Practice Management

We are trying to create a list of agreed upon expectations of a billing company

One of my "must have" employees has been frustrated from new processes at our billing company.
Here is an example of her issue(s). 

It is not her main job to do any work that belongs to the billing company. 
However, she is an expert problem solver, and the hospital sends her any complaint calls from patients and knows it will be taken care of.
We also employ a certified coder she uses as a resource and they both know when a billing denial is due to wrong diagnosis and know exactly what needs to be done.
We use to have an account rep for these issues at the billing company but apparently that has changed and account rep is too busy for these requests. 

Employees example:
Calls patients referred from complaint to hospital CEO

Knows the solution 
Responds to the hospital CEO  that we have this resolved
Sends update to billing company with new process and includes a copy of the order with the correct changed diagnosis.
Tries to make it very simple for those to follow through from the billing company
I am not sure if this new process is an offshore response or not.
The good news is:  she receives  automated responses in a reasonable time frame that they received the request
The bad news: it is 7 days later and the only response is that this is complicated and will take more time.
Patient is a cancer patient and employee expected the account itself should be put on hold so they don't receive any more calls from billing company and thus the CEO won't receive any more complaints.
Employee who already spent too much time solving the problem asks, how many times she is expected to check the account to find nothing done?  Asks if there is a way that we can begin billing the billing company for her time so that they have some incentive to follow through on requests and so we can quantify time she spends in these areas. 
I want to be reasonable to the billing company so I suggested I would ask others what their expectation would be on completing this request:
A) 24 hours
B) 48 hours
c) 72 hours 
d) 1 week
e) 2 weeks

Part B:  Does anyone have contract language in their billing contracts they would be willing to share to make sure such expectations are agreed up up front.

She suggested we take any appeals that are denied and suggested we start sending in the less automated appeal and see if there is different result so that we could audit the appeal processes.  She suggested we just set up an agreed upon  rate to bill the billing company for her time and she would even be willing to work after hours on this project.  She will only bill for time where her follow up appeal was successful.

Thank you in advance for any ideas in these areas.

Please email or call:
Gayle  Schreier, MBA
Business Manager, Roper Radiologists

Charleston, SC 
843-724-2015 work
843-475-3931 cell 
Gayle.schreier@rsfh.com

Gayle Schreier, MBA

Business Manager
Roper Radiologists, PA
316 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC  29401
843-724-2015
843-720-8359 fax
Gayle.Schreier@rsfh.com