Laboratory RCM

Optimizing Revenue Across the Laboratory Spectrum

Phytest’s full-service laboratory RCM solutions manage the billing and collections obstacles that reference laboratories face on a daily basis. By focusing on every stage of revenue cycle management, Phytest ensures timely and accurate payments through our proprietary technology platform and complete transparency with our customer portal, Phytest Atlas.

As a lab owner, you need to rely on your billing partner to provide real-time access to financial and operational performance. Our philosophy is simple. They are your patients. It’s your revenue, and it’s your data. You deserve to have unfettered access to all of your information any time you need without restrictions and with complete transparency. That is why we developed Phytest Atlas, our proprietary BI and reporting tool. Atlas provides complete visibility into your lab’s performance including charge information, payments, adjustments and denials, and puts the information you need to successfully run your lab right at your fingertips.

Regardless of your specialty, labs face a host of issues that impact their revenue, including declining reimbursements, staffing challenges, and compliance with state and federal regulations. Whether your lab lacks the capacity to handle revenue services internally or the expertise needed to address the complexities of laboratory revenue cycle management, Phytest helps labs get paid faster.

Laboratory Specialties

Anatomic Pathology

In today’s healthcare climate, pathology groups are facing unprecedented pressure. Reimbursement cuts continue to put strain on pathology groups and labs and that trend is expected to continue indefinitely. When you add ever-increasing regulatory requirements and payer scrutiny, it becomes clear that pathology groups will need access to enhanced data to manage through these headwinds.

More than ever, pathology groups and labs need to look towards strategic partnerships that can provide extensive expertise in revenue cycle management, BI and analytics, and help you grow through these obstacles.

Toxicology

Managing a toxicology lab is challenging. As an owner, you should be focused on clinical quality, operational efficiencies and client service. This leaves little time to focus on the complex world of laboratory RCM. Phytest’s full-service RCM solutions focus on data accuracy, claims workflow optimization and provide the tools necessary to evaluate your financial performance so you can continue focusing on providing superior clinical outcomes and maintaining strong referral relationships.

Molecular/Genetic

As precision medicine and genetic testing continue to grow, so do the demands on internal billing staff and central billing offices. These demands often lead to reduced reimbursement due to your staff’s inability to keep up with the latest industry developments and payer regulations. Keeping up with the high volume of denials and appeals necessary to properly adjudicate molecular and genetic testing claims can become daunting. As labs scale, the demands that frequently overwhelm internal billing departments can be easily managed through Phytest’s proprietary RCM workflow automation tools and dedicated laboratory billing specialists.

Clinical

Clinical lab results inform as much as 70% of patient care decisions. The high-volume, low-margin nature of clinical lab reimbursement along with the large number and variety of tests offered by many clinical labs, often creates a shift in staffing as billing offices are staffed higher to manage larger volumes. Allocating additional staff to the billing office often forces labs to restructure their clinical staffing model to maintain profitability which can cause longer than normal turnaround times for resulting tests, more frequent instances of human error, and bottlenecks in clinical workflows. Our automated RCM solutions and highly trained laboratory billing specialists provide the strength you need to collect your money and powerful analytics to identify and resolve inefficiencies. This allows you to focus on running your lab and deploying your staff where they will most positively impact your bottom line while Phytest focuses on getting you paid for the tests you perform.

Physician-Owned Labs

Physicians today need access to accurate test results with a rapid turnaround time. To assure they are getting the accurate results they need in a timely manner, many physicians are bypassing reference labs and choosing to provide lab testing in house. Whether you are looking for a full-service lab billing partner to manage your lab receivables or a turnkey solution to provide access to critical lab testing to make informed treatment decisions, Phytest has a solution.

Physician Groups

Reimbursement

Submitting claims doesn’t always mean you’ll get paid.

