Frequently Asked Questions
What services does Ardent offer?
Our expert staff is dedicated to getting you paid more per claim, with more claims successfully collected upon each month, shortening your revenue cycle. To do so, we provide:
– Insurance eligibility and benefits verification
– Daily claim filing
– Daily EOB processing
– Generating patient statements (custom time ranges) and superbills
– Denials, appeals & rejected claims management
– EOB reconciliation and management
– In/Out of Network Verification
– Credentialing
– Coding & Auth Management
And if you need help with anything not mentioned above, feel free to contact us to learn if we can help.
I have a biller I'm not satisfied with. How do I transition?
We handle this in one of two ways: 1) we simply move all your existing and new clients over to our service or 2) we take on just your new clients so you can try us out and compare us against your current solution.
How much of my time will it take each week after I'm setup?
Less than one hour!
How available is Ardent to answer questions? Does Ardent have vacation times?
Our team is working 52 weeks a year to bill for our clients. We will always have a staff member available to reply to your concern within 1-2 business days.
For those curious, we have received the vacation question more than once
What does Ardent charge for its services?
Ardent charges based on a percentage of collected revenue, with varying levels according to the scope of services you need.
Where are you located?
We are located in Buena Park, California and provide our services for therapists all across the United States.
Why start with a free revenue audit?
The point of a free revenue audit is to accurately identify issues and offer recommended solutions. We can’t say how we will fix your issues if we don’t know where the issues lie.
Can Ardent handle double insurance or double coverage patients?
Yes, absolutely. Please note these claims take longer to process because they are processed twice.
Can Ardent handle Tricare and Medicare?
Yes.
How long does onboarding take?
Standard onboarding typically takes 2-4 weeks depending on practice size, EHR/PM platform, payer mix, and or credentialing scope
What happens to billing during the transition?
Zero billing gaps. We typically run a 1-2 week parallel period working alongside the outgoing current biller (if cooperative). If not, we work directly from system data and reports to reconstruct open A/R during this time (we’ve seen this case of uncooperative billers many times)
Can you handle old and messy A/R
Yes. This is one of our strongest offerings and we structure legacy AR cleanup as a separate project
Do you check eligibility?
Yes, we run eligibility 24-48 hours prior to the appointment for every patient visit.
We also run full VOB checks for new patients and once a year (or when plan changes are detected) for established patients
How do you prevent large patient balances?
Eligibility and VOB results are documented in a standardized format for front desk to see during check in.
If patient responsibility is significant, we flag it for front-desk collection at time of service to prevent balance buildup.
Do you check prior auths?
Yes, this is critical for mental health and we use a two-layered approach:
Pre visit: every scheduled service checked during eligibility verification. anything requiring auth is flagged before the appointment.
Re-auth tracking: Ongoing services have auth expiration dates tracked and re-auth requests are submitted 7-10 days before expiration. This is where we see most practices leak revenue and it must be caught proactively.
When are claims submitted?
Claims are submitted within 24 hours of charge entry. For high-volume practices, we run multiple submission batches per day.
How easy is it for providers to receive and complete documentation updates?
We design the workflow around what’s least disruptive for providers.
Most prefer to see a daily dashboard of pending items in one place with specific requests such as “Please add time for CPT 90837 on 5/12 Patient Y”
How often do you review denials?
Daily. Every ERA/EOB is reviewed within 24 hours of receipt and categorized, prioritized, and routed to the appropriate workflow queue.
The different workflow queues include: auto correctable, medical necessity, authorization, eligibility, and coding.
Do you identify root causes?
Yes, this is the key difference between working denials and preventing them. Preventing denials will always lead to the least headaches for both the practices and us.
How often is unpaid A/R reviewed?
Continuously. Our AR team works the AR queue daily, with claims prioritized by aging bucket, dollar value, and payer responsiveness patterns.
Our AR specialists handle payer calls when escalated past 60 days
How often are payments posted and do you check underpayments?
ERAs are auto posted daily and paper EOBs and checks are posted within 24 hours of receipt.
Underpayments are flagged when the paid amount doesn’t match the contracted rate and recovery process begins.
Do you handle telehealth billing?
Yes, telehealth is one of the most active areas in mental health billing post 2020
Do you handle EAP, psych testing, and Out-of-network billing?
Yes, each one is treated as a distinct workstream with separate tracking due to unique differences, such as:
EAP vendors for EAP billing
Unit-based billing for psych testing
SCAs or direct OON claim submission for Out-of-network billing
Have more questions?
Contact us to speak to team members who can analyze your billing performance and answer further questions