Becker's ASC Review

Executive Briefing: 44 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 3 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING How RCM outsourcing helped a Virginia ASC navigate staffing challenges When Princess Anne Ambulatory Surgery Center's full-time billing and patient account representative requested to have her hours reduced and move into a part-time posi- tion, Charmayne Harrington knew it was time for a change. The ASC's business office manager who has been with the Virginia Beach, Va., surgery center since it opened in 2007, Harrington recognized there was no one on her current staff who could effectively move into this role. In addition, the ASC was already in need of greater staff support. It was lacking in some accounts receivable (AR) follow-up and not managing this as effectively as Harrington knew the ASC should. These challenges caused Harrington significant stress and made it more difficult to keep up with daily responsibilities. Further complicating matters, Princess Anne Ambulatory Surgery Center could not expand its footprint to support all the business office staff Harrington believed would be nec- essary to meet its revenue cycle management needs. There was also uncertainty about whether the ASC could even re- cruit the personnel it would need considering the current staffing shortage and increased competition for talent. But Harrington didn't panic. She knew there was a way her ASC could effectively and efficiently address its looming staffing challenge as well as the other barriers to revenue cycle success: outsourcing the center's RCM. After doing its due diligence, Princess Anne Ambulatory Sur- gery Center chose an RCM billing partner and began the outsourcing transition. Harrington and the ASC's new part- ner worked closely together to align processes and work- flows while addressing any small issues that came up along the way. During the transition process, the billing partner took on responsibilities to alleviate Harrington's workload and bring about significant improvements, such as proper loading, setting up, and interpretation of the ASC's man- aged care contracts. Working with its RCM partner, Princess Anne Ambulato- ry Surgery Center achieved measurable improvements in many revenue cycle metrics, including: • Increase in payments • Increase in payments > 90 days • Decrease in bad debt • Decrease in AR Thanks to outsourcing, Harrington also saw her personal productivity improve. Without the need to spend significant time overseeing employees in the office, she's gained back valuable time that has allowed her to work on other projects and duties that had been pushed to the back burner. "With a team taking care of our RCM, I no longer worry whether I will find myself short staffed," she says. "With a talented and ed- ucated team overseeing our billing and collections, I don't have to worry about these anymore either. The outsourcing experience and our RCM partner have definitely exceeded my expectations." • If some of that increased revenue goes toward improving an ASC's clinical operations, non-owners currently with or considering bringing surgical cases to the center should find the facility more appealing. • With outsourcing, the ASC can achieve an additional fi- nancial windfall in the form of immediate cost savings that come with scaling back business office staffing and recruit- ment expenses. • With a reduced administrative workload, the ASC can fo- cus more on other matters that may directly or indirectly affect its physicians. This includes allocating more time and resources for physician recruitment; researching new tech- nology and services that can strengthen operations; pursu- ing improvements in significant areas such as purchasing and inventory management that can further reduce costs; and working with its ASC billing partner to negotiate or re- negotiate managed care contracts and grow revenue. • If an ASC wants to add a new specialty and physicians, out- sourcing RCM makes doing so much easier since it elim- inates finding revenue cycle staff with knowledge of the specialty's billing intricacies or training existing staff on these requirements. • Outsourcing RCM tends to make the ASC billing process more efficient and effective. This not only helps with overall performance but also tends to reduce the workload for phy- sicians. The ASC billing company can speak with patients about their payment responsibilities, implement processes that can help reduce the frequency that physicians need to be queried about documentation, and inform the ASC and its physicians when coverage changes impact the financial viability of a procedure. Outsourcing RCM can be a recruitment and reten- tion difference-maker While ASCs considering outsourcing RCM aren't typically think- ing about doing so for staff and physician recruitment and re- tention, it's clear that outsourcing can be a highly effective way to better navigate these significant challenges. With no indi- cation that competition for personnel will slow down any time soon, ASCs must be leveraging all the tools at their disposal to improve recruitment and retention efforts. By outsourcing RCM, surgery centers gain a service and a billing partner that can help them add and keep the people and achieve the financial perfor- mance they need to be successful for the short and long term. n

• Cover