Questions to Ask When Evaluating an Anesthesia Billing Company
A reputable billing company is one of the most valuable business partners for a savvy anesthesia group or department. But not every anesthesia billing company has the breadth/depth of skills, resources, and experience necessary for optimal delivery. That’s why you need to evaluate the performance of different vendors before selecting your anesthesia billing company.
While evaluation is crucial, it would be difficult to determine whether your anesthesia billing service is underperforming or not without the proper metrics. Let’s dedicate this time to expound on the factors that can help your hospital, surgical center or anesthesia group find the right anesthesia billing company.
Evaluate Several Factors Before Choosing an Anesthesia Billing Company
Some billing companies claim to cover the area of anesthesia, but not all are specialized in it, so it is important to ask and validate several factors. Unlike other medical specialties, anesthesia billing relies on a unique system of time units, base units, and modifiers. To prevent complications during billing, you need to find a company that specializes in and understands these intricacies of anesthesia billing and coding.
Many general medical billing companies state their experience and competence in anesthesia billing, but their actual performance indicates otherwise. Factors indicating a company’s performance include the volume of collections, number of missed charges, response to AR issues, and staff turnover. Typically, some vendors promise extra benefits than others. For instance, a company might provide data storage, performance analysis, and a view of income over time as a bonus to its clients, but for anesthesia billing the most important factor is the experience in anesthesia billing methodology and process.
What Should I Look for in My Evaluation of an Anesthesia Billing Company?
Ideally, start by reviewing the company website and the resources they have. You can find a lot of information about the anesthesia billing service provider, including services offered, specialization, and experience, from the website.
Second, check if they have references and reach out to those references. Common reasons that cause anesthesia practices to part ways with revenue cycle firms include high staff turnover rates, lack of transparency, missed charges, and poor response to AR issues. Thus, be aware of what the references are commenting on for both the positive and the negative.
Check the anesthesia billing company’s contract terms. Be aware of the evergreen clauses associated with some companies. Usually, it is a three-year initial term where the contract auto-renews on your subscription’s first, second and third annual anniversary. Understand what the termination clause is in case you have trouble with bad performance. You don’t want to risk your future revenue due to a faulty contract.
What Questions Should I Ask of the Anesthesia Billing Company?
- Do they specialize in anesthesia billing? Anesthesia has unique billing and coding procedures, which a general billing company might not be able to follow, leading to suboptimal collections. You need an anesthesia billing service provider to maximize your revenue.
- Can I reach out to them for help/answers anytime? Should you inquire about AR or any other issue, the vendor should respond promptly. If they have limits on their responsiveness, you will soon be discontent with the billing services.
- Do I have access to my data? With access to your department’s data, you can evaluate the accuracy of the process and know whether the billing company is maximizing your revenue collection. If the need arises, you need to be able to audit and look at what the billing company has been doing with your data.
- Do they provide real-time reporting? Reporting makes the billing process transparent and increases trust between you and the billing service provider.
- Can this partnership help me increase my revenue? The primary goal of contracting a billing company is to help you boost returns. If the billing company does not demonstrate how they will get a higher revenue collection, consider other companies that offer superior results.
What the Deciding Factor in My Choice of Anesthesia Billing Companies to Evaluate?
Choose an anesthesia billing company that allows you to view and analyze your data. Consider a company that can provide you with the specialized anesthesia billing resources your practice needs. These include analysis reports and graphs that help you see the tangible progress of your collections on anesthesia services.
Need to maximize your revenue and profitability? Medi-Corp is your go-to entire anesthesia revenue cycle solution. Talk to our anesthesia billing specialists today for high quality billing, practice management, and coding services for your hospital, surgical center or anesthesia group.