Three services. One clear goal.
Every engagement is scoped around a measurable outcome not billable hours. You'll know exactly what's in scope, what it costs, and what success looks like before we begin.
Good Stewart Consulting focuses exclusively on the financial and operational levers that determine whether an independent practice thrives or sells: payor contracts, revenue integrity, and operational efficiency. We don't do everything. We do this work for a specific kind of client: independent specialty practices with 5 to 25 providers and we do it exceptionally well.
The free 15-minute fit call is designed exactly for this. In 15 minutes we'll identify which service is the right starting point for your organization and whether we're the right fit at all. No pitch. No pressure.
Payor contract strategy
Your contracts are the foundation of your revenue. If they haven't been properly analyzed against current market benchmarks, everything else is built on sand.
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Contract Clarity Review & Strategic Optimization
Who it's for: Independent specialty practices ready to stop leaving revenue on the table.
We analyze every active payor agreement against current market benchmarks, identify where your rates are underperforming, flag problematic contract language, and build a negotiation strategy designed to recover what you're owed and protect what you've earned.
Most clients uncover meaningful revenue opportunities in the first review. This is where we start because it's where the impact is greatest.
Typical engagement: 6 - 8 weeks, scoped to provider count, contract volume, and specialty.
Investment: Starting at $25,000. Strategy session fee credited toward the full engagement. Direct negotiation support and renewal representation are scoped separately.
Most clients identify meaningful underpayment in the first review. This is where we start because it's where the impact is greatest.
Revenue Integrity
You're billing for it. Are you actually getting paid?
Who it's for: Practices with rising denial rates, suspected underpayments, or revenue cycle teams that can't pinpoint where the money is going.
What you get:
Comprehensive denial pattern analysis by payer, CPT code, and root cause
Fee schedule audit against your contracted rates and current market benchmarks
Underpayment detection across the [last 12 - 24 months] of remittances
Front-end intake and eligibility process review
Prioritized remediation plan with quantified revenue recovery opportunity
Staff training and workflow recommendations for the highest-frequency denial drivers
Typical engagement: 4 - 6 weeks, scoped to claim volume and complexity.
Investment: Starting at $18,000. Strategy session fee credited toward the full engagement.
Most independent practices are losing 5 - 15% of their owed revenue to denials and underpayments they've never quantified. We find it, and we help you build the systems to keep finding it.
Many practices follow this engagement with ongoing denial monitoring through our Ongoing Advisory retainer, while keeping the systems we built working without rebuilding the leaks.
Operational Consulting
Revenue strategy fails if your operations can't deliver. We make sure they can.
Who it's for: Practices where staffing, prior auth backlogs, or workflow gaps are eroding the gains a contract or revenue project would otherwise produce.
What you get:
Workflow audit across prior authorization, denial management, scheduling, and patient access
Staffing model review and benchmarking against MGMA data for your specialty and size
Process redesign for the highest-friction administrative workflows
Implementation support, not just recommendations. We help you put the changes in place.
30/60/90 - day measurement framework so you can see what's working
Typical engagement: 6 - 8 weeks, scoped to operational scope and practice complexity.
Investment: Starting at $22,000. Strategy session fee credited toward the full engagement.
This service is most often added on after a contract or revenue integrity engagement once we've already mapped where your operations are leaking the money strategy was supposed to protect.
what this looks like
What this looks like in practice: A $3 million payer dispute recovery
Multi-Site Gastroenterology Group | 12 Providers | San Diego County
The situation:
During two consecutive monthly provider revenue meetings, the practice administrator noticed an unusual commonality: two providers at two different clinic locations were showing the same revenue softness, despite seeing different patient volumes and case mixes. Their billing team had flagged a denial rate climbing past 12% over the prior twelve months. The administrator suspected the practice was being systematically underpaid by a major commercial payer — but didn't have the analytical capacity to prove it or quantify the impact.
What we did:Conducted a comprehensive remittance analysis across all twelve providers and three clinic locations to confirm the pattern was systemic, not isolated to two providersTraced the underpayment to a specific commercial payer that had been applying an incorrect fee schedule to a high-volume endoscopy procedure category; a pattern hiding inside line-item EOBs that dashboards weren't catchingReconstructed 24 months of underpaid claims across all affected providers and locations to quantify the full scope of the disputeBuilt a formal dispute package including claim-level documentation, contract language analysis, payment reconciliation, and a payer-specific narrative explaining the discrepancyLed direct negotiations with the payer's contract management team through the formal dispute and escalation processImplemented monthly underpayment auditing protocols to prevent the pattern from re-establishing
The outcome:
$3 million recovered through formal dispute resolution and retroactive recoupment
Denial rate reduced from 12% to under 6% within six months as upstream workflow changes took effect
Ongoing monthly reconciliation process established that has continued to identify and recover smaller underpayments going forward
Provider revenue stabilized across all locations, eliminating the variance the administrator originally flagged
“Our administrator told me twice she thought we were being underpaid. I believed her, I just didn’t have anyone who could prove it. Three million dollars later, I should have made the call sooner.”
Ongoing Advisory Support
A structured advisory relationship for organizations that want continued strategic firepower without the cost of in-house expertise.
What's included:
Monthly or Quarterly strategy reviews
Contract renewal monitoring and proactive alerts
On-call guidance for payer disputes, audit responses, and major operational decisions
Annual benchmark refresh against current market data
Direct access to Jessica between formal sessions
Best fit for: Practices coming off a successful initial engagement who want to lock in the gains and maintain strategic advantage as contracts renew, payer dynamics shift, and the regulatory environment evolves.
Investment: Monthly or quarterly retainer. Discussed during the strategy session based on your engagement scope and cadence.
Ready to find out what your contracts are actually worth?
Start with the free 15-minute fit call to identify your right starting point or go straight to the 45-minute strategy session if you already know where you want to dig in.