Adam Phillips

Why Would a Doctor Use an Outside Biller?

by

Video summary

Why would a doctor use an outside biller? In this webinar, ABS Director of Learning Eric Oji walks through three reasons doctors hand off their billing, how AI is changing the work, and the business opportunity behind it all.

Reason 1: Denials drain revenue

Even small claim issues can trigger a denial, and Eric cites MGMA research naming denials and appeals as practices’ biggest revenue cycle leaks. He shares how the ABS iClaim platform uses AI to flag what could get a claim denied.

Reason 2: In-house billing costs more every year

Wages, benefits, software and staff turnover keep driving in-house billing costs up. Eric contrasts that fixed cost with an outside biller’s percentage-of-collections model, which comes with built-in coverage and no hiring or retraining.

Reason 3: Paperwork takes the doctor away from patients

Doctors are trained to treat patients, not chase paperwork. Pointing to AMA research on prior authorizations alone consuming an average of 13 hours of physician and staff time a week, Eric makes the case for a billing partner who handles the business side.

AI and the opportunity

AI is helping billers, not replacing them: Eric highlights Nebraska Methodist’s $2M gain with human-in-the-loop AI coding, alongside a GAO caution that human review remains essential. He closes with the business opportunity, noting that 69% of organizations now outsource all or part of their revenue cycle.

Watch the full session to hear all the details

The First 6 Months of a Medical Billing Business: Interview with Franchise Focus

by

Video summary

The video is an interview with Jason Pettit of American Business Systems (ABS), a company that’s helped people launch medical billing businesses since 1994. Owners file insurance claims for private practice doctors, and Jason says most doctors using the service see revenue go up 20 to 30%.

Click here for the Apple Podcast version.

Key points:

  1. Getting clients: cold-walking into a doctor’s office doesn’t work. ABS owners partner with local medical sales reps who already have relationships with doctors, then run a consultative needs assessment and proposal. Top specialties are cardiology, podiatry and pain management. ABS teaches 10 marketing strategies, but the sales rep program gets clients fastest.
  2. Why doctors switch: the national average claim rejection rate is 20 to 30%; ABS owners average under 2%. Competitors market on price (4 to 8% of monthly reimbursements), while ABS owners typically charge around 6% because they capture far more revenue.
  3. Getting started: one-time $35,000 investment, six-page agreement, training with a 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee. Training is 10 live sessions over 2 to 3 weeks with instructors who are successful ABS owners themselves. Most owners land their first client within 60 to 90 days.
  4. Running it: most start part-time, filing claims themselves (1 to 2 hours a day per doctor). Scaling means hiring medical billers through a staffing partner at about $3,000/month for a full-time biller handling 4 to 6 doctors. Four doctors can generate $100-150k a year. The largest ABS operation has over 400 clients.
  5. On AI: Jason says AI won’t replace claims filing because insurers keep moving the goalposts to avoid paying. ABS owners act as a human quality-control layer, using a tool called Denial Defender to audit claims before filing.

No magic sauce, just better results. The 20 to 30% revenue increase is what makes the whole model work.

A $35K Business With Six-Figure Potential? Interview with Franchise Wizards

by

Video summary

In this episode of the Franchise Wizards podcast, host Sheila talks with Adam Phillips, CEO of American Business Systems (ABS), and Jason Pettit, the company’s chief growth officer, about why medical practices struggle with billing, how ABS business owners help, and what the business looks like for the entrepreneurs who run it.

Click here for Apple Podcast version.

Key takeaways

  • Adam and Jason say 20 to 30% of filed medical claims in the US are rejected, and they see denials rising as insurance companies use their own AI tools to find reasons not to pay. They say ABS business owners operate at less than a 2% claim rejection rate.
  • ABS is a business opportunity, not a franchise: owners use their own business name, can sign clients anywhere in the US, and pay no royalties.
  • The episode discusses a $35,000 one-time investment with a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets new owners finish the full training before deciding.
  • AI tools speed up billing, but Adam and Jason argue the work still needs a “human in the loop” to check the results.

The problem: small practices, rising denials

Adam’s parents founded ABS in 1994 after his mother began doing claims for a friend who owned a durable medical equipment business. Small private practices rarely have dedicated billers, so claims get denied over wrong codes or patient details and often sit unworked. Jason says the dynamic has not changed in 30 years because insurers are driven by profitability, and both say denials are getting worse now that payers use AI to scrutinize claims.

