Comparing Radiology Billing – A Better Alternative

When I was a young man, I was chosen to play in the Virginia High School All-Star game at Virginia Tech. The All-Star game drew from all leagues. AAA were the biggest schools, and A were the smallest. My high school team played in the middle league—AA.

Naturally, it’s hard to assess how good you are with limited information. And, I had never played with, or against, the best.

In the All-Star game, I played one defensive end and another kid by the name of Bruce Smith played the other defensive end. If the name Bruce Smith doesn’t ring a bell, he later set the record for most career quarterback sacks in the NFL, played in four Super Bowls and was a first ballot inductee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility. Long story short, Bruce was the best. However, back then few knew his name outside of every college football recruiter in the country.

I had a good game. I recovered a couple of fumbles and had several tackles. Bruce Smith had 20+ tackles and was a man among boys. There was no confusion as to where I stood in comparison. He was nothing short of Superman. You often don’t know how you stack up until you’re given the chance to compare yourself to the best.

RBMA AR Survey

The RBMA offers its AR Survey which is very helpful to compare your practice against your peers. The report is free if you are a participating RBMA member. I highly recommend it, but there are a couple of limitations…

1. Small sample size. A self-selective few participate in the survey so consequently the data is less reliable. As a close observer of this survey for about 20 years, the trends are predictable and the data is consistent from year to year. This leads me to believe the survey is reliable although sample size is small.
2. Only top performing groups participate. Those that are really struggling are simply not organized enough to pull together the numbers to submit them. There have been numerous occasions where I’ve helped groups with billing analysis and it is nearly impossible for them to gather even the most basic financial information. For this reason, I think the averages presented in the RBMA survey skewed on the high side and aren’t representative of the whole.
3. Varying patient mix. The key factor in potential collections for hospital-based groups is patient mix. The RBMA does not account for this in the survey so it’s challenging to know whether they are comparing apples to apples. In this case, it’s probably more like apples to bananas.   

Another Alternative

Although we would recommend the RBMA, the question of how you compare to the average 25th or 75th percentile is less interesting (to me, anyway) than how you compare to those at the very top. Nationally recognized for our excellence, Dexios consistently outperforms the best. Of course, you too can compare yourself to the best, but why not see exactly what it will take to get you to the next level? Tools and resources to get you there would be extremely helpful, right?

A New Service Offering

Dexios offers an exciting new consulting service. See how you compare to the best, and be told exactly what you need to do to get there for free. Sound good? Your answer should be yes if you want to improve your billing practices and make more money! Stay tuned for more information on this new offering.

To learn more about our supplemental billing services, or to be the first to find out about new service offerings, contact Dexios today.

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