Enhancing your surgery center’s financial health hinges on collecting payment efficiently. Accounts receivable (A.R.) quantifies this ability, pinpointing exactly how long it takes to get reimbursed for your services. Keeping a close eye on A.R. status is especially crucial for heart and vascular ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), as specialized cardiology procedures produce higher-balance statements.
However, despite the potential for a revenue boost, many ASCs opt out of performing cardiovascular procedures in their centers, as factors such as high operating costs and complicated billing can interfere with these substantial revenue opportunities. Cardiovascular ASCs can struggle to tackle these hurdles and miss out on major financial growth without expert guidance.
The Unique Challenges Facing Cardiovascular ASCs
The process of moving cardiology procedures to the ASC setting is both costly and complex. Each surgery requires a long list of equipment and, if implants are used, billing teams must work diligently to negotiate proper reimbursement for these high-dollar devices. Because of the high cost, cardiology procedures have historically lived in the hospital setting. Despite the increase in ASC-based surgeries, many cardiovascular surgeons locked into hospital contracts are unable to shift to a surgery center setting, leaving cardiology-focused centers with limited staff to support a new specialty.
As a result, ASCs that offer cardiac surgeries must act quickly to capture and collect every possible billable. While submitting clean claims is important, realizing the financial benefits of these procedures is impossible without efficient A.R. management. Developing an impactful A.R. strategy is critical in maximizing the financial stability and liquidity of a heart and vascular ASC, facilitating the ability to invest in the technology, equipment, and clinicians necessary to perform these procedures.
Key Components of A.R. Management
Properly managing your A.R. is a time-intensive process requiring dedicated staff and resources, especially for high-cost cardiac services. Boiling it down, the four most essential steps in A.R. management are:
- Accurate invoicing. The first step to revenue collection is accurately recording and translating services rendered into billable charges. Eliminating errors upfront will set your center up for successful reimbursement later in the billing cycle.
- Timely billing. Delays and bottlenecks can severely impact the payment cycle, slowing down your cash flow and damaging the financial stability of your center. Likewise, delayed claims are more likely to have errors and cause denials, further extending time to payment.
- Effective follow-ups. Frequent and systematic follow-ups are vital to staying on top of your A.R., ensuring that outstanding receivables are collected on time and in full. Optimize your follow-up process to cater to each payer’s requirements to motivate faster reimbursement.
- Reporting and trend identification. Analyze historical A.R. data to forecast trends and adjust your current processes to hone in on the tactics that most effectively drive payment. Recognizing patterns like slow payers or common billing errors can help your team see exactly where to improve your A.R. strategy.
Conducting each step of A.R. management day in and day out is a tall order for any cardiac procedure billing team. That’s why partnering with a specialized RCM partner equipped with tech-enhanced solutions can both guarantee accuracy and streamline your billing process, leveraging state-of-the-art tools like automation and advanced analytics to root out inefficiencies and drive maximum reimbursement.
Conducting each step of A.R. management day in and day out is a tall order for any cardiac procedure billing team. That’s why partnering with a specialized RCM partner equipped with tech-enhanced solutions can both guarantee accuracy and streamline your billing process, leveraging state-of-the-art tools like automation and advanced analytics to root out inefficiencies and drive maximum reimbursement.
Overcoming Economic Hurdles in Cardiology ASCs with in2itive’s Expertise
in2itive serves as the results-driven, tech-based cardiovascular ASC revenue cycle management partner with proven solutions for A.R. optimization and revenue enhancement. Our solutions utilize the latest technology tools to achieve the level of accuracy and efficiency needed to boost cash flow from high-cost cardiology procedures. By providing comprehensive A.R. reports, in2itive helps cardiovascular ASCs identify the most important trends to mitigate financial challenges proactively. With in2itive’s data-driven A.R. management, ASCs can minimize economic pressures and build a more profitable surgery center to overcome the high operating costs of cardiology procedures.
Want to learn more about optimizing A.R. for cardiology ASCs? Reach out to in2itive today to discover how a tech-driven team can help your center collect more from cardiac services.
