Partners in health.

Experience and service quality are important to Urologic Specialists. Their patients depend on the practice’s 21 board-certified urologists to treat a wide range of medical issues.

Reputation also matters to the 70-year-old practice, which has grown 10% annually each of the past three years.

After meeting several times with Commerce Bank, Urologic Specialists’ leaders felt like they had found a banking partner with similar values.

“We wanted a sophisticated banking partner that understands healthcare and could support our growth,” says Matt Keep, Urologic Specialists’ chief executive officer. Since 1948, the practice has expanded from Tulsa to become the largest urology provider in the region, serving communities in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

"Commerce not only helps us find efficient solutions, it has provided the resources needed to implement them."

Marva Vann, controller, says they learned the importance of working with a healthcare-focused bank the hard way.

“Our old bank abruptly changed our lockbox address, and it delayed our Medicare payments for a month,” she recalls. “We had to advance funds from our line of credit daily while waiting for our payers to adjust. The bank didn’t anticipate that the change would be disruptive.”

“Commerce brought in people with healthcare experience and gave us the peace of mind we were looking for,” says Matt.

One of Commerce’s first jobs was to refinance the practice’s debt, saving the physician-owners several hundred thousand dollars over the life of the loan.

Next, it introduced a way to automate insurance claim processing. “When we had one location, automation wasn’t an issue,” says Carrie Bowen, business office manager. “But now it is.” The efficiencies created by Commerce’s electronic lockbox service are significant, says Carrie. “Not only can we get funds up to 20 days sooner, we can go online and get projections of funds coming in from uploaded claims.”

Most recently, Urologic Specialists has added other Commerce services, ranging from remote deposit to an online payment system for patients. Perhaps the best news?

“The transition has been almost seamless,” says Marva.