay us. Pay this claim. You’re gonna pay this claim today. You know, so that is, that is what we do recently in the last couple of years. We’ve also, and that’s considered the back office, right?
Yeah, that’s called the back office in the doctor’s office. But we’ve recently, not too long ago got into the front office because we’ve began to see that. There’s a problem. By the time the claim got to us and we couldn’t collect on because something wasn’t done right on the front end, so now we’re actually virtualizing doctor’s offices.
We’re virtualizing not the whole office, but virtualizing the the front desk of the doctor’s office. Because when you call the doctor’s office and you press one for an appointment, you’re actually talking to p b. You’re actually talking to us. We do all the appointments, incoming, outgoing confirmations.
Doing their insurance, making sure that that, you know, we accept their insurance. We let them know, you know. Mm-hmm. How much they owe. It’s very, because healthcare is changed, it is still, you know, changing and we have to let them know ahead of time. Now it’s a, it is a, it is a federal law now it’s called a no surprise act.
That healthcare providers need to be more transparent with, you know, their cost. And so that’s one way that we come in to help as well. But we all, we let the patients know how much they owe up front. If they have any questions, why do I owe this? We’re there to answer that question because the whole goal is to make sure that when you go to the doctor’s, That’s all you’re doing is seeing a doctor.
Mm-hmm. You shouldn’t have to talk about money, you know, because sometime if you do, you are at that window. You’re having to talk about money. Yep. By the time you go back there, the doctors wonder why your blood pressure’s so high, and that’s why, because you there trying to talk about money now. Mm-hmm. So we do all of that.
We virtualize anything you would normally. In the waiting room from forms, digitize all the forms, everything. We make it seamless and we virtualize the whole front desk experience for doctor’s offices. And we handle, we handle that. So now we do the front piece. Mm-hmm. And the back piece, the back office piece for healthcare providers, that that’s what we do.
And so as I’ve gotten to know a little bit more about your model and really revenue cycle management, so this rcm concept that you have and that you’ve, you’ve, you’ve been teaching me about like tell us a little bit more about like how this helps really the patients at the end of the day.
Because if doctors aren’t collecting on, you know, work they’re doing, then this is less, not as good service, not as good care. Like, tell us a little bit more just about the ecosystem from your vantage. It really does help the patient physician relationship mm-hmm. Of the patient healthcare provider. Even if this, it can be an outpatient physical therapy clinic, it can be you going to a ambulatory surgical center, an outpatient center to get surgery, whatever that is.
Mm-hmm. And what happened, I got the idea a long time ago because I had to go in for a service. And I went in, they made me come in, the hospital, made me come in. I signed something on the, you know, the little black pads with the pen or whatever. Yeah. So it’s like your electric signature, electronic signature.
And then I gave her my check, you know, you told me how much it was gonna be. I gave her my check. She turned around and her desk and turned back around and handed my check back to me. And I said, well, where did I even have to come in here? I mean, we could have done all of this over the phone. Yeah. You know, but, you know, it does help, it really does help with, with the relationship between the, the caregiver or the clinician and mm-hmm.
And the patient, and letting the patient know and understand their benefits. Cause a lot of times when I ask people, do you understand your benefits? No one understands their healthcare. Yeah. You know, they’re like, what’s the difference between inpatient in-network and out network? Mm-hmm. What is a copay?
What is a co-insurance? What is I, no one really understands all of that, right? Mm-hmm. That’s my world. I’ve been doing that for over 30 years, so I understand it. Yeah. But it’s helping, it’s educating. I love to educate too. We do a lot of educating. I would say, and I call it patient financial counseling, but it’s a lot of educating that we do to the consumer mm-hmm.
As well. Mm-hmm. And a lot of consumers, they, they wanna know because where else should we go? And you don’t know how much it’s gonna cost. Yeah. Even if you go to the restaurant and, and that lobster says market price. You’re gonna say, how much is it tonight? How much does the lobster cost me if I wanna get it?
And that’s the way our healthcare should be as well. Mm-hmm. We shouldn’t wait for two months later and get a surprise invoice or a, you know, surprise statement in the mail. And say, what? Why do I owe this? You know, it’s just, it’s just not a good feeling. It’s not a good relationship and it, it needs to change.
