For some hospitals, partnering with a traditional anesthesia group can deliver results that fall short of the administrations original expectations. In a typical scenario a hospital may have contracted with an anesthesia group to provide anesthesiology staff and services, later to find that anesthesia collections dont cover a substantial portion of expenses for the anesthesia groups services. To continue to receive services, hospitals subsidize the unpaid portion of expenses from their own budgets. The cost of subsidizing anesthesiology may increase by ten percent or more, yearly and so does the hospital administrations frustration and disappointment. At this point another solution is usually sought.
Thats where Anesthesia Healthcare Partners (AHP) enters the picture. Says Tim Beisner, vice president at AHP, “Hospitals will typically start shopping around when theyre not happy with their subsidy increase, or the leadership of their current anesthesia group. AHP is a large, national provider of anesthesia management services and we have expertise and resources smaller groups dont have. Hospitals are shocked when we show them that we can decrease their subsidy, while at the same time typically increasing anesthesia revenues by more than twenty percent. Our success is easy to explain when you realize that the better AHP is at collecting from payors, the less hospitals will have to cover. AHP has established commercial payor contract rates that were negotiated based on our national presence, and leveraged by our entire annual anesthesia case volume throughout the country.”
The Power of Pairing Clinical Expertise with Business Know-How
Beisner explains what’s different about AHP’s approach is that anesthesiologists and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are recruited specifically for the facility, to provide coverage for hospital operating rooms, endoscopy suites and other specialty procedure rooms. The AHP management team takes care of anesthesia billing, recruitment, credentialing, coverage coordination and all the other anesthesia back office tasks. “The facility gains a management arm with AHP and benefits from our clinical and business expertise. Remember, smaller anesthesiology groups can offer the clinical experience but may not have much skill in terms of negotiating managed care contracts or dealing with insurance carriers. We make sure that AHP has a contract with all the payors a hospital is in contract with.”
AHP also takes an “invited guest approach” with its facility partners, meaning that all of its anesthesiology services are in line with the hospitals operational flow, approaches, goals and mission. The AHP onsite management team works with this in mind, including an onsite medical director, a Vice-President of Operations and Practice Manager who attend monthly committee meetings at the facility. Beisner functions as the point of contact with the facility partners, ensuring that all the promised services are being implemented.
The Largest US Provider of CRNA-administered Propofol Sedation
Another way AHP improves its partners financials, while at the same time expanding services, is by offering patients Propofol sedation administered by a dedicated anesthesia care team. Beisner says that AHP is the largest provider in the country of CRNA-administered Propofol sedation in an outpatient setting. “Florida is one of the first states to embrace Propofol, but it hasnt become quite as common in other parts of the country, for example in the Western states. Yet its starting to be used more often because the drug is far superior to other sedation methods. In our Endoscopy centers, physicians worry about patients moving during the procedures. With Propofol, patients are asleep in ten seconds and they dont move at all. Other types of anesthesia can also leave patients groggy for hours after a colonoscopy, but Propofol wears off much faster.” Beisner explains. The drug also reduces nausea as compared to other methods.
William Hoffman, Corporate Medical Director of AHP.
