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Percentage of collections, or a flat fee?
Put in your own collections and the rate you pay. It shows what each costs and where they cross. No assumed savings and no return on investment — cost only.
Where the two cross
A percentage arrangement costs more every month you collect more. A published fee does not move. At 6%, 1 seat costs the same as the percentage when you collect $28,333 a month. Above that the percentage is more expensive, permanently.
| Monthly collections | At 6% | 1 seat | Difference a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $14,000 | $840 | $1,700 | −$10,320 |
| $21,000 | $1,260 | $1,700 | −$5,280 |
| $28,000 | $1,680 | $1,700 | −$240 |
| $35,000 | $2,100 | $1,700 | +$4,800 |
| $43,000 | $2,580 | $1,700 | +$10,560 |
| $57,000 | $3,420 | $1,700 | +$20,640 |
| $85,000 | $5,100 | $1,700 | +$40,800 |
Positive means the percentage costs more. Seat prices are the published ones and do not change with your collections.
What this deliberately does not tell you
It compares cost only. It assumes no collection lift, no denial reduction, no recovery rate and no payback period, because we have no audited outcome data across a client base and a number produced here would be a claim we could not stand behind. Every other calculator of this kind assumes a lift the vendor invented.
The honest comparison is arithmetic on your own figures: this is what you pay now, this is what a seat costs, this is where they cross. What each arrangement actually delivers is a question for a twenty-minute call and a look at your ageing, not for a form.
The part that is not about money
A percentage arrangement pays the vendor most when the practice is furthest behind, and it makes the cost impossible to forecast. A published monthly figure is the reason a practice manager can say yes without a finance review. That, rather than the saving, is usually why people move — and it is why every price on this site is published.
Why the crossover matters more than the rate
Practices negotiate the percentage. It is the wrong number to argue about. A percentage arrangement has one structural property that no rate fixes: the better you do, the more it costs. Grow collections by a third and the bill grows by a third, for work that did not change by a third.
A published monthly figure does not move. That is the whole difference, and it is why the comparison is a crossing line rather than a percentage argument.
What a percentage arrangement is actually good at
It is a fair way to price when a practice genuinely cannot carry a fixed cost — a new practice with no volume, or one whose collections are so unpredictable that a fixed fee is a real risk. In that situation paying only when money arrives is the right shape, and we will say so on a call rather than pretend otherwise.
It stops being the right shape at the point where the practice is stable enough to budget. Most practices pass that point and never revisit the arrangement, because nobody ever drew them this table.
Questions
What do medical billing companies usually charge?
Most price as a percentage of collections. The range commonly quoted in the US market is roughly 4% to 10%, with smaller practices and harder specialties at the higher end. The important property is not the rate — it is that the cost rises every month collections rise, which makes it impossible to forecast.
Is a percentage or a flat fee cheaper?
It depends entirely on collections, and there is a crossover point. Below it the percentage costs less; above it the flat fee does, and the gap widens every month. The calculator on this page finds that point for your own numbers. At 6% and a $1,700 seat, for example, the two are level at about $28,300 a month in collections.
Why does Soft Home Global not charge a percentage?
Two reasons. A percentage means the vendor earns most when the practice is furthest behind, which is a bad alignment however it is described. And a practice cannot budget for a number that moves. A published monthly figure is the reason a practice manager can say yes without a finance review.
Does this calculator include a return on investment?
Deliberately not. It compares cost only, and assumes no collection lift, no denial reduction and no recovery rate. We have no audited outcome data across a client base, so any such figure would be a claim we could not stand behind. Every other calculator of this kind assumes a lift the vendor invented.
What does a seat cost?
Seats run from $1,500 to $2,500 per seat per month depending on the role, published per role. One month minimum.
Seat prices are the published ones and are current as shown on the pricing page. Percentage rates are the range commonly quoted in the US market and are not a quotation from any specific company. This compares cost, not outcome.
Next step
Twenty minutes and your ageing report
Enough to tell whether a seat pays for itself in your practice. We publish our prices, so there is nothing to extract from you first.
Or write to ops@softhomeglobal.com