How an anesthesia management partner can help generate additional revenue

November 21, 2022

Throughout the country, many hospitals and clinics are reevaluating their anesthesiology programs. For too many years, there have been too many cancellations, too much disorganization, and too few providers resulting in high costs and low revenue.

While patients are the priority, medical facilities also need to make money in order to stay open. Some are turning to anesthesia management partners for solutions. However, boosting revenue takes more than increasing surgeon case volume. Below we take a deeper dive into three ways anesthesia management partners can effectively deliver long-term and more profitable bottom lines.

Lowers Cancellation Rates

It is estimated the U.S. performs 30 to 40 million surgeries a year. While some of these operations are emergency procedures, delays and cancellations are significant challenges for elective operations, such as joint replacements, colonoscopies, hernia repairs, or cosmetic surgeries. These perioperative services require the anesthesia department to be heavily involved and take a great deal of prep work before the procedure begins. When surgeries are cancelled, it not only causes stress to the medical team, but results in wasted time, a misuse of resources, and lost revenue.

Working with an anesthesia management company can reduce cancellations in a number of ways. First, they can assess the inner workings of a medical facility’s operations, find where there may be cracks in the scheduling system, and offer solutions to improve efficiency. Second, they can advise on how to overcome staffing challenges (so that procedures are never cancelled because of a lack of available providers) and assist in recruiting and hiring qualified anesthesiologists and CRNAs to fill in the gaps. Lastly, a partner can streamline the entire function of the OR, enabling providers to eliminate backlogs and complete surgeries in less time, making room for more cases.

Makes Data-Driven Decisions

Many ORs have been running on auto-pilot with antiquated systems that don’t provide any data to measure the quality of care, specify risk management, or determine where money is being lost. However, having this meaningful information is necessary to have the transparency needed to make better decisions and increase productivity. Medical teams can see substantial efficiency gains when accessing operating room data and developing strategies for addressing common productivity issues, such as delays, teamwork, and accountability.

A comprehensive anesthesia management partner can provide solutions that calculate and monitor the metrics of the entire department. From measuring physician performance to how the team works together to billing practices, they will utilize that data and work with leadership to look for opportunities where revenue growth has potential, and loss can be avoided.

Provides Anesthesia-Specific Billing

It is estimated that over 80% of providers are still depending on paper bills and statements to collect payments from patients. Even in such a technologically advanced field, billing and receivables are still heavily manual, leading to backlogs and long collection cycles. Because anesthesia care has additional rules and guidelines that make it complicated to determine the correct billing amount, and with the challenges that come with coding and insurance, many practices are grappling with lost revenue and managing compliance issues.

When an anesthesia management partner oversees billing, they will look for ways to streamline revenue cycle processes and improve efficiency throughout the entire financial picture. However, comprehensive management companies also know that specialty services, like anesthesia, require a different kind of coding and billing, and will have the technology to handle these complexities. With a combination of software and long-standing expertise, the right partner can improve billing workflow, account for all the anesthesia practice’s revenue, measure financial forecasts, confirm insurance, and handle compliance risks.

Growing Your Practice Takes Financial Stability

Financial management is a detailed and time-consuming process, but one that can save time, money, and resources if done correctly. At Premier Anesthesia, we not only have the expertise but our systems and practices are specific to anesthesia billing needs and compliance. If your hospital, ambulatory surgery center, or office-based clinic is curious to learn more about our custom solutions created to enhance your anesthesia services, gain revenue, and manage expenses, let’s connect.