Start outside Route 128. A dermatology practice in Springfield, Fall River, or New Bedford often covers a wide referral area on a schedule booked months ahead, and no one on staff has spare hours to work a denial back through the payer. Closer in, around Boston, Cambridge, Newton, and Somerville, the problem inverts: patients have real alternatives within a short drive, so a statement they cannot make sense of costs the relationship and not only the payment.
Consolidation has been moving through Massachusetts dermatology for years, and the offers that reach owners in Worcester or Quincy lead with operations: centralized coding, credentialing, denial follow-up, reporting that reconciles. That is the honest part of the pitch. What goes unsaid is that an owner whose revenue cycle is struggling has already lost the ability to say no, because operational relief starts to outweigh the terms of the deal.
Our entire book is dermatology, and has been since 2017, which puts payer behavior, denial patterns, and the coding calls that only surface at volume in front of a two-provider office in Lowell or Haverhill. That is the same asset a platform group spends years assembling internally, and reaching it costs an owner no equity. Across the 200+ dermatology practices and 1,246+ providers we bill for, net collections hold at 98% and A/R averages 23 days. An owner who wants to sell later can still sell, with cleaner books going into the conversation.