Healthcare CPA vs healthcare accountant: who does what?
TL;DR: A healthcare CPA is a licensed accountant whose work for a medical practice is mostly tax: preparing and signing returns, tax planning, and audits when someone requires one. A healthcare accountant keeps the practice's books, closes each month and explains the numbers. Many practices need both. Sorso is a healthcare accountant and fractional CFO, not a CPA firm, so below we say plainly where a CPA is the one you need.
Option A
Healthcare CPA
A Certified Public Accountant, licensed by a state board, who works mostly with medical practices. Also called a medical CPA. The core of the work is tax: the practice's returns and often the owners' personal returns, entity and tax planning, and audit or review work when a lender, buyer or partner asks for it.
Option B
Healthcare accountant
An accountant or accounting firm that keeps a medical practice's books every month: reconciling accounts, matching insurance and patient deposits to the billing system, closing the month and producing financial statements. Some are CPAs; many firms that do this work, Sorso included, are not CPA firms.
| Category | Healthcare CPA | Healthcare accountant |
|---|---|---|
| License | State CPA license: the CPA exam, education and experience requirements, and continuing education. | No license is needed to keep books or produce management reports. Ask who does the work and how many practices like yours they keep books for. |
| Tax returns | Prepares and signs business and personal returns, and can represent clients before the IRS. | Varies by firm. Sorso does not prepare or file returns, business or personal; we hand your CPA tax-ready books at year end. |
| Monthly books | Often not the CPA. Many CPA firms work from books someone else keeps and review them at year end; some sell monthly bookkeeping as a separate service. | The core of the job: every account reconciled and the month closed. At Sorso, within 15 business days of month end. |
| Billing data vs the bank | Usually outside tax work, which starts from the books rather than the billing system. | A healthcare accountant should match insurance and patient deposits to the billing system every month. That is where denials, underpayments and missing payments show up. |
| Audits and reviews | Only a licensed CPA firm can issue an audit or review report on financial statements. | Cannot sign an audit or review report. Can keep the books in a state that makes one faster. |
| How often you hear from them | Mostly around tax deadlines and planning meetings. | Every month, with the financial statements and a note on what changed. |
| How they charge | Usually an annual fee for tax work, or hourly; rates vary by market and firm. | Usually a monthly fee. Sorso's healthcare accounting starts at $2,000 a month plus a one-time onboarding fee. |
| Who needs one | Every practice, for its tax returns and tax planning. | Practices that want monthly numbers to run the business on, usually once there are several providers or locations. |
Most practices need a CPA for tax and an accountant for the monthly books.
The two titles overlap less than they sound. The CPA's job is tax and attest work: returns filed correctly, the entity set up well, an audit signed when someone requires one. The accountant's job is the monthly books: every deposit matched, the month closed, and the owner told what changed. Some CPA firms do both, which works if you know who keeps your books each month and how soon they close. If your CPA only sees the books at tax time, the missing piece is the monthly accounting. That is the part Sorso does, and we hand your CPA tax-ready books at year end. If what you need is a tax return, business or personal, you need a CPA, not us.
- Medical practice accountant →What Sorso does as the practice's accountant, and what stays with your CPA.
- Medical practice bookkeeping →The monthly bookkeeping in detail: deposits, remittances and the bank.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a healthcare accountant the same as a healthcare CPA?+
Not necessarily. Every CPA is an accountant, but not every accountant is a CPA. "Healthcare accountant" describes the work; CPA is a license. An accountant without a CPA license can keep the books, close the month and produce financial statements, but cannot sign an audit or review report.
Is a medical CPA different from a healthcare CPA?+
No. Both describe a CPA who works mostly with medical practices; neither is a separate license. What matters is how many practices like yours they file for, and whether they look at your billing data or only your bank statements.
Does a medical practice need a CPA?+
For tax planning and filing, a CPA is the usual choice, and for an audit or review report a licensed CPA firm is required. For the monthly books, a CPA license is not required; what matters is that the person doing them knows how medical practices get paid.
Can my CPA also keep the monthly books?+
Some CPA firms offer monthly bookkeeping, often done by junior staff. That can work. Ask who does it, how soon after month end the books close, and whether they reconcile billing reports to bank deposits.
Is Sorso a CPA firm?+
No. Sorso is a healthcare accounting and fractional CFO firm, not a CPA firm. We keep the books, close each month and report on it. We do not prepare or file tax returns, business or personal, and we do not do audits. We work alongside your CPA.
What does a healthcare accountant cost?+
Sorso's healthcare accounting starts at $2,000 a month, plus a one-time onboarding fee that depends on how much cleanup your books need. After onboarding it runs month to month, with a 45-day money-back guarantee on the monthly fee. Fractional CFO work starts at $4,000 a month.
Talk it through
Want Stan to look at this for your clinic?
Stan Sukhinin, CFA, founded Sorso in 2020: a fractional CFO and accounting firm for outpatient clinics across the US, with accounting from $2,000 a month and fractional CFO from $4,000. Book a free 30-minute call, bring the question and, if you have it, last month's P&L, and he will tell you what he would check first.
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Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.