How ABS owners help practices

Jason describes two levers: cutting the claim rejection rate, and raising what each approved claim pays. On the second, ABS partners with a company of certified coders who help doctors choose optimal codes and supply the documentation each procedure requires, so claims are not underpaid.

A business opportunity, not a franchise

Owners operate under their own business name, face no territory restrictions, pay no royalties, and file no financial reports with ABS. In the episode, Adam describes a $35,000 one-time investment and a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets new owners complete the full training before deciding whether to continue. He also explains that ABS earns a revenue share from the software subscription fees doctors pay ABS’s software partners, which he says keeps the company invested in helping owners sign clients.

AI and the human in the loop

Asked whether AI will take over the industry, Adam says no for the foreseeable future. The tools suggest codes and speed up the work, and ABS’s primary software partner builds them into its platform, but they still make confident mistakes, so a person reviews the output. Jason compares it to autopilot: the plane largely flies itself, but everyone still wants pilots in the cockpit.

Owners, earnings, and getting clients

Backgrounds vary widely, though Jason says people with sales, marketing, or healthcare experience tend to grow fastest. Adam describes typical fees of 5 to 9% of collections and says a single-doctor client can represent roughly $30,000 to $50,000 a year depending on specialty and volume, offered as illustration, not a guarantee. He says owners who follow the marketing plan full-time often sign their first client in 30 to 90 days, using about a dozen taught methods built around networking, referrals, and partnerships with local medical sales reps. Day to day, he says a claim takes about two minutes to process, and owners who want to scale can hire billers through ABS’s staffing partner. The episode closes with owner stories shared as individual examples: Deb’s eight clients in her first year, a retired corporate worker in Arizona who built a small lifestyle business around two podiatry clients, and a two-partner business that grew past 400 clients, which Jason stresses is far from typical.

Learn the 5 Secrets to Medical Billing Success!

by

Video summary

In this Wednesday webinar, American Business Systems Director of Learning Eric Oji walks through the 5 Secrets to Medical Billing Success – five principles drawn from more than 30 years of helping entrepreneurs launch medical billing businesses. The same five points appear in the free ABS guide, and Eric expands on each with stories from his own two medical billing companies and from current ABS business owners. Watch the full session to hear them all.

Educate to build trust

People do business with people they know, like and trust. Eric explains how ABS training gives new owners a deeper working knowledge of medical billing and revenue cycle management than many physicians have themselves, and how The New Thriving Medical Practice book – reprinted with the owner’s own foreword, name and company on the cover, then tabbed and highlighted for busy doctors – lets a new owner educate a physician instead of pitching them, including how to get it past the front-desk gatekeeper.

Become the expert

Eric describes how ABS positions each owner as the recognized expert: about two and a half weeks of live, instructor-led training across 10 modules, the Sales Link support team that can join meetings with prospective doctors, introduction letters to doctors from in-house physician advisor Dr. Vicki Rackner, lifetime access to the support portal, and certification as a Certified Medical Revenue Manager.

Stand out from the crowd

New owners choose from billing and practice management platforms (including iClaim and EMRX) and get professional flyers, brochures and a customized website under their own company name and domain. As Eric tells it, there’s no hard selling of software: if a doctor isn’t ready to switch systems, ABS works with the platform the practice already uses.

Harness the power of referrals

Networking is the number one way ABS owners land their first client, Eric says. He covers building referral relationships through chambers of commerce, BNI chapters, home health agencies, county medical societies and LinkedIn, and how the one-year Zoho One CRM subscription included with the package keeps those relationships organized. He also shares how one ABS owner’s short podcast on revenue cycle management grew her client base to around 100 doctors.

Nurture your contacts

Finally, Eric covers drip marketing: automated follow-up campaigns and services like AutoCard that send physical, personally signed cards to prospects. He tells how this approach won his own second client weeks after that doctor initially chose a cheaper competitor.

Ready to dig in? Download the free 5 Secrets to Medical Billing Success guide at https://absystems.com/5-secrets/, or join a free live webinar at https://absystems.com/webinars/. Questions? Call (866) 565-8413.

