Your Next Billing Employee Is Already Trained
When a billing employee leaves, most healthcare practices respond the same way. They post the position, begin reviewing resumes, schedule interviews, and hope to find someone with enough experience to keep the revenue cycle moving.
On paper, it seems like the logical next step. After all, billing is an essential function, and someone has to do the work.
What is often overlooked, however, is that replacing a billing employee involves far more than filling an empty seat. It requires time, financial investment, and a significant amount of organizational knowledge before that new hire is able to contribute at the same level as the person they replaced. During that transition, claims continue to age, denials continue to accumulate, and the administrative burden shifts to the rest of the team.
For many practices, the challenge is not finding someone willing to do the job. The real difficulty lies in finding someone who can step in immediately with the knowledge, experience, and confidence needed to protect the revenue cycle.
That is why more practices are beginning to ask a different question.
Instead of asking, "Who should we hire next?" they are asking, "Do we need to hire at all?"
The True Cost of Replacing a Billing Employee
The expense of hiring rarely ends with a salary.
Recruiting alone requires advertising the position, reviewing applications, conducting interviews, completing background checks, and dedicating valuable management time to the hiring process.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost to hire an employee is approximately $4,700, with many organizations reporting substantially higher costs depending on the position and hiring process. More importantly, SHRM notes that employers frequently underestimate the true investment because internal labor, onboarding, and lost productivity are difficult to measure.¹
Then there is the time required simply to find the right person. SHRM's latest recruiting benchmarks show that the average time to fill an open position is approximately 44 days.²
Forty-four days may not sound significant until you consider what happens inside a busy practice during that time.
Claims still need to be submitted. Insurance companies continue issuing denials. Patient balances require follow-up. Existing staff absorb additional responsibilities while attempting to maintain the same level of service. The work rarely disappears simply because a position is vacant.
Experience Cannot Be Replaced Overnight
Even after a new employee is hired, another challenge begins.
Medical billing is not a role where someone can simply learn the software and become fully effective within a few weeks. Every practice has different workflows, payer relationships, documentation standards, and operational nuances that take time to understand.
Harvard Business Review research, cited by SHRM, suggests that it can take up to eight months for a new employee to reach full productivity.³
That timeline becomes especially meaningful in healthcare, where billing accuracy directly impacts cash flow. A claim submitted incorrectly, a missed eligibility issue, or an overlooked denial may not become apparent until weeks later, delaying reimbursement and creating additional work for the team.
During those first several months, experienced employees often become trainers as much as billers. They answer questions, review work, explain payer requirements, and help new team members navigate unfamiliar situations. While that investment is necessary, it also means that your most experienced employees are spending less time performing the work they were originally hired to do.
The Hidden Risk Is Turnover
Perhaps the greatest challenge with building an internal billing department is that the investment never truly ends.
Once a billing employee becomes highly experienced, they also become increasingly valuable, both to your practice and to others. If they leave, the recruiting, onboarding, and training process begins all over again.
Gallup estimates that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from one-half to two times that employee's annual salary when recruiting expenses, lost productivity, and training are considered.⁴
The financial impact is significant, but the operational disruption is often even greater.
Institutional knowledge disappears. Relationships with payers are interrupted. Longstanding billing habits and workflows must be rediscovered by someone new. Practices frequently find themselves rebuilding expertise they already invested years developing.
For organizations already operating with lean administrative teams, that cycle can become exhausting.
A Different Way to Think About Billing
For years, practices have viewed billing as a staffing challenge.
If the workload increases, hire another person.
If someone leaves, replace them.
If collections slow down, add more staff.
While that approach has worked for many organizations, it also assumes that experienced billing professionals are readily available, easy to recruit, and able to become productive immediately.
Today's hiring environment tells a different story.
Experienced revenue cycle professionals remain in high demand, and finding someone with the right combination of technical knowledge, payer experience, and healthcare expertise has become increasingly difficult.
Rather than continually rebuilding an internal team, many practices are choosing to invest in experienced billing partners who already possess that expertise.
Your Next Billing Employee Is Already Trained
At Fast Pay Health, we believe practices should spend their time caring for patients and growing their business, not restarting the hiring process every time staffing changes.
Our billing professionals are already trained. They are experts in revenue cycle management, insurance workflows, claims processing, payment posting, denial management, and accounts receivable follow-up before they ever begin working with your practice.
Instead of spending months bringing someone up to speed, practices gain immediate access to an experienced team that is focused on improving financial performance from day one.
That difference matters.
It means there is no lengthy recruiting process before work begins. There is no extended onboarding period before meaningful contributions are made. Most importantly, there is no dependence on a single individual whose departure could disrupt your revenue cycle.
Every practice wants a billing department that is accurate, efficient, and dependable.
Achieving that goal does not necessarily require hiring more employees. In many cases, it requires building a process that is resilient enough to withstand staffing changes without affecting financial performance.
The strongest revenue cycle is not defined by how many people sit in the billing office. It is defined by whether claims continue moving, payments continue arriving, and patients continue receiving the level of service they expect, regardless of who is on staff.
That is the value of working with an experienced billing partner.
Your next billing employee is already trained.
They are already managing complex claims, navigating payer requirements, and helping practices improve cash flow every day.
Rather than beginning another hiring cycle, it may be time to consider a solution that is ready to contribute from the moment you need it.
Make Your Next Staffing Decision with Confidence
Before investing in another billing hire, understand the full picture.
Our complimentary Practice Analysis provides an objective review of your current billing operation, helping you identify opportunities to improve performance, reduce operational risk, and build a more resilient revenue cycle.
→ Request Your Free Practice Analysis
Sources
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Human Capital Benchmarking Report.
SHRM. Talent Acquisition Benchmarking.
Harvard Business Review, cited by SHRM Learning Resources.
Gallup. The Real Cost of Employee Turnover.
