Your Expert Guide to Stress-Free Mental Health Billing

Hello! I’m Susan Frager, your guide to stress-free mental health billing. With over two decades of experience in the field, I’ve honed my skills to ensure your practice thrives financially.

My passion lies in empowering mental health clinicians like you to develop successful, profitable practices, so you can focus on your passion — quality psychotherapy or psychiatry services.

Together, we’ll navigate the complexities of insurance billing, debunk myths, and help you make informed business decisions.

Join our community of mental health clinicians who have experienced the magic of stress-free billing. With my expertise, you’ll achieve the profitable and successful practice you’ve always dreamed of. Contact PsychBilling Coach today, and let’s embark on this journey together!

Susan Frager of PsychBilling Coach

A little bit of my backstory… 

This has been my journey, full of unexpected turns.

I graduated with a master’s in social work in 1991. My career goal was to become a therapist in private practice. Like you, I didn’t learn the business skills needed to operate a private practice.

Because I had no means to start a full-time private practice and live without income while growing it, once I was licensed, I got a job as an employee assistance therapist. Just two years later, I was burned out by the unrelenting demands of management to schedule 36 clinical hours per week plus unpaid on-call duties. I left direct clinical work in 1996 to “take a break.” Little did I know that I would never return.

My temporary “break” led me to a clinical care manager role at a corporate predecessor of Magellan Behavioral Health. While there, I became fascinated by the toxic US healthcare system.

Every day, I was yelled at, by clinicians and clients frustrated with “the system.” I was powerless to help. As I learned more, an idea came to me: why don’t I start a company helping therapists and psychiatrists, so they could concentrate on what they had trained for – behavioral health care?

Sink or Swim

It wasn’t long before I dreaded going to work every day, knowing I would be yelled at by someone. Racking my brains over how I was going to make a living for the next 4 decades, I decided to take a chance on that crazy idea. It was “sink or swim.”

Becoming a biller was not the original intent; I was still a clinician at heart. I started off helping my clinical colleagues obtain authorizations. At that time, if you wanted insurance to cover treatment, you had to justify “medical necessity” every month or two. 

Authorization requests became tedious. But everyone needed help with billing and credentialing – and I learned to navigate it. Years before the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act, I had jettisoned authorization requests completely, in favor of credentialing and the full suite of revenue cycle management services. 

I’ve watched the private practice challenges come and go. Or not go. Or come back again with a new twist.  Life is never dull, as a biller.

The challenges are multiplying and never-ending, and the pace has quickened in the last few years.

In billing, as soon as you think you have something figured out…it changes. 

PsychBilling Coach was the result of an evolutionary process in my billing career that’s too long to go into here, but if you’re interested, check out the following videos:

If you would like to contact me for help or any type of information, please don’t hesitate.

Aside from being your PsychBilling Coach, I do have a life (I think). When the rainy weather in Western Washington clears up, I love to go kayaking and spend time in the mountains or at the beach. I’m a voracious reader, and hopefully my retirement career will consist of writing historical fiction. Why? Because I love to write – but have zero imagination!

Other pastimes include amateur jewelry making, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was bored and needed to do something with my hands that didn’t involve an electronic device and screen. Plus getting together with friends, being silly, and playing games. Life’s fun – as long as I remember that my canine boss, Prince Spencer, owns my time and my lap. The best times of all are cuddling with him.

Susan Frager of PsychBilling Coach with Prince Spencer
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