Benchmarking Financial Performance of Radiology Practices

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Benchmarking Financial Performance of Radiology
Practices
Benchmarking involves comparing business
statistics to historical data or to the same type
of data gathered across a wider spectrum. This is
only one statistic, or metric, that can be used
to evaluate a practices performance. In addition
to physician productivity, practices often
measure their quality of service and financial
performance against internal goals or industry
standards. In any system of measurement, the
selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
should reflect what is important to the
organization. The focus should be on areas where
there are either known or perceived gaps between
performance and the desired goals, or where
compliance with standards is important. Lets
see how we can benchmark the financial
performance of radiology practices Benchmarking
Quality Metrics The measurement of practice
quality is an area that has gained interest in
recent years, perhaps as a result of the federal
governments adoption of quality as a payment
criterion in the Medicare program. According to a
report in Radiology Business, a 2020 Quality
Measures Survey (2019 data) conducted by the
Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA)
that included 199 respondents showed that the
most common quality metrics used are
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Benchmarking Financial Performance of Radiology
Practices

• Turnaround Time (67 of respondents),
• Peer Review (42 of respondents), and
• Critical Results Reporting (19 of respondents).
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• Other metrics that could be used to measure
  quality include Subspecialized interpretations
  Recommendation for further imaging Outreach and
  accessibility Requirement for night and weekend
  final reads Call reports Exam with standard
  report templates Appropriate use of advanced
  imaging Referring physician satisfaction
  surveys Patient satisfaction surveys. The most
  common use of such data is for internal
  comparisons or to support Professional Service
  Agreements (PSA). In either case, the
  benchmarking target can be structured to show
  improvement over a baseline measurement or to
  achieve a goal set by the practice or PSA. Goals
  can be set arbitrarily or by reference to an
  independent standard.
• Financial Benchmarking
• Just as with quality measures, there are many
  financial statistics that can be
  measured. Accounts Receivable (A/R) management is
  a common area of benchmarking, and the RBMAs
  periodic A/R survey highlights the following
  metrics as key indicators

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Benchmarking Financial Performance of Radiology
Practices

• Adjusted Collection Percentage (Net Collection
  Ratio)
• Days Charges in A/R
• Total Write-offs vs. Gross Charges
• Total Write-offs vs. Adjusted Charges
• Bad Debt Recovery vs. Collection Agency
  Write-offs
• Billing/Collection Expense Percentage
• Billing/Collection Cost per Procedure
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• In addition, the aging of accounts is usually
  considered to be a KPI, especially the Percentage
  of Accounts Over 120 Days. Such surveys offer a
  practice the ability to see how their performance
  compares with other practices across the country.
  Other types of financial performance data might
  not be shared readily among practices. For
  example, the payment rate for various payers can
  be analyzed using the Medicare Fee Schedule as a
  benchmark.
• This gives an assessment of the practices
  contracting and negotiating abilities. When
  monitored monthly it can show whether payments
  are being made as expected, according to the
  contract, or if a non-contracted payers
  reimbursement rate is changing over time.

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Benchmarking Financial Performance of Radiology
Practices
Attaining quality goals can provide financial
rewards, such as in the Medicare Quality Payment
Program, and it can also serve to enhance the
practices ability to retain and maintain
favorable service agreements. Monitoring
financial benchmarks related to the revenue
cycle will assure the practice that it is
maximizing its reimbursement and identify
problems that arise before they become
serious.   Regardless of the performance metrics
selected, the goal of benchmarking is to provide
actionable data. While benchmarking against other
practices is interesting and can point out
potential targets for improvement, real progress
comes from tracking the practices own metrics
over time. Regular review of KPI will identify
any outliers so that their performance can be
improved, thereby improving the performance of
the entire practice. To know more about
Radiology billing and coding services, contact us
at info_at_medicalbillersandcoders.com / 888-357-3226
.