How We Work
How We Work With Behavioral Health Practices
Most practices come to us knowing something is off but not sure where to start. We work in three stages: diagnose what is actually broken, build the fixes, then run the operation with you. You start with a Readiness Review and decide the rest from there.
The Path
Most Engagements Follow One Path
AdvanceAPractice is a practice-operations partner for psychiatry and PMHNP groups and other provider-led behavioral health practices. The engagement is a three-stage ladder. Each stage stands on its own, and each one earns the next. You are never asked to commit to all three up front.
Stage 1: Readiness Review
Diagnose. A two-week, eight-domain audit of how your practice actually runs. You get a written report with quantified findings and a prioritized 30/60/90 plan.
Stage 2: 30-Day Implementation Sprint
Build. We ship the top workflow upgrades the Review surfaced. You see weekly demos and keep every asset we build.
Stage 3: Managed Operations
Run. A fractional operations partner who tunes the system month over month. You get an operator in the seat through growth or transition.
Fees are flat and quoted after your Readiness Review.
Stage 1
Start With a Readiness Review
Every engagement starts here. The Readiness Review is a structured audit of how your practice runs, scored against a fixed rubric across eight operational domains: intake, credentialing, documentation, billing and AR, retention, team operations, data, and compliance. It takes about two weeks and it is the diagnostic that makes everything after it specific instead of generic.
You do not get a verbal impression. You get a written report with findings quantified against your own numbers, a prioritized 30/60/90 plan that says what to fix first and why, and a recommended build scope so you know exactly what a Sprint would tackle. Billing is one of the eight domains, not the whole picture. We look at the operating system your claims run on, not just the claims.
- An eight-domain audit scored against a fixed rubric.
- Findings quantified against your own practice data.
- A prioritized 30/60/90 plan with clear sequencing.
- A recommended build scope for the Sprint, if you want one.
This is the entry point and the only thing you have to decide on today. See the full breakdown on the Readiness Review page.
Stage 2
Build It in a Sprint
If the Review surfaces work worth doing, the 30-Day Implementation Sprint is where it gets built. Over roughly four to five weeks we ship the top upgrades the report flagged: automated intake, an eligibility and benefits-verification workflow, no-show recovery, an SOP library, owner dashboards, and AI-assisted note scaffolding. We build official systems and workflows from scratch or on top of the tools you already run.
You see a working demo every week, so there are no surprises at the end and nothing is built in a black box. When the Sprint closes, every asset is yours to keep: the documented SOPs with named owners, the forms and templates, the automation specs, and the owner dashboard tracking revenue, AR over 90 days, denial rate, no-show rate, and new-patient count. We do not lock you into our tools.
- We ship the highest-priority upgrades from the Review.
- Weekly demos keep the build transparent and on track.
- You keep every asset, SOP, template, and dashboard.
- Built from scratch or layered onto your current systems.
The full scope and what a typical build includes is on the Implementation Sprint page.
Stage 3
Run It With Managed Operations
Building the system is one thing. Keeping it sharp as the practice changes is another. Managed Operations is the optional third stage, an ongoing fractional operations partner for practices that want an operator in the seat rather than a one-time project. It is for when you would rather hand the operation to someone who runs it than manage it yourself.
Month over month, we tune what is live, add new automations as needs surface, run metric reviews against your dashboard, and steady the operation through growth, hiring, or transition. It is a standing partnership, not a retainer for unused hours. We run a Portland psychiatry and Spravato practice on exactly this model, weekly.
- A fractional operations partner, month over month.
- Ongoing tuning, new automations, and metric reviews.
- An operator in the seat through growth or transition.
How the ongoing partnership works is detailed on the Managed Operations page.
Under the Hood
Where Custom Software and Automation Fit
Software is not a separate product you buy from us. It is what powers the build and the managed engagement. The bespoke automations we write during a Sprint and the dashboards you live in afterward run on our own tooling, scoped to your practice rather than sold off a shelf.
That tooling includes our proprietary Command Suite, with executive and revenue-cycle dashboards, a credentialing hub, task and project operations, secure messaging, a document and media studio, and a HIPAA-compliant ephemeral PHI channel. Alongside it we build custom automations: a Spravato and Tebra scheduling pipeline, automated financial ingestion from your billing system, and Power Automate or Apps Script workflows that fit how your team already works. We are EHR-agnostic and optimize the system you already own.
Read more about the Custom Software and Automation we build and the Command Suite that supports it.
Start With the Diagnosis
One review tells you what is actually broken and what it would take to fix. You decide everything else after that.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Have to Commit to All Three Stages?
No. You start with a Readiness Review and nothing else. Once you have the report, you decide whether a Sprint is worth it, and whether you want ongoing Managed Operations after that. Each stage is a separate decision and many practices stop after the Review or the Sprint.
Can You Start Mid-Ladder if I Already Know My Problem?
Sometimes, but we still recommend the Review first. It is fast and it makes sure we are building against the real bottleneck rather than the obvious symptom. If a focused engagement clearly makes more sense for your situation, we will tell you on the call and scope it directly.
Will You Replace My EHR?
No. We are EHR-agnostic and do not do net-new EHR builds. We optimize the system you already own and build the workflows around it. If your EHR is fine and the problem is the operation surrounding it, we will say so.
How Much Does It Cost?
Fees are flat and quoted after your Readiness Review, once we have seen how your practice actually runs and what scope the work requires. The Review itself is the starting point, and there are no percentage-of-collections arrangements.