And so we’re doing our part in helping to change that and giving the consumer the education. And let them decide. Mm-hmm. What they wanna do. You know? And sometimes it’s not that you won’t get serviced, but it may be that I understand I owe a hundred dollars, can I be on a payment plan? Mm-hmm. What is that?
Cause we know you need the care. The physician or the healthcare provider know you need the care. It’s not, they don’t want you to, but they have to stay in business too. Yeah. And how can we stay in business if they don’t get paid? You know, what, what they need to get. And so speaking of the education side of things, so p b Institute, like, like, how’d the idea for this to come up and maybe tell us a little bit more about it.
P b Institute. So, p b institute really is a part of p b as well because I used to travel. I would travel and do seminars and workshops from La, Vegas, Chicago, everywhere. We would, you know, travel and teach people how to. How, how to do medical billing. I would teach it. Yeah. And I still do. And cuz my dad’s a minister, so one thing he always taught me and I love teaching is that yeah, close fist, if you sting you with it, yeah.
Nothing is going out, but nothing is coming in either. Right. So you have to share. And that’s really how p and b has grown is because we do give and we. I’m not afraid to share the knowledge that God has given me. That’s how I leave my, my legacy. Some, you know, we have a following of people that say, oh, Patria taught me that.
Yeah, Petria taught me that. You know, so that’s the way of me leaving my legacy as well, is teaching people you know, how to do me medical billing. So the Institute is a compilation of different types of healthcare industries because physician billing is not the same as home health. Home health building is different from hospital building, hospital, different from nursing home, different from hospice, different from dme, ambulance lab, pharmacy.
They’re all different, right? Mm-hmm. So that is what the institute is designed to do, and we are always looking for instructors, you know, for the institute as well. But it’s teaching medic. It is just gonna be a whole institute teaching how to do different types of medical. In case you want a career change or anything like that, or you are you just trying to know more because we’re always, each year we are updating.
Every year you have regulations, rules, regulations. Mm-hmm. Especially with the different insurance companies and changes, we have changes every year. Mm-hmm. And so we have to keep ’em updated too. So, yeah. Th that’s my way of teaching. And I used to travel physically. Mm-hmm. And then when Covid happened, I’m like, Hmm, let me just take, you know, all the whole, all the curriculum online.
Yeah. And that’s what we’ve done. So we don’t really have to travel anymore. We still have some. On site one’s, like, we’re gonna be having one in July in, in Houston. Mm-hmm. Four physicians and four home health, and then one in, I think in November. In, in Las Vegas. Yeah. So we still, I still do travel every now and then, but I don’t do as many as I used to.
Because I still, I still travel to different associations and teach and speak at different conferences and things of that sort, so mm-hmm. I’m getting a little older, all that traveling. I just can’t do it anymore. Adam. Oh, I, I think what you’re doing is you’re just finding new and better ways to to add to the content that you’re creating and ways to distribute to more people.
So you’ve been blessed and you’re finding more. To, to be a blessing and to give that knowledge. And I’m gonna take that one, that saying from your father with me about the cl about the closed hand. That’s a, that’s a great one. That’s, I haven’t heard that one. Yeah. So speaking of also, of, of creating new content and and finding new ways to to give back the Money Lady podcast.
Te tell me more. You know, I get excited about talking about Podcast Atria. We haven’t started it yet, but that’s one thing I am excited. Oh, that’s, but I’m announcing it cause it’s gonna happen. Yeah. I have my own little avatar and everything with, with the money lady. So yes. Money later is gonna be a podcast just for, it’s, it’s not only just for healthcare.
Everybodys, like I said, it’s gonna be for consumers too, even just to call in, ask questions, get understanding, like I call it patient financial counseling. Mm-hmm. With the physicians, you know, even them helping them because I guess I have a tug in my heart because I, I remember a client of mine a long time ago.
I. This person, we’re not gonna get paid for them anymore. You need to discharge ’em. You know you’re not gonna get paid. And they told me I can’t. I can’t, I don’t care if I’m not getting paid, I’m still gonna see Ms. Lucy. Ms. Lucy is always my fictitious person, but I’m still gonna, I have to see Ms. Lucy. No, we’re not gonna discharge and we’ll just see her.
And most clinicians, that’s what they went to school for. They’re very serious about their oath that, that they took. Right. And that’s the main thing for them, is making sure that their patients are okay. And so for me, that is, that’s just that just touch, that touches me every. Yeah, because if you know I need to advocate for them, then I feel like I’m gonna advocate for them and fight for them and make sure that they get paid and make sure that they get every dime that they deserve for the hard work that they do.