At nearly every stage of RCM, there are opportunities for lost revenue. Incomplete demographics, inaccurate insurance information, no prior authorization and precertification, or just being out of network with a certain health plan can all lead to reimbursement being delayed or denied. Sometimes, internal billing teams just can’t manage the high volume of denials and appeals necessary to keep your lab profitable. No matter the obstacle, Phytest understands what is needed to patch up the leaks that can lead to lost revenue and bad debt.

Processes

Lost Revenue Adds Up Quickly

Our goal is to get you more of the money you’re owed. Whether you are a startup lacking the bandwidth to handle billing, a pivoting company trying to manage underperforming billing and collections teams, or a growing company looking to control costs while improving clinical outcomes, we will work with you to analyze your pain points and collections data. Then, we’ll help you optimize your revenue management processes.

 

Onboarding

When you partner with Phytest, we’ll work with you and your lab information system (LIS) to facilitate integration with the Phytest platform to optimize revenue throughout the billing cycle. Our technology is software-agnostic, meaning we can integrate with all lab information systems to ensure seamless onboarding.

Consultation

During the onboarding process, we will work with lab personnel to develop best practices related to patient intake, insurance verification, patient payment policy and compliance. We will also evaluate your coding and current reimbursement to determine the opportunity for financial improvement.

Workflow

We offer RCM guidance designed to help you improve workflows, leading to increased revenue. Once we verify the accuracy of billing files, we manage all RCM functions, from claims processing and payment to appeals management and patient collections.

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Solutions

Once you’re on board with us, take advantage of these revenue optimization services:
Onboarding

Integrations to Optimize Automated File Transfer

Onboarding

Front-End Information and Eligibility Verification

Onboarding

Order-to-Cash Timeline Optimization

Onboarding

Phytest Atlas Client Portal Access

Onboarding
Billing Process Optimization
Onboarding

Full-Service Revenue Cycle Management

Integrations

Managing your billing data has never been easier. Phytest’s customized RCM technology platform seamlessly integrates with all laboratory information systems allowing for more accurate and timely transmission. This results in a reduced order-to-cash timeframe designed to get you paid faster.

Analytics

Business Intelligence Tools

Our business intelligence (BI) platform provides real-time and historical data and presents it in a way that allows our lab partners to turn that data into actionable, data-driven decisions. Having data at your fingertips allows you to make faster decisions and identify potential areas of operational improvement. Phytest Atlas ensures that you have the right data to implement decisions quickly, accurately, and with the ability to easily measure impacts.

Financial Insights

Whether you are looking for payer trends, patient payment metrics, overall collection performance, or just trying to make sense of your denials, our monthly reports and account reconciliation processes summarize your data into a concise set of reports that you can use to assess the financial health of your lab and to look for opportunities for improvement. Reports can also be customized to fit the unique needs of your financial management team.

KPI & Sales Team Benchmarking

We’ve all heard the term “what gets measured gets managed.” With Phytest Atlas you can measure and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and sales metrics on one easy-to-use platform to make sure your lab is monitoring individual performance in pursuit of your strategic goals. The transparency offered by Phytest Atlas ensures your teams are all looking at the same data and working towards a common goal.

lab tests annually

Laboratory Tests Managed Annually

Years

Employee Retention

Years On Average

Client Retention Length

%

Client Retention Rate

%

Clean Claim Rate

%

Call Center Abandoned Call Rate

%

Lab Tests Annually

David Crane

Co-founder

After years of leadership in the lab industry, David co-founded Phytest in 1998. His current responsibilities include overseeing the company's strategic direction, opening new lines of business and maintaining existing client relationships, and providing oversight to sales efforts in primary and new business lines.

Prior to Phytest, David served as chief operating officer at Southeast Gynecologic Oncology. He was also a partner at MedTest, a laboratory servicing the home health sector, before selling the company. He also held positions at Coram Healthcare and Merrill Lynch. 

David holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration in finance from the University of Florida and a master’s in business administration in finance from Georgia State University.

