Dr. Briana Makofske & Dr. Rachel Toplis
A Big Leap Yields Huge Results
After handling billing for their practice in-house, Dr. Briana Makofske and Dr. Rachel Toplis decided it was time to work with an outside service. Investing in a billing service felt like a big step, but it was just what they needed to keep up with their rapid growth and the hairpin turns of the insurance industry.
Their Story
A Small Practice Grows Fast
Founded in 2014, Summit Psychological Assessment & Consultation (Summit PAC) experienced a greater demand for its services than anticipated. The number of calls and requests they received has quadrupled in the past year.
“We assumed schools were carrying a lot of the need; we had no idea this many kids required evaluations,” explained Dr. Makofske. To keep up with the response from communities, Dr. Makofske and Dr.Toplis enlisted Ponderosa Billing Service to help.
Their Goals
Scale in a Healthy, Sustainable Way
Similar to what we’ve seen with other fast-growing practices, Summit PAC had been losing a lot of time to figuring out referrals, billing, and payments. In most cases, each client required hours of additional phone time with insurance companies.
“As a business owner, I was prepared to invest the time, but making 5-6 calls and never getting the right answer was just too stressful,” Dr. Makofske shared. They wanted more time for working with clients, delivering quality reports, and building the practice’s future.
The Solution
A Balance of Support & Education
We’ve helped Dr. Makofske and Dr.Toplis ensure each of their new patients has coverage and can be onboarded smoothly. We’ve also worked with them on back-billing, and have used our industry connections to get answers and results on their most pressing billing questions. We’ve also worked with them to navigate the 2018 changes to Tricare, a transition that both doctors felt would have cause them to drop ties with the program entirely had they gone it alone.
Education has also been a huge part of our work with Summit PAC. “I went to school to be a psychologist. Not a CPA, Lawyer, or Accountant,” says Dr. Makofske. But as business owners, both doctors wanted to feel informed about their billing processes. “We didn’t want to just write checks blindly, and with Ponderosa we really value the fact that we understand exactly what’s happening and why.”
The Results
Consistent Income & Stable Growth
After their first five months with us, Dr. Makofske and Dr.Toplis are now able to dedicate their time to patients and clinical work, while enjoying the peace of mind and stability that comes with steady cash flow. Their newfound balance has even afforded them the bandwidth to focus on marketing, a business step that will allow them to reach new communities of parents and children.
“We saw results immediately. A huge stress and weight came off of us and our business. We feel supported with every question and need that we have.”
— Dr. Briana Makofske