Our CEO, Matt Slimming, recently joined host Nathan Shields on the Private Practice Owners Club podcast to talk about one of the most expensive problems in physical therapy private practice: revenue that quietly slips through the cracks. In the episode, Matt explains where clinics most often lose money, why many owners never notice, and what it takes to plug leaks that can add up to around $10,000 a month.
Where PT Clinics Are Losing Revenue
Most practice owners keep a close eye on their clinical numbers, but billing tends to run in the background until cash flow tightens. Matt walked through the leaks our team sees most often when a new clinic comes on board, and the simple systems that close them.
1. The Front Desk: Verification, Authorizations and Collections
Insurance verification, eligibility checks and prior authorizations have become far more complex, and they usually land on a busy front desk. A wrong payer or a missed authorization can mean weeks of treatment that never gets paid. Copays and coinsurance not collected at the time of the visit are hard to recover later, often around fifty cents on the dollar. Matt’s advice: verify benefits directly instead of relying on payer websites, collect at every visit, keep cards on file, and consider offloading verification and authorizations to a dedicated team.
2. Denied, Underpaid and “Lost” Claims
Between denials, incorrect adjustments and claims payers say they never received, Matt estimates that roughly one in five claims ends up underpaid or unpaid. Submitting claims isn’t enough. Each one needs active follow-up, and denials and adjustment codes need a human review, because automated tools often miss what’s really going on and many denials are overturned once someone pushes back.
3. Under-Billing for the Care You Already Provide
Many clinics leave money on the table simply by not billing for everything they deliver. Matt points to patient education and self-care/home management training (CPT 97535) as commonly missed, and recommends making sure coding and documentation reflect the full value of every visit, with training coming from a peer or a third party rather than the owner.
Track Billing KPIs Like Clinical KPIs
The thread connecting all of it: owners should review billing KPIs weekly and monthly, the same way they track visits and cancellations. According to Matt, when these fixes are put in place, clinics typically see the impact on revenue within 60 to 90 days.
Listen to the Full Episode
Listen to the full conversation with Matt Slimming and Nathan Shields on Spotify:
Or read the episode recap on the Private Practice Owners Club website:
Wondering how much revenue your clinic might be missing? Get in touch with the PT Pilot Billing team and we’ll help you find out.