Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1499344
55 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 1 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING SPONSORED BY Why 'next-generation analytics' are essential for today's ASCs By Nathan Hess, Chief Technology Officer, Surgical Notes T he growing number of ASCs that choose to outsource their billing have options. ASC billing companies usually offer similar services and promise similar results like end- to-end revenue cycle management, strengthened bottom-line performance and increased efficiency. These are all important deliverables for an ASC billing company and should be on the list of what a surgery center expects as the bare minimum when choosing a billing partner. But for surgery center owners and managers who want more than the minimum — those who want the best for their center — what should they look for in an ASC billing company? Over the past few years, one of the characteristics that has emerged as a key differentiator between companies is described as "next- generation analytics." Access to and the use of analytics in general have gone from a "could have" to a "must have" for ASCs that want to better identify new growth avenues, find opportunities for improvement and ultimately boost their bottom line. For surgery centers looking to optimize these efforts, they should look for an ASC billing partner that leverages more powerful analytics. Enter next-generation analytics, which take an even deeper dive into an ASC's revenue cycle performance, unearthing insights that would otherwise be much more time consuming or impossible to reveal through legacy reporting platforms. The use of next-generation analytics has become even more of a necessity given the increased competition and challenges facing surgery centers today. When selecting an analytics platform, ASCs should seek these qualities and capabilities. Built for ASCs The best ASC analytics platforms are those designed specifically for surgery centers. Such an approach better ensures the solution will meet and likely exceed a surgery center's needs. It also eliminates a need for workarounds or significant customization that may be required of an analytics platform designed for another industry or to support multiple industries. Monitors key performance indicators An ASC billing company's next-generation analytics platform should have built-in monitoring for the most important surgery center revenue cycle management KPIs — those metrics that are essential for growth and maintaining profitability. These include days to bill, days to pay, days in accounts receivable, AR greater than 90 days and denial rate, among many others. The platform should make it easy for surgery centers to evaluate performance of these metrics against different time periods, payers, specialties and surgeons. Robust reporting capability An analytics platform is only as good as the data it generates through tables, charts and reports. An ASC billing company's business intelligence analytics platform should have the capability to produce reports that can be easily reviewed and quickly acted upon through a combination of visualizations and tables. ASCs, working with their billing partner, should be able to use the next-generation analytics platform to detect bottlenecks and negative billing trends before they become more significant problems and determine corrective action before issues ever arise. Reports should empower ASCs and their billing company partner to expedite root-cause analyses and pinpoint where actions are needed. A good ASC billing company partner doesn't just send reports to its clients and leave them to evaluate the data. The partner should share observations and ask questions that can help clients with performance improvement. In addition, the partner should be available to discuss reports, help perform root- cause analyses and assist with executing internal revenue cycle process changes. Automated Maintaining and accessing current revenue cycle performance data should not require much work for an ASC. A next-generation analytics platform integrates various activities and systems — including transcription, coding, charge entry and billing — and then leverages automation to streamline the capturing of an ASC's financial data and creating actionable reports. The next-generation platform should also have the capability to automate the sharing of data and reports to help keep surgery center leadership abreast of its center's performance in a timely manner. Scalability As ASCs evolve, the next-generation analytics platform should be able to easily evolve and scale with them. When ASCs add or subtract specialties, surgeons, payers and procedures, getting the platform and its reports to reflect the latest information should be a simple process. This will enable ASCs to quickly receive data that shows how changes are affecting revenue cycle performance. Better benchmarking A next-generation analytics platform should strengthen an ASC's ability to perform one of its most important revenue cycle- related tasks: benchmarking, both internally and externally. The platform should provide more data for benchmarking, help an