Why is billing data important for healthcare recruiting?

Billing data is important for healthcare recruiting because it provides an objective, real-time view of how and where providers actually practice. Recruiters can see locations, health system affiliations, procedure types, workloads, and practice patterns instead of relying only on outdated resumes or profiles.

How can billing data show where a healthcare provider practices?

Each billed claim includes a place-of-service code that indicates where care was delivered, such as a clinic, hospital, ASC, SNF or telehealth. By analyzing these locations, recruiters can see the exact sites where a provider is currently active and whether they work across multiple facilities or primarily in one setting.

How does billing data reveal health system affiliations?

Billing records show which hospitals and health systems a provider submits claims through and how often. This helps recruiters understand real affiliations, current privilege patterns, and potential conflicts or exclusivity issues when approaching a provider for a new role.

What can billing data tell recruiters about the type of care a provider delivers?

Billing data includes CPT and HCPCS codes that describe the services performed. By analyzing these codes, recruiters can see whether a provider is primarily procedural or cognitive, works in acute or chronic care, focuses on hospital, outpatient, SNF, or telehealth settings, and whether their clinical activity matches the requirements of a specific role.

Can billing data help verify whether a provider is licensed in a state?

Yes. Providers generally cannot bill in a state unless they are licensed and credentialed there. Active billing in a state is a strong signal that the provider holds a valid license and payer enrollment in that jurisdiction, which helps recruiters quickly confirm eligibility for local roles or multistate locums work.

What other insights can healthcare recruiters get from billing data?

Beyond location and affiliations, billing data can reveal a provider's workload, seniority, and career trajectory. Claim volume and complexity show how busy they are, while advanced procedures and high-acuity codes point to senior expertise. Trends over time can indicate whether a provider is expanding, shifting into new settings, adopting telehealth, or moving toward administrative roles.

How Billing Data Helps Healthcare Recruiters Find the Right Providers — Faster, Smarter, and With Fewer Surprises

Healthcare recruiting is one of the hardest jobs in the industry. You’re navigating credentialing, staffing shortages, burnout, telehealth regulations, multiple specialties, and markets that shift every few months. It’s chaotic.

But there’s one data source that consistently cuts through the noise and gives recruiters a real-world, real-time view of a provider’s work:

Billing data.

Yes — the same CPT, HCPCS, and claims activity that powers reimbursement can also reveal where a provider practices, how they work, the organizations they partner with, what services they actually perform, and much more.

Today, smart staffing teams and recruiting agencies are using billing data not just as an afterthought — but as a centerpiece of their provider-intelligence strategy.

Let’s break down how.

1. Billing data shows exactly where a provider is practicing

Recruiters often struggle with incomplete or misleading data:

A provider lists one main clinic on their website
LinkedIn shows something different
Google shows nothing
And the location submitted during credentialing is outdated

But billing data doesn’t lie.

Every CPT or HCPCS claim includes the place of service, which points directly to:

A clinic
A hospital
An ASC
A telehealth location
Or another approved site

This lets recruiters instantly see:

Where the provider is actively billing today
Whether they split time across multiple locations
How much of their activity is inpatient vs outpatient
Whether they’re anchored to a health system or independent

This is incredibly powerful when assessing real availability, relocation feasibility, or practice flexibility.

2. Billing data reveals the health systems a provider is already affiliated with

Traditional affiliation data (from websites, directories, or resumes) is often outdated or selective.

Billing data provides a verified, up-to-the-minute affiliation map:

Did the physician bill procedures at a specific hospital last quarter?
Do they still round at the same facility?
Are they increasingly billing at a competing health system?
Have they dropped activity at a site they once had privileges at?

Recruiters can immediately understand:

Existing relationships
Contractual obligations
Potential conflicts or exclusivity issues
Which health systems already trust this provider’s work

This prevents sending opportunities to providers who cannot realistically move — and helps match talent to systems that make sense strategically.

3. Billing data uncovers the types of organizations a provider works with — and how they practice there

Every recruiter knows that two “family medicine physicians” might practice completely differently.

Billing data helps you stop guessing and start seeing:

Are they working primarily in urgent care, primary care, or concierge practices?
Do they bill heavily at skilled nursing facilities, rehab centers, or hospitals?
Are they mostly telemedicine providers?
Do they do procedural work, chronic disease management, or acute care?

This tells recruiters exactly what matters:

Does their actual clinical activity match the job’s requirements?

A job requiring heavy procedural care will not fit a provider whose billing shows mostly E/M codes and low procedure volume.

Conversely, a cardiac imaging center can quickly identify providers who already perform:

EKGs
Echocardiograms
Stress tests
Holter monitoring

…because they show up in billing data.

4. Billing data helps recruiters verify licensing and credentialing realities

Licensing is one of the biggest headaches in healthcare hiring — and billing data can help.

A provider cannot legally bill in a state without being:

Licensed
Credentialed
Enrolled with payors
Cleared for the type of services performed

This means billing activity is a high-fidelity signal of:

Where the provider is already licensed
Whether they’re properly credentialed
How recently they practiced in that state
Whether multisite or multistate providers are active in all regions

This avoids costly mistakes like pursuing a perfect candidate who cannot legally work in a target market anytime soon.

It also helps locums agencies identify providers who are already operational across multiple states — a competitive advantage in national staffing.

5. What else can billing data reveal? More than most recruiters realize.

Billing data gives you a 360° view of a provider’s professional footprint, including:

• Workload and clinical intensity

You can see whether a provider is billing:

20 visits per month
200 visits per month
Or 1,000+ visits per month

Which predicts burnout risk, workload preferences, and availability.

• Seniority and experience

Providers who bill:

High-acuity ICU codes
Advanced surgical CPTs
Specialized procedures

…are clearly more senior than providers whose billing activity is limited to level-3 office visits.

• Telehealth adoption

Telehealth place-of-service codes show:

Whether a provider is hybrid
Fully remote
Or anchored to in-person settings

Useful for virtual-care staffing.

• Procedural vs. cognitive practice style

Great for matching providers to job types:

Practices needing procedures
Clinics needing chronic disease management
Specialty centers needing niche expertise

• Career trajectory

Billing trends reveal whether a provider is:

Expanding
Contracting
Transitioning specialties
Moving toward administrative roles

This helps recruiters reach out at the right moment.

The bottom line: Billing data turns recruiting from guesswork into precision.

Healthcare recruiting works best when powered by verified activity, not assumptions.

Billing data gives recruiters actionable intelligence:

Where a provider really works
What systems they’re tied to
How they practice
What they actually do clinically
Whether they’re active and credentialed
What roles they’re suited for
When (and where) they might be ready for change

It’s the closest thing to a real-time X-ray of a provider’s professional life.

Recruiters who use billing data don’t just fill roles faster — they fill roles smarter.