Sharp Workshop Series
The curriculum that makes
full-cycle operators.
Fifteen workshops across three tracks — Foundation, Operations, and Mastery — covering every function Sharp operates. Each workshop addresses a specific skill or judgment call that the work actually requires, built from the methods the firm uses on live accounts.
Format
Self-paced with structured exercises
Each workshop includes reading, exercises on real examples, and a quiz or drafted deliverable.
Cadence
Quarterly cohort schedule
All staff move through each track together. New hires join the next cohort after onboarding.
Progression
Sequential by track
Foundation must be completed before Operations. Operations before Mastery. No exceptions.
Understanding the Revenue Cycle
For people new to healthcare revenue cycle management or to mental health billing specifically. These workshops establish the vocabulary, process map, and rule set that every other Sharp skill builds on. Completion is required before moving to the Operations track.
- F-01
The Healthcare Revenue Cycle — End to End
What happens between a clinician completing a session and a payment reaching the practice's bank account. The ten steps of the revenue cycle, where mental health billing diverges from general medical billing, and which steps produce the most common failure points.
2 hours Self-paced reading + comprehension quiz - F-02
Mental Health CPT Codes & Session Billing
The 90xxx psychotherapy series — individual, group, crisis, and combination codes. E/M codes for psychiatric prescribers. Modifiers that change reimbursement: 95, GT, 59, 25, and when each applies. The ten coding errors most likely to produce a denial in behavioral health.
3 hours Guided exercises with real claim examples - F-03
Insurance Verification & Prior Authorization
Eligibility verification vs. benefits verification: what each covers and why both matter before the first session. Prior authorization requirements by payer category in mental health. What happens when authorization expires mid-treatment, and how to prevent it from becoming a billing gap.
2 hours Case-based walkthrough - F-04
HIPAA Essentials for Revenue Cycle Staff
Protected health information in billing workflows: what counts as PHI and what doesn't. The minimum necessary standard applied to claims submission, appeals, and collections. Breach scenarios specific to revenue cycle work and how to identify risk before it becomes an incident.
1.5 hours Self-paced + certification quiz - F-05
Reading an Explanation of Benefits
The anatomy of a payer EOB: billed amount, allowed amount, contractual adjustment, patient responsibility, and what each figure means operationally. How to identify an underpayment versus correctly processed claim. What to do when the EOB and the payment do not match.
2 hours Exercises using real EOB formats
Working the Cycle
For staff handling active accounts — submitting claims, working denials, managing credentialing, and reporting to clients. These workshops build the operational judgment the Foundation track prepares you for. The Operations track is the core of the Sharp cross-training path.
- O-01
Denial Codes — What Each Code Means and What to Do Next
CARC and RARC code categories and how to read them together. The fifteen most common denial types in mental health billing, organized by root cause. A triage framework: correctable and resubmit, appealable, or write-off — and how to make that call without referring up every time.
3 hours Code library reference + case exercises - O-02
Credentialing & Payer Enrollment — How the Process Works
The credentialing lifecycle from application to approved billing privileges. CAQH profile setup and maintenance. Payer-specific enrollment quirks common in behavioral health — Medicaid managed care plans, Medicare Part B, and major commercial payers. How to track an application in progress and escalate when it stalls.
3 hours Process walkthrough + enrollment checklist - O-03
Payer-Specific Rules in Mental Health Billing
Medicare Part B mental health billing: the 80/20 structure, annual wellness visits, and the difference between outpatient psychiatric and medical management. Medicaid: state variation, behavioral health carve-outs, and managed care plan differences. Commercial plans: BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, and UHC mental health coverage tiers and their denial behavior.
4 hours Payer reference guide + guided review - O-04
AR Aging — Reading, Prioritizing, and Working a Report
What an aging report tells you about a practice's revenue health, and what it obscures. Prioritization logic: how to rank by balance size, payer behavior, and claim age. When to continue pursuit versus write off. How to present aging to a client without alarming them unnecessarily.
2.5 hours Exercises using live aging report structures - O-05
Appeal Writing — Structure and Evidence
The anatomy of an effective appeal letter: claim reference, denial basis, argument, supporting evidence, and specific request. What documentation strengthens versus weakens a position. Payer-specific appeal submission rules — portal, fax, and mail — and how to confirm receipt. The difference between a first-level appeal and a peer-to-peer review request.
4 hours Drafting exercises with principal feedback
Account Leadership
For staff carrying accounts independently or moving toward account lead roles. These workshops address the judgment calls that cannot be resolved by a checklist — multi-state complexity, clinically contested denials, revenue analysis, and the operational mechanics of leading a practice's revenue infrastructure.
- M-01
Multi-State Credentialing Operations
Managing provider enrollment across two or more states simultaneously without losing track of timelines. State-specific Medicaid enrollment requirements and how they differ from commercial credentialing. Tracking revalidation deadlines across a provider panel. What to do when a state enrollment stalls and the provider has already started seeing patients.
3 hours Case-based simulation - M-02
Complex Appeal Writing — Clinically Defensible Arguments
When a standard appeal is insufficient and why. How to use clinical documentation to argue medical necessity in behavioral health — the right language, the right citations, and how to avoid the framing that gives payers grounds to deny again. Mental health parity law as an appeal argument: when it applies, how to invoke it, and what to expect.
4 hours Advanced drafting reviewed by principal - M-03
Practice Revenue Analysis — KPIs and What They Actually Mean
The six numbers that describe the health of a practice's revenue cycle: collection rate, denial rate, days in AR, clean claim rate, first-pass resolution rate, and net collection rate. What each one is actually measuring, what an acceptable range looks like by specialty and payer mix, and how to move a number that is outside that range.
3 hours Analysis exercises using real data structures - M-04
AI & Automation in Mental Health Revenue Cycle
Where automation currently works in the revenue cycle and where it reliably fails. EHR rules engines, clearinghouse claim scrubbers, and payer portals — what they catch and what they miss. How to use AI-assisted tools without creating a false sense of security. The parts of this work that still require human judgment and why that is unlikely to change in the near term.
2.5 hours Tool walkthrough + structured discussion - M-05
Account Leadership — Running a Practice's Revenue Operation
What it means operationally to own an account end-to-end. Monthly reporting: what to surface, how to frame it, and when a number requires a conversation versus a line in a report. Managing a practice through an enrollment delay, a payer audit, or a denial spike — how to diagnose it quickly, communicate clearly, and resolve it without creating client anxiety that outlasts the problem.
4 hours Case simulation with principal review
Join the Team
The workshop series is one part of how we build expertise at Sharp.
If you want to work where the training is this deliberate, the work is this specific, and the environment is built for accuracy — we want to hear from you.