Yeah. And and, and I can’t wait to listen to this and that’s why I brought it up. I’m like, I know it’s not out yet, yet, but it’s gonna be and when it is, I, I’m excited to hear what you have to say. Are you plan on bringing on some guests too, or like, oh yeah. I’m gonna bring you, I’m gonna bring you on Adam too.
You gonna be one of my guests too? Oh man. We’re gonna have some fun. We’ll have some fun. Alright, so another another part I I definitely want to, I, I mentioned earlier in the show we weren’t gonna talk about it much, but we’ll bring it up. And so that’s the book. I’m not holding you to to it today, but what are some of the, maybe the ideas of the concepts that you plan to, to present in the upcoming book that we’re launching together?
Some of the things that, you know, we’re gonna talk about really is, Managerial things, I would say, and one of the main things that I’m talking about in the book on a management side is, is, is. Because I cannot do what I do alone. You know, P m B is a, is a growing hungry machine. We’re growing more and more, getting bigger and bigger, and I cannot do it alone.
It was very humbling to me because I started off by myself, right? Yeah. I started the company off with just me, and now we’re over 40 employees. Hmm. And now, you know, I cannot, but it was humbling to me when the day I, I realized, ugh, I can’t do this by myself anymore. And that was, I’m serious. That was like humbling to me.
Cuz I used to be like, oh, I can do this, I can do that. Yeah. Oh, if somebody is not there, or I’ll do it, I’ll take care of it. Oh, you know, superwoman with the Cape and everything. Mm-hmm. It was humbling when I said I cannot handle all these clients by myself anymore. Yeah. You know, and so just, just needing my people, the team that we have, you know, gathered over 28 years.
I mean, I’ve had some knuckleheads, you know, but now I have a great team. My team is awesome. P M B is is awesome. It, and so it’s all about my people. So a lot of the book is gonna talk about my people, my struggle getting, getting to where we are today. Yeah. And we’re in a great place today, and it’s all because of my.
P B is, is is awesome. My, my, my employees are. Alright, I’m, I’m gonna cut you off there because we’re, we’re bringing you back so I got have a bunch of more questions I might ask, but I’m, I’m gonna cut you off there, so don’t worry. But that’s intentional. Well, well, Petri, I, I just have to say and Austin, Sarah, it’s been wonderful having you on the show, learning more about p b, of course, the, the podcast coming out, of course, the book we’re gonna be working on together and launching.
I just have to ask what’s next? I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for. Oh wow. What’s next for p b? Just this week doing a deal with it with one of the largest hospitals. And you know, Houston, we we’re based in Houston, so mm-hmm. We are here with the largest medical center in the world, you know?
Mm-hmm. So just trying to probably ink the deal with one of the largest hospitals. So just growing, growing, growing, doing more, you know, federal contracts too, state and federal contracts is, is is what’s really new for us and what’s really, you know, boosting our, boosting our growth. So a lot is in store for p p.
It’s the store for, for p and b, keeping me busy, keeping me. Oh my gosh. I’m so, I’m so grateful to hear that and I, I’m just I’m a fan and I, I’m excited to continue watching your journey and growth and how you’re, again, been blessed and are figuring out new ways to be a blessing. That being said, if somebody’s watching this or listening to this and they wanna learn more about PMB or to follow your journey what’s the best way for them to.
I would say go to our website and that is the company name, so it’s www.precisionmedicalbilling.com. And even, you know, we’re always looking for great talent. Yeah. You know, talent acquisition is always, always good. We, we really do hire on our core values, so look at the about Us page and our core values and our mission and vision statements and everything.
But you can apply on our. Under on [email protected]. Perfect. And we’ll put all that information to show notes so that our, our audience can just click on the links and head right on over and check out the website. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters or engaging in an episode, or listen to the platform.
Well, about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs and executives, and having them share their mission, the reason behind their mission, their journey, and really what we can all learn from that so that we can all grow together. The whole point of the Mission Matters platform is to serve as a source of growth for all of us.
If that’s the type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you Hit that subscribe button because we have many more. Mission based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing. And Petria really, it’s been a pleasure until the next time we get to work together.
Thanks again for coming on the show. Bye. Thanks, Adam. I look forward to talking to you again.