David is married to Dr. Jessica McCluskey Crane, a retina surgeon, and they have four sons and two golden retrievers. When he’s not in the office, David enjoys golf, tennis, platform tennis and water sports.

Wade McKenzie

Co-founder

As co-founder, Wade has been a driving force behind Phytest from the very beginning. He is currently responsible for the overall operation and performance of the company. He not only stewards the delivery of world-class customer attentiveness, led by a team of skilled professionals but also Phytest’s technologically advanced business processes and solutions. 

Prior to Phytest, Wade held leadership roles at Anheuser-Busch, Sawyer Ferguson Walker and J Walter Thompson. Wade served in the Marine Corps for four years and has a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Florida. 

Wade is married with two children and one dog. 

Bill Pappas

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Bill joined Phytest in 2002 and helps guide the company’s talented revenue cycle, technology, client satisfaction and patient experience teams. He also works closely with Phytest customers to develop and enhance custom solutions. Before joining Phytest, Bill held operations and project management leadership positions in the financial services and digital marketing industries.

Bill holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. He is also a registered civil mediator in the state of Georgia with a focus on resolving personal, healthcare and employment-related disputes.

A resident of the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta, you can find him exploring the city with his two kids, running, biking or playing pickup soccer. 

Kathy Wood

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

As CFO, Kathy provides leadership, direction, and management of the finance and accounting team, which handles all reconciliations and reporting for our clients.

Kathy has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare accounting industry. Prior to joining Phytest in 2016, Kathy was a senior accounting manager for Cotiviti, a leader in healthcare payment policy and analytics, and the controller of the outsourced accounting services division of Aprio, one of the largest regional accounting firms in Atlanta.

She graduated from Lee University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Kathy is married and a dog mom to Bingo. She enjoys international travel, photography, fitness, and time with family and friends.

Greg Perini

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Greg manages new business development at Phytest, focusing on new client acquisition, strategic partnerships and overall growth initiatives for the company. Greg has served in healthcare leadership roles for more than 25 years, with expertise in sales, business development and operations at both the regional and national level.

Throughout his career, Greg has led growth efforts in laboratory and physician revenue cycle management and the home health industries. His experience includes strategic plan development, building brand awareness and market share and implementing process and financial performance improvement initiatives.

Greg earned a bachelor’s degree in management from Ramapo College of New Jersey and a master’s in business administration in finance from Seton Hall University.

He is married with two children and enjoys college football, mixed martial arts, golf and gardening.

Mat Jimmerson

Mathew Jimmerson

DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS

Mathew leads Phytest’s ongoing technology innovation initiatives that explore the latest in healthcare technologies and our proprietary automated intelligence engines. He has successfully created Phytest’s revenue cycle management services into a technology platform that is easy to use and reduces the human element of failure. He also leads our internal team of highly talented engineers and support staff.

Prior to joining Phytest in 2008, Mat founded and operated Comp-Med Solutions, Inc., a small technology firm based out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL which provides dental offices with a turnkey solution to seamlessly convert all paper and analog systems to digital. He has more than eighteen years of experience in healthcare technology and operations.

When Mat is not innovating, you can find him somewhere in the woods with his wife and three children. He enjoys kayaking, camping, hiking and spending time with his family.

Chuck Womble

DIRECTOR OF REVENUE CYCLE OPERATIONS

Chuck joined Phytest in 2020 and oversees the billing and collections for our customers.

While attending college, Chuck also worked full-time at LaGrange Internal Medicine, where he managed the billing and collections department for six doctors over eight years. Later, he worked for Medic, an ambulatory and EHR software vendor, where he implemented the Medic PM and Tiger practice management software. He also has experience working with Misys Healthcare Systems, where he provided in-depth training on software platforms and improved their collections, and Allscripts, where he was a software product specialist.

He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from LaGrange College.

Chuck and wife have been married for more than 30 years, and the two have known each other since kindergarten. They have two children, Garrett and Abby.