How to Streamline Ambulatory Surgery Center Billing

Filling out bill sheets for durable medical equipment (DME) can take a lot of time for Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs).

These essential devices can help patient recovery and reduce readmission rates, but billing itself doesn’t help the surgery center turn a profit. Therefore, it shouldn’t be overly tedious for administrators.

There are a variety of ways to streamline the medical billing process with your DME providers. Doing so can: 

• Create timelier reimbursements 
• Aid in the overall financial health of the surgery center 
• Help attain higher patient satisfaction 

This article will review special considerations for ambulatory surgery centers and essential strategies for administrators to streamline the billing process.

A Typical Ambulatory Surgery Center Billing Process

Medical billing typically follows a very similar process from company to company.

1. First, a patient is prescribed a medical device by a physician.
2. Next, a nurse will fill out a bill sheet when talking to the patient about the device. This sheet includes a risk assessment showing why the patient needs the specific device, as well as special codes that aid in reimbursement rates.
3. From there, the bill sheets are collected and sent to a medical billing company. That company works between the surgery center and the insurance company on behalf of the patient. The biller ensures that the sheets are completed and ready to submit for insurance coverage.

Challenges with Manual Medical Billing

The typical billing process can theoretically provide relatively short turnaround times between service and billing if done correctly. However, the manual nature of the process leaves lots of room for errors, inaccuracies, and inefficiencies:

1. Missing patient information: If bill sheets are missing information, there can be a lot of back-and-forth work between the biller and the surgery center.
2. Manual entry: Manually filling out each bill sheet can take a lot of time and result in inaccuracies.
3. Manual filing: Scanning, faxing, or even mailing can be highly time-consuming and result in delays.

All this manual paperwork and back-and-forth means more time spent on administration and less on patients.

The key to streamlining the billing process is to implement a digital process.

Streamlining Ambulatory Surgery Center Billing

The easiest way to reduce errors and communications with the billing company is to submit bill sheets digitally.

Software like PRO-MAPP or Scanchart ASC provides a HIPAA-compliant, secure way to file claims automatically.

Because these solutions are built to work in lockstep with EMR software, expert billers can obtain information like medical history without having to contact the surgery center staff directly. 

Further Reading: Additional benefits to submitting claims digitally.

Optimizing Revenue Cycle Management for ASCs

Ambulatory surgery centers are known to offer cost-effective procedures. However, their bottom line depends on efficiency: maximizing safe surgeries and minimizing costs.

The entire revenue cycle management is heavily impacted if payments are delayed or denied.

An automated digital claims process doesn’t just reduce overhead costs; it reduces the time between service and billing, helping ASCs recoup costs faster.

By putting an automated system in place, administrators can easily: 

• Track patient accounts, improving outcomes and reducing readmission
• Monitor claim status, reducing billing WIPs 
• Implement strategies to enhance revenue leakage

Using ASC-Specific Software

PRO-MAPP was specifically developed for ASCs and helps in many other ways besides submitting digital claims or optimizing revenue cycle management. 

This software was created to help streamline documentation along with processes and procedures.

It’s important to know that PRO-MAPP doesn’t replace your existing electronic medical record (EMR) software. Instead, it operates alongside your EMR, helping tailor its function for a surgery center. 

Watch a tutorial on how PRO-MAPP can be utilized inside an independent surgery center.

Making Adoption Easy for ASCs

Compression Solutions offers comprehensive onboarding for all software customers.

Compression Solutions also provides annual training sessions for your staff to learn the latest rules and regulations around coding to help streamline the center’s medical billing processes.

Further Reading: Learn more about onboarding and training with Compression Solutions.