For ASCs to be financially successful, case costing should be a priority, according to Alpharetta, Ga.-based Surgical Information Systems.
Surgical Information Systems shared four benefits of case costing on their blog:
1. Profit margins. Knowing definitively if a procedure is profitable or not can help ASCs manage their finances more efficiently through comparing reimbursement with the total case cost.
2. Managed care contract negotiations. Commercial contracts that don't cover costs or provide profit should not be signed. ASC staff should also compare their costs to contracted rates to ensure that as case expenses go up, reimbursement rates increase as well.
3. Budget forecasting. ASCs should determine their expenses in order to understand how they can cover expenses and turn a profit. Without taking expenses into consideration, it's difficult for ASCs to serve their patients in the long term.
4. Physician behavior. If one physician is using a more expensive implant in surgeries than another, and the surgeries have the same outcomes, then ASC staff can use costing data when asking the physician to switch to the cheaper implant.