10 Ways Revenue Cycle Outsourcing Helps ASC Growth

There are many initiatives an ASC's leadership can undertake to help grow their center. Among them: recruiting more physicians and staff, investing in capital equipment, expanding the facility's footprint, adding service lines, renegotiating managed care contracts, reducing costs, and marketing.

One thing these initiatives all have in common: Revenue cycle outsourcing helps ASCs successfully perform and complete them and achieve growth goals in the process. Here are 10 ways outsourcing your ASC billing will better ensure you reach the growth your center needs to remain competitive.

1. More money. Revenue cycle management outsourcing typically leads to a noteworthy improvement in an ASC's financial performance. For current and future surgery center owners, that tends to translate to increased distributions, investments in new clinical technology that can help physicians expand their surgical volume and improve outcomes, and higher value of ownership shares. If some of that increased revenue is allocated 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.

2. Reduction in the number of staff. With ongoing access and support from a team of ASC revenue cycle experts, a center can eliminate open in-house business office positions, reliance on part-time and pro re nata (PRN) business office staff, and paying for overtime when staff are unavailable or unable to take on more work. If an existing business office staff member leaves the facility or wants to move to reduced hours, the ASC billing company can take over the available work.

3. More time for research. Outsourcing revenue cycle management reduces the workload of surgery center leadership and staff. This translates to more available time that can be spent performing proper due diligence on new clinical equipment and technology. ASC billing companies with veteran leadership may also be in a position to make recommendations for equipment and technology an ASC should consider in its research. This knowledge comes from supporting like ASCs, previous experience working in surgery centers, networking with industry leaders, attending meetings, and reading periodicals.

4. Benefiting from vendor technology. ASC billing companies often have technology that can provide value and insight which helps support growth. A revenue cycle management company may have a business intelligence (BI) analytics solution to dive into an ASC’s revenue cycle performance, focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) crucial to growth. A billing company will benchmark these figures against an individual ASC’s performance and externally against similar clients to help identify opportunities for improvement. Other technology solutions may include insurance verification and patient estimation that can help grow collections.

5. Better use of physical space. With outsourced revenue cycle management, ASCs can free up valuable square footage that may be turned into clinical space. This could potentially eliminate a need for physical expansion or complement such expansion.

If physical expansion proceeds, outsourcing ASC billing can reduce or potentially eliminate space, furnishings, technology, and supplies that would otherwise need to be allocated to additional business office operations.

6. More efficient and effective clinical expansion. Growing clinical operations is easier, less expensive, and more successful with outsourced ASC billing. As a surgery center grows, it will not need to worry about finding, hiring, and training new revenue cycle management staff. A center can also take solace in knowing its outsourcing partner is prepared to deliver the necessary revenue cycle services to maximize the bottom-line benefits that come with expansion.

7. Determining optimal contract renegotiation goals. An ASC billing company that analyzes managed care contracts for its clients can help centers determine renegotiating goals, including where payment increases would contribute most to growth and what reimbursement figures should be targeted for coverage of new procedures. The company can provide clients with the billing data necessary to determine these goals.

Once a contract is renegotiated and loaded properly, the ASC billing company works to ensure the center gets bills out in a timely manner, gets paid what it deserves, and remains compliant with the contract terms.

8. Substantial cost savings. Revenue cycle outsourcing delivers instant business office staff-related cost savings as it empowers an ASC to reduce or eliminate overtime, part-time and/or PRN work or scale back full-time staff. If an ASC scales back full-time business office employees, additional savings include reduced expenses associated with recruiting, hiring, and training staff; purchasing furniture and technology; and obtaining insurance. As an ASC grows, it will not need to spend as much on finding, hiring, and training new staff to provide revenue cycle services.

9. Improved appeal to surgeons. Publicizing the partnership with an ASC billing company can help a surgery center attract surgeons. They may appreciate knowing a team of revenue cycle experts will be handling the center's billing, which will help ensure consistent, accurate billing and collections as well as consistent — and possibly increasing — ownership distributions.

10. Strengthened reputation. Revenue cycle management companies typically invest heavily in their staff, including those tasked with patient collections. These investments help ensure staff members interacting with patients know how to do so in a compassionate yet effective manner. A positive billing experience may motivate a patient to leave a positive review about the ASC. More importantly, a positive experience will reduce the likelihood of a negative review.

Achieving Greater Success With Outsourced ASC Billing

This list only scratches the surface of how outsourcing your revenue cycle management will make it easier for your ASC to reach its growth goals. In today's highly competitive ambulatory surgical environment, surgery centers cannot afford to be stagnant if they hope to remain viable and profitable. ASCs must pursue improvement opportunities and strengthen their operations or risk falling behind. Supplementing and complementing these initiatives with outsourced ASC billing can put centers in an even stronger position to achieve short- and long-term success.

To learn more about achieving sustainable growth for your ASC, request our complimentary e-book, " ASC Growth Playbook: Essential Guide for Surgery Center Success.