It can be “cheaper” to do your own billing. But, you also must add in all the expenses related to doing in-house billing (office space, salaries benefits, management to hire, train, supervise and occasionally fire the employees, the revenue management systems, continual training…etc).
There is also significant risk in anesthesia billing. Any mistakes or problems they create become the problem of the group as a whole. There is significant liability associated not just by the usual employee issues but also by the enormous revenue and HIPAA protected data that flows through your billing operation. You must ensure that your staff is deeply experienced with anesthesia billing and understands every payor quirk.
Also, anesthesia billing is hard. It requires a significant investment in people and processes that are hard to justify if you’re billing for less than a hundred doctors. Sub-optimal investment generally results in lower total collections.
Generally speaking, we find that we can increase the overall revenue of an anesthesia group by 5-15% compared to what their in-house team was collecting. The difference lies in our greater ability to invest in rigorous systems, training, and management. By the time you add up all the increased expenses, increased risk, and lower collections rate…most will see a significant increase in top line when they switch to an anesthesia specific billing company vs in-house billing.