4 Ways Outsourcing ASC Billing Helps Combat Staffing Challenges
ASCs nationwide are finding it more difficult and expensive to recruit and retain staff. According to a December 2021 survey on ASC staff shortages performed by ASCA, more than three out of every four respondents indicated they were experiencing shortages. The most frequently cited reasons included staff leaving for higher paying jobs, burnout, and an ASC's inability to bring back staff who were let go during the pandemic. Myriad factors are also making it more time-consuming and expensive to add and keep qualified staff. One solution that's helping a growing number of centers combat these challenges — while improving their financial performance — is outsourcing their ASC billing.
Here are four of the ways ASCs are benefitting from outsourcing their revenue cycle management as they work to navigate staffing issues.
1. Improved clinical recruitment
When ASCs outsource their billing, administrative leaders can shift the time and resources they were allocating toward filling and retaining these business office positions to tackling clinical recruitment challenges. ASC leadership will now have more time and resources available to perform clinical staff outreach and recruitment, which should help ASCs more effectively find and add the competent staff they need.
In addition, money saved by reducing the number of salaried business office employees can go toward offering higher starting salaries and benefits to their remaining employees. With better recruitment comes the ability to maintain a more consistent staffing schedule. This will, in turn, serve as an appealing quality for clinical staff weighing where to take their next position. Maintaining consistent staffing also helps ASCs reduce their spend on overtime and PRN staff.
2. Strengthened clinical retention
Clinical retention can improve when ASCs outsource their billing. As clinical staff recruitment improves, current staff benefit as well. More optimized clinical staffing levels can reduce burnout associated with overtime and the pressure to juggle multiple positions. Patients are likely to have a more positive ASC experience when staff are focused and energized.
In addition, when ASCs achieve optimal scheduling, staff members have more time available to pursue training and education. This can help improve their skills while also growing appreciation for their employer.
3. Bolstered business office staffing
Depending upon how much of its billing and revenue cycle operations an ASC outsources, the center will still need at least some office staffing. As with clinical recruitment and retention, time and resources saved via ASC billing outsourcing can be allocated toward filling office positions and better ensuring these staff remain satisfied with their role and work.
4. Ability to pursue growth opportunities
An ASC that keeps busy caring for patients is a center that's more likely to remain financially viable and profitable. Such successful ASCs tend to have better fortune with adding and retaining staff as they can usually offer regular salary increases and bonuses, invest in initiatives that enhance staff satisfaction, and reduce staff concerns about the longevity of the business and their positions.
Outsourcing ASC billing frees up time, resources, and administrative bandwidth to pursue the types of growth opportunities that help a center thrive and remain competitive. Depending on the ASC's situation, such efforts can be anything from recruiting new physicians and adding capital equipment that supports new procedures to making technology investments that enhance staff performance and improve patient engagement.
Appreciating the Value of Outsourcing Your ASC Revenue Cycle
For most ASCs, the motivating factor for outsourcing their revenue cycle management likely concerns their financial performance. Outsourcing is a proven way to boost an ASC's bottom line. But as discussed above, it's also an effective way to help overcome some of the top challenges facing ASCs today, including those associated with staff recruitment and retention.
Outsourcing billing can deliver even more substantial benefits that go beyond these areas. Learn about some of the ways the right billing company partner can help your ASC that go beyond the bottom line in this new e-book.
