Declining case volumes caused by economic issues are affecting revenue growth at many ASCs. For example, because surgery centers perform elective surgeries, patients who lost their jobs and are struggling to get back on their feet financially, and those who are still unable to find employment, are delaying surgeries or electing not to have them at all. Skyrocketing insurance deductibles are also negatively affecting surgery center case volumes.
To minimize economic effects, staff must continue to identify new and better ways to manage revenue cycles to ensure a center's financial success. Improving billing and collections is an obvious place to begin. The following tips will help get you started:
1. Verify co-pays well in advance of a procedure. Too many centers wait until the day before a patient's procedure to verify co-pays, and then attempt to collect the day of the procedure. Alerting patients to what they will owe, and collecting well in advance of a procedure, is a simple yet effective way to improve revenue.
2. Set documentation timelines. Strict turnaround times on required documentation can help improve revenue by enabling claims to be filed more quickly. Communicate to physicians the impact a delayed transcription can have on billing. Best practices should require transcriptions to be completed within 24 hours of a procedure.
3. Consider billing analytics tools. Business analytics tools provide detailed insight into a center's billing and collections including total A/R days, case rates, volume analysis reports, staff productivity and much more. If problems are discovered, business analytics tools enable staff to effortlessly dive deeper to see where the issue is. Staff can drill down and view claims by insurance, A/R, patient, physician, date, etc.
Additional benefits can be achieved when deploying a business analytics tool that integrates with a center's existing management software. The ability to pull base information already entered into a center’s system eliminates the possibility of errors while saving staff significant time.
Communication is critical to ensuring all parties are aware of the impact they have on a center's revenue cycle management. With best practices in place, processes will run smoother and claims will be managed more efficiently. Furthermore, by leveraging technology to simplify billing and collections it is easier for centers to stay on top of their revenue cycle.
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