Anesthesiology Revenue Cycle
In today’s world, the phrase "Revenue Cycle" absolutely must be synonymous in describing the "patient experience". Simply put – the world of high-deductible healthcare insurance plans is not going to go away. The new challenge is how do we improve patient collections. The ever-changing world of insurance health plan coverage has left us with the greater burden of educating patients about their health insurance coverage. In some cases, it requires more diligence on the part of anesthesia provider organizations. Specifically, how accurate are the facility demographics. Do you have open communication processes with the facility registration departments? Do you have points of contact established with your referring doctor organizations? In short, this brave new world we face is all about establishing and maintaining good relationships. Here are a few issues to consider:
- Patient responsibility agreements with your facilities and referring doctor organizations. Establishing patient responsibility pre-payment agreements before care is rendered. Well negotiated agreements may curtail unnecessary lost revenue.
- Establish third party billing service policy and procedure requirements. Do you want to listen to what they say, or are you more interested in what they do?
- Revenue loss is inevitable. However, what steps are you taking to fill the leaks in the dam? Are you reviewing and challenging data reporting? Do you know how and what to drill down into?
- Weigh the difference in expense between the cost of a full-time practice administrator and a consultant on retainer. The cost of a consultant on retainer to put 10 hours into your practice performance will be far less than a full-time administrator. Get what you pay for…
- Have you considered brining your billing in-house? Have you considered approaching other groups to form a new company to consolidate billing expenses? Have you considered stepping away from the "big box" billing organizations and creating your own company? Have you considered this as a pathway to remaining independent?
Drilling into the revenue cycle... How far upstream do you travel to prevent errors, delays, and costly mistakes? The answer should be as far as you need to go! Let us scratch the surface on a few critical areas.