Live Q&A with the ABS Executive Team!

by

Video summary

In this live Q&A session, American Business Systems CEO Adam Phillips and Chief Growth Officer Jason Pettit field questions from aspiring entrepreneurs about what it really takes to start a medical billing business.

The conversation covers the questions they hear most often:

  • AI and medical billing: Adam shares how he sees AI tools speeding up claims work and reducing rejections, and why he believes a human in the loop still matters, especially for the small and mid-sized practices he says software companies overlook.
  • Financing: Jason explains why most new owners they work with fund the business through personal loans, credit cards, home equity, or retirement funds rather than traditional business lending.
  • Finding clients: which doctors and specialties they recommend targeting first, and how their new AI Advisor program maps an owner’s local market and lays out a step-by-step client acquisition plan. Adam shares one beta participant who landed his first client 30 days after the AI advisor program and, a few months later, is in the process of closing a 17-doctor practice.
  • The business model: as they describe it, a one-time, all-in investment of $35,000 with no royalties, no territory restrictions, and no required financial reporting. They cite figures of roughly $25,000 to $50,000 a year in revenue to the owner per doctor signed.
  • Getting started: why they say most owners launch part-time while keeping their day jobs, with no sales or healthcare background required, backed by live one-on-one training, a 30-day money-back training guarantee, and lifetime support.

Watch the full session to hear their answers in their own words, including the marketing strategies they say owners are using to land their first clients in 30, 60, and 90 days.

Want to keep exploring?

Download the 5 Secrets to Medical Billing Success

Join the next live webinar

Learn More About Starting a Medical Billing Business: Interview with CEO Adam Phillips

by

Video summary

Starting a medical billing business takes more than software and a list of doctors. In this interview, American Business Systems CEO Adam Phillips joins Eric to explain how training, practice research, marketing tools, and ongoing support can work together to help a new owner build a business.

A major focus is AI: how it can assist with billing work and how ABS is testing it to help owners identify potential clients and plan their outreach.

How ABS grew from a family billing business

Adam shares how his mother’s work with medical claims led his family into the billing business. His father later created American Business Systems to help other people start their own billing companies.

That background frames the interview’s main question: what does a new owner need after training to put a business plan into action?

Use AI with human judgment

Adam describes AI as a tool for billing professionals, rather than a reason to stop learning the work. He discusses how software can help with routine tasks while people review its output, handle more complicated situations, and check for errors.

The conversation also connects billing work to a practice’s financial health. Adam explains a collections-based service model in which the billing company’s compensation is tied to money collected for the practice. Accurate claims, timely submission, and follow-up remain central to that relationship.

Research practices before reaching out

A contact list is a starting point, not a finished marketing plan. Adam emphasizes learning about the practices in a target area before deciding whom to approach.

Useful research can include a practice’s specialty, size, location, and existing billing arrangements. He recommends choosing one or two specialties to focus on so that outreach and educational materials address the concerns of those providers.

Inside the ABS AI Advisor beta

The interview introduces the ABS AI Advisor, which was in beta testing at the time of recording. Adam explains how it uses information about an owner’s business, experience, and target area to research potential practices and suggest priorities.

The output is a research worksheet and strategy guide. It can gather public contact details and other practice information, while leaving gaps for the owner to investigate.

That distinction matters: the worksheet is not a verified list of ready-to-buy clients. Adam says owners still need to research practices, fill in missing information, and check the findings before moving contacts into their marketing process.

Turn research into relevant follow-up

Once research is complete, Adam describes how ABS support can help connect several parts of the marketing process:

  • CRM organization: Use Zoho to track contacts, conversations, and next steps in a sales pipeline.
  • Educational resources: Develop specialty-focused ebooks, checklists, or other useful materials with the owner’s business branding.
  • Email follow-up: Build campaigns that introduce those resources and give practices a reason to learn more.
  • Sales-call support: Through SalesLink, an ABS support expert can join a prospective-client call to help answer questions.

The goal is a more focused process: research the practice, offer relevant information, follow up, and understand its needs before proposing services.

Check current availability before choosing a package

This recording discusses beta features and possible future support tiers. Those plans should not be read as a current package or pricing commitment.

If you are considering starting a medical billing business, ask ABS which AI research tools, marketing services, and support options are currently available and what each includes. Finding and serving clients still requires active work by the business owner; the interview does not establish guaranteed results or a fixed timeline.