“Why would it cost that much?” is a question I’m sure most of us have asked ourselves on at least one occasion while trying to purchase a new product or service. From a consumer’s standpoint, we naturally want the best product or service for the lowest price. But is this realistic? I’m sure most suppliers would argue that it simply is not.
This leaves the consumer with a number of questions they must answer for themselves. Perhaps the top question would be, what’s more important to you? Price or quality?
The common law of business balance is the principle that one cannot pay a little and get a lot. Furthermore, paying a cheaper price will not guarantee the buyer will receive a product of high quality value.
The point is, you simply can’t (unfortunately for all of us) pay the cheapest price and get a premium product or service. Which brings us to the issue we’re faced with as billing companies in today’s marketplace. There is a wide array of billing companies that have targeted the EMS industry and can fairly be categorized as one of the following:
- Privately owned and operated “niche” companies that support public sector EMS/Fire billing, collection, consultation, reporting and electronic data capture needs. All resources are used to support EMS and Fire operations.
- Multi-specialty billing companies forced to fragment resources to appeal to and support a wide array of clients with very different needs (e.g. Emergency rooms, Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors, EMS).
- Capital venture backed corporations, aggressively purchasing privately owned medical billing and software companies and offering aggressively low pricing, with focus on increasing revenue multiples (at the cost of present day profitability) to maximize future merger and acquisition (M&A) value.
- Private ambulance companies through affiliates, “billing arms” or divisions. Many private ambulance companies have experienced a steep decline in revenue as a direct result of the public sector emergence into the paid transporting business. For this category, we have examples where one day, the private ambulance company provided billing services for the municipality and the next day, the private ambulance company displaced the entire EMS fleet by taking over 100% of all EMS transports.
At AccuMed, we are proud to be one of the very few companies in the nation to squarely fit in category one. This is not to say that we would always be the most expensive option, but rather, it is to say that whatever the price, you get what you pay for. At AccuMed, you get a premium service. You’re paying for an abundance of resources to help drive revenue, compliance and exceptional customer service. So again, we must ask: price or quality? It’s an important question and one we should always consider from multiple angles.