Leverage Your Data to Build a Successful and Sustainable Practice

Independent radiology practices are facing unprecedented challenges in the new year. Between navigating COVID and ever-changing reimbursement hurdles, many practices find themselves facing hard choices around staffing cuts, hiring freezes, stalled growth, and risk of closure. Strategic planning is more important than ever before and requires a thorough review of past performance to successfully recognize new opportunities and challenges.  

The new year brings an opportunity to reassess the best approach to positioning your entire team and practice for success. Turning your existing data into accurate, timely, dynamic insights can help: 

• Improve billing accuracy to increase reimbursement
• Identify cost-savings 
• Optimize resource utilization 
• Create new growth opportunities 
• Navigate unforeseeable challenges (like COVID-19) 
• Track, Monitor, and Manage Progress toward Goals 

We asked Quinsite CEO and co-founder Jeff Maze to share his thoughts on the integral role data plays in the strategic planning process for independent practices. 

Q: What are the biggest data challenges you think practices might face in 2022 and beyond?  

J: I see so many practice leaders struggle with analysis paralysis. There is no lack of information and reporting, but the vast majority fails to provide actionable, trustworthy information that tells the whole story. It’s common to be overwhelmed or intimidated by the amount of data everywhere, which leads to uncertainty about where to start or how best to leverage data to their advantage.  

I also hear a lot of concerns about the cost of analytics tools and resources. The irony is that a good data analytics platform will quickly pay for itself and then some. We are fortunate to hear stories from so many of our clients about how they have realized cost-savings or increased revenue thanks to our platform.  

As Jessica Montgomery, COO at California Medical Business Services explained recently, “A lot of practices look at financial data, which is important. But people miss out on all the operational side data that you need to make changes on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. These changes will increase the efficiency of your operations and ultimately impact your financial bottom line.”  

Another challenge I see repeatedly is a lack of provider buy-in regarding the importance of user-friendly data that is reliable and easy to access. We work together with our clients to help physician leaders understand the value of quality data and the ROI they can expect to see from their technology investment. We also share success stories and create opportunities for our clients to connect and share best practices, so they can learn from one another. 

We also continually explore ways to enhance our platform to facilitate regular direct physician engagement, so they can experience the value for themselves. In addition, we work with our clients to identify champions within the physician leadership team who can educate and encourage their peers. 

Northwest Radiology offers a perfect example of how access to data can empower providers and improve productivity. Using our physician productivity solution, the practice has allowed providers to track their own productivity number in real-time, creating the opportunity for them to make changes to their own workflow as needed. As a result, Northwest Radiology has experienced an estimated 11% productivity increase per physician.  

Another great example is ARA Health Specialists (ARAHS), which is based in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Quality of life is a key part of the company’s culture and an important advantage when it comes to provider recruitment and retention. Quinsite’s mobile app has helped ARAHS operationalize the way they pay their physicians which is based on a unique point system created to give providers the flexibility they want.  

Q: What are the three key types of data any practice should be tracking and analyzing?  

J: Billing: The ability to audit the entire billing process (i.e.: tracking every exam, from patient to payment) is more important than ever before due to new reimbursement requirements. This also helps your practice quickly identify any billing discrepancies that might result from disparate billing systems and/or data sources, which happens more often than you would think. The potential for significant financial gains makes this an essential data set for analysis. Access to the right data can help any practice develop a more successful healthcare revenue cycle management strategy.

Just recently, we learned that South Hub Radiology used our charge capture audit solution to identify $900,000 in charges they had not billed for. That allowed them to collect revenue they may have missed otherwise, increase timeliness of collections and stabilize cash flow.  

Productivity:  Capturing what each provider is doing, in which location, and at what times are key metrics to track. Practice leaders can utilize physician productivity reports and other information to optimize resource utilization, identify productivity inequities, quickly respond to unexpected fluctuations, and plan for future needs. 

Quality: Turnaround Times (TAT), patient wait times, follow-up appointments, and other quality of care metrics are critical to monitor as federal guidelines and hospital partner SLAs/MLAs demand measurable accountability from providers.

Northwest Radiology uses Quinsite’s text alerting capability to keep their team on top of high-priority items, such as the "Bat Signal" which is their name for an urgent text alerting standby staff to jump in when when maintaining service thresholds requires additional resources, as well as real-time alerts for their billing team to proactively investigate coding/billing discrepancies versus managing denial codes or missing errors all together.

Q: What are three ways practices should/could be using data analytics as they move forward this year?

J: Revenue: Data analytics play a huge role in reliable revenue projections, and are more important than ever before due to the impact of CMS reimbursement changes.  

Marketing: Referral source tracking is a great example of how data supports marketing efforts.  Monitoring increases, decreases, and other physician referral trends provides valuable insights to identify growth opportunities, address potential competitive threats, revisit existing provider relationships, or build new ones. This information helps marketing teams better understand the market and create strategic campaigns. 

Scheduling, Staffing, Resource Allocation: Getting a firm hold on the interconnected relationship between scheduling, staffing, and resource allocation greatly improves practice leaders’ ability to accurately match their supply of resources to imaging demands for all shifts, slots, and locations. This is always a complex puzzle to put together but offers a significant opportunity for cost savings when properly addressed.  

Connect with our team to understand the value your practices are realizing with Quinsite's Comprehensive Healthcare Analytics Platform™