Legacy of Efficient Billing!
Healthcare is a critical sector where the effectiveness of services plays a key role in enhancing patient outcomes and ensuring organizational success. Within this sector, revenue cycle management has become a crucial area of focus, particularly for specialized medical practices such as ophthalmology and optometry. The ability to manage billing, claims and collections effectively is essential for these practices to maintain financial stability and continue providing high-quality care.
The challenges associated with these processes and frequent changes in healthcare regulations and insurance policies necessitate a dedicated and proficient approach to ensure that practices are compensated appropriately for their services.
Michael Carroll, the late Co-founder and CEO of Agnite Health LLC, was an exceptional leader who significantly impacted these industry challenges by pioneering effective solutions. His leadership was characterized by connecting the right people and empowering them to create efficient solutions tailored to the needs of eyecare practices.
Michael’s ability to attract top talent and cultivate a culture of excellence allowed him to build Agnite Health into a trusted partner for ophthalmologists and optometrists across the nation. His dedication to the industry’s betterment was evident in every aspect of his work, from assembling a skilled management team to ensuring that the company’s core values were never compromised.
Agnite Health, co-founded by Michael, his colleague and father, Joe Carroll, and Byrd Evans, OCS, has grown to become a leader in ophthalmology and optometry billing.
Following Michael’s passing, Joe took over the role of CEO, continuing to drive Michael’s vision and guiding Agnite Health to further growth and success. Under his guidance, the company has remained true to its core values of delivering superior service to its clients. Agnite Health’s commitment to excellence, coupled with Joe’s steady leadership, ensures that the company will continue to thrive, building on the strong foundation laid by Michael.
Let’s explore Michael’s remarkable life journey and enduring legacy of billing solutions:
Creating a Vision for Optimal Outcomes
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Michael started his career as a practice management consultant at Advantage Administration, Inc. (Advantage). Advantage is a healthcare consulting company that specializes in helping private ophthalmic practices and academic medical centers achieve optimal financial and operational efficiency. As a consultant, Michael quickly realized that a significant number of ophthalmology practices and ambulatory surgery centers needed improved revenue cycle management services.
Michael also noticed that once Advantage corrected the client’s operational billing deficiencies, most of the practices still needed an endless cycle of follow-up billing check-ups due to a variety of internal practice issues including the inability to hire qualified billers, management changes, staff attrition, productivity issues, etc. With frequent requests from clients to outsource their billing to Advantage on a full-time basis and after careful consideration, Agnite Health LLC was created and implemented in May 2013.
The initial priority was to focus on making sure eyecare clients were correctly paid in a timely manner. Agnite was able to take the time necessary to create a solid foundation based on our precise philosophy and core values that have never been compromised since day one. Agnite’s initial vision was, and continues to be, to hire the very best personnel that can be found in the industry and support our billing staff with the guidance, tools, resources, training, flexibility, favorable working conditions, etc. to produce the very best outcomes for our clients.
Assembling a Proven Management Team
Michael’s first and most significant contribution to the growth and success of Agnite Health was to fulfill a need for a strong and accountable revenue cycle management team within the Company as well as the medical eyecare billing industry. With all the ongoing fee cuts from Medicare, the widespread diversity of third-party commercial insurance companies and the complexities of the many varied eyecare billing software systems in existence, there is a meaningful need for practices to get paid for their services in an efficient manner. From day one, Michael worked tirelessly to prove to clients that outsourcing their billing and collections to Agnite was a very good business decision due to Agnite’s ability to attract qualified personnel, access to internal resources, and produce cost-effective outcomes.
Secondly, Agnite secured financial investment support from a group of individuals who understood the niche market Agnite served. This initial capital eliminated the expected start-up financial pressure which in turn allowed Agnite to never waiver from their core values. Advantage was able to transfer its most trusted and proven revenue cycle management team from Advantage to Agnite. Byrd Evans, OCS, was appointed by the Board as the President of the Company and worked hand-in-hand with Michael to recruit, hire and train the best of the best.
Belinda Baldwin, OCS, CPMA, CPC, was recruited as a lead billing specialist, and due to her recognized knowledge and talents, she was quickly promoted to Director of Operations. Jeannette Ruiz, OCS, CBCS, CPC, was hired as Belinda’s backup and assistant. Byrd, Belinda, and Jeannette are eyecare billing experts with excellent reputations within the industry. Collectively, they have over 70 years of “hands-on” eyecare billing experience. As Agnite grew and evolved, the Company was able to hire five new middle-management staff members, each excelling in a different practice management software application, who now oversee Agnite’s highly talented billing staff throughout the United States.
Shaping Vision and Core Values
Michael was smart enough to realize that to be successful, he had to surround himself with billing professionals who had hands-on experience and knowledge that surpassed his own. Secondly, he encouraged creativity and did not stifle people with micromanagement. Michael spent a lot of his time shaping the vision and architecture of Agnite to promote and support the core values of Agnite.
His vision was to offer an environment where everyone could be recognized for their individual talents and contributions. Michael developed the slogan, “Get Your Eyecare Practice Paid Faster. We have eyecare billing services designed specifically for you and your practice.” Hence, the tagline “Agnite Health – Superior billing is the right choice” was developed.
Creating a Strong Management Base
Through the following strategies, Michael positioned Agnite Health to become a leading player in the ophthalmology and optical billing industries:
- Creating an Alliance with a PEO: He created an alliance with a PEO, allowing the company to provide better benefits to employees at competitive pricing. The PEO also allowed Agnite to focus its efforts on customer service and its core competencies.
