Answer: A fair comparison needs the details behind each group's service requirements, surgical volume, staffing, collections, and expenses. Put those details beside the cost per case. For overnight obstetric and trauma coverage, start with how each group's service obligations enter its staffing assessment. Keep the comparison focused on the obligations, practice characteristics, and financial assumptions behind each subsidy estimate.
The short answer
A hospital advisory consultant reports that a subsidy assessment evaluated staffing needs against hospital service requirements and surgical volume. It also examined revenue cycle effectiveness, payer challenges, compensation, overhead, and operating expenses.
A practice management consultant says staffing mix, case types, and operating room efficiency affect compensation comparisons between practices. Those details belong alongside the compensation figures. The owner discussion needs to address what each group staffs, the cases it handles, and how its operating rooms function.
What usually goes wrong
A practice management consultant cautions that compensation comparisons are difficult without sufficient detail about the practices. Staffing mix, case types, and operating room efficiency are among the variables that affect the comparison. A compensation figure alone leaves those questions unanswered.
A practice management executive also connects operating room utilization and payer mix to the need for facility support. The executive says poor utilization limits billable units, while a weaker payer mix lowers potential yield per billed unit. The revenue discussion therefore needs both utilization and payer mix, alongside the collections assumptions.
A management adviser gives an illustration of how collection and pay assumptions affect a subsidy estimate. Errors in projected collections or pay assumptions can change the estimated subsidy need. For your meeting, the question is which collection and pay assumptions underlie each group's estimate.
What a veteran checks first
- Service requirements and surgical volume: a hospital advisory consultant considered both when assessing staffing needs. Include overnight obstetric and trauma coverage obligations in this discussion.
- Staffing mix and case types: a practice management consultant identifies both as variables affecting compensation comparisons.
- Operating room efficiency: the consultant includes efficiency in practice comparisons. A practice management executive connects poor utilization with fewer billable units.
- Revenue cycle effectiveness and payer challenges: the hospital advisory consultant included both in the subsidy assessment.
- Compensation, overhead, and operating expenses: the consultant's assessment examined each of these expense categories.
- Projected collections and pay assumptions: a management adviser's illustration shows how errors in either assumption change the subsidy estimate.
What the comparison shows
Keep the staffing and revenue questions connected. The hospital advisory consultant assessed staffing in relation to service requirements and surgical volume. The practice management executive connects utilization and payer mix with revenue generation and facility support.
Keep the expense discussion equally specific. The practice management consultant identifies differences that complicate compensation comparisons, while the management adviser illustrates the effect of collection and pay assumptions. Use those categories to frame the discussion of each group's cost per case and subsidy request.
Questions to bring to the partner meeting
- What service requirements, including overnight coverage obligations, and surgical volume enter each group's staffing assessment?
- What staffing mix, case types, and operating room efficiency enter the comparison?
- What revenue cycle performance and payer challenges enter each assessment?
- What compensation, overhead, and operating expenses are included?
- What projected collections and pay assumptions underlie each subsidy estimate?
Sources
- Andrew Woodmancey, Managing Director
- Jody Locke
- Neal D. Barker, HSG Advisors
- Tony Mira, President and CEO