- Allowing Staff Members to Work from Home: This has given Agnite the ability and flexibility to hire the best nationwide.
- Ongoing Training, Education, and Development: Agnite is highly committed to ensuring that all staff members have access to ongoing training, education, and development programs.
- Providing Competitive Compensation and Benefits: Michael developed and provided outstanding competitive compensation and benefits for management and billing staff with an annual bonus program that continues today.
- Yearly Gift Program for Staff: Understanding the importance of family, Michael implemented a yearly gift program for the staff, including gift cards for back-to-school supplies, gifts for Valentine’s Day, employee birthday off with pay, work anniversary recognition, etc.
- Effective Communication: Michael ensured effective communication through ongoing monthly staff meetings, daily use of teams, etc. Detailed comprehensive monthly reports are shared with individual clients via Zoom.
- Meeting or Exceeding Monthly Standards: Michael ensured the company met or exceeded monthly standards for all billing benchmarking; this practice continues today.
Emphasizing Core Values for Success
To be successful at Agnite, each staff member needs to understand and passionately follow the company’s core values and principles that Michael instilled throughout his career.
Agnite focuses on Customer Service as its first core value. The company conducts an extensive orientation program for every new hire and ongoing training programs that outline the need to be passionate about always providing the best possible customer service. Agnite realizes that it is an extension of the practices it serves. Agnite has a dual role when it comes to customer service. The Company must meet the needs of the client as well as the patients. Accuracy in processing claims correctly the first time is essential for the client and their patient base.
The company strives to answer patient, and client calls in a quick and friendly manner. Agnite personnel realize that they need to be available, and they must be able to solve complex billing issues when it comes to proper revenue cycle management needs.
The second core value is to always be transparent. Agnite assigns an account supervisor to every practice account and has ongoing discussions about rejected claims, credentialing, software needs, patient demographics, authorizations, etc. Meeting schedules are established based on each client’s needs and expectations. In addition to oral discussions, formal meetings are offered to each client. All clients receive an extensive monthly written report.
The third core value is being results-oriented. It’s a requirement that all billing specialists become OCS certified. Agnite encourages CPC certification. The goal is to exceed all the national benchmarks for claim processing.
Agnite’s last core value is being team-oriented. The company strongly believes that the power of teams produces better results than just ongoing individual efforts. Every staff member is cross-trained and takes advantage of internal networking through Google Teams by asking questions, sharing knowledge and supporting each other in the resolution of complex billing issues.
Empowering Partners with Efficient Billing Solutions
Agnite Health offers a range of services to its partners designed to assist them in achieving their billing objectives, including:
- Charge Posting: Agnite Health posts all charges within 24 hours of receipt.
- Claim Submission: Agnite Health submits all claims within 24 hours with a 98%+ clean claim acceptance rate.
- Claim Rejections: Agnite Health corrects and resubmits all electronic claim rejections within 24 hours.
- Denial Management: Agnite Health works on all denials within 72 hours.
- Patient and Insurance A/R Follow-up: Agnite Health reviews all outstanding insurance claims monthly that are 30-45 days and older and creates and maintains detailed notes on all follow-ups.
- Payment Processing and Posting: Agnite Health posts all payments within 24-48 hours of receipt.
- Auditing: Every claim is personally audited and released by a Billing Manager.
- Reports: Agnite Health provides extraordinary reports to stay in tune with the client’s practice.
Expanding Healthcare Services
To expand its services and/or enter new markets within the healthcare industry, Agnite Health maintains the skill, competence and drive to meet the needs of the marketplace with the ability to scale appropriately. Agnite Health will always focus on all aspects of ophthalmology and optometry billing. Agnite Health is very knowledgeable in comprehensive, retinal, oculoplastic, optical, and ambulatory surgery center billing.
The company is always looking for technological advances to improve efficiency. Agnite Health is currently exploring blockchain and AI technology for future services to be the most productive and cost-efficient.
Legacy of Leadership and Trust
Joe supported Michael’s vision of planning, development, and implementation of Agnite Health as the very best ophthalmology and optometry billing company in the industry.
At the age of 28 and two years prior to the development of Agnite Health, Michael attended the McCombs MBA School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
During that time, Michael was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As with all major brain tumors, his prognosis was not favorable. He immediately secured the best medical and surgical care possible, which led to two brain surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy. His initial brain tumor was widespread. He was given a very limited life expectancy.
After surviving the surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy, Michael was able to beat the initial odds, and due to his sustained faith, countless prayers, great medical care, beloved family, and work support, he was able to recover with few significant residual medical or physical disabilities and resume his work duties after an extensive rehabilitation process.
At this time, Michael wanted to “Build something new, something successful, something needed,” which led to the formation and implementation of Agnite Health. In January 2021, Michael’s brain cancer resurfaced as a Grade 4 glioblastoma, and after extensive traditional and experimental treatments, he died in April 2023. Agnite Health’s staff and client base were devastated. Over a 10 period, Michael’s leadership positioned Agnite Health to be a trusted business partner for ophthalmologists and optometrists nationwide.
Continuing Operations with Vision and Mindset
Joe emphasizes that, “As Michael’s father and business partner, words can never explain what it is like to lose a son, friend, and business colleague.” Due to Joe’s extensive knowledge in the eyecare business and as a board member and investor in Agnite Health, he immediately assumed the role of CEO when Michael passed away. During the past eighteen months since Michael’s passing, his role has continued to oversee company operations with Michael’s philosophy and operational mindset. The company continues to have double-digit growth compounded each year. Michael’s name will never be forgotten due to his vision and love for his staff members and clients.
