Proven Financial Benefits of An Ambulatory Anesthesia Partner

ArticlesUncategorized

Payers have started to more actively embrace the office-based setting for surgical procedures.  The last few years have seen increased incentives to shift procedures from hospitals to ASCs and the office, ramping up the need for effective ambulatory anesthesia partners. New procedures are added to the incentive list regularly, including the most recent additions of cardiovascular stents, urolifts, myomectomy and fibroid removal, and ear tubes. Incentive amounts have also increased.  For example, in 2021, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois increased reimbursements for gastroenterology and some musculoskeletal procedures by 15% if performed in office. More interestingly, these are moving in concert with changes made by CMS, indicating that regulatory bodies and the market itself are moving in the same direction.

With reimbursements and types of procedures that can be performed in-office on the rise, it is essential that your procedure days are as efficient as possible. At AMS partner practices, like Mobile Anesthesiologists in Chicago and Noble Anesthesia Partners in Texas, our goal is to maximize patient flow by providing, at our own cost, a critical-care trained, ACLS-certified nurse to provide all pre, intra, and postoperative care.  Our nurse conducts pre-operative screening assessments, including COVID screenings, on all scheduled patients prior to the procedure day to ensure appropriate patient selection and reduce procedure day cancellations. Our anesthesiologists’ customized anesthesia technique reduces instances of PONV, optimizes turnover, and minimizes “sedation hangover,” which results in shorter recovery times. As a result, our physician partners report that with Mobile, they are performing 20-30% more cases in the same block of time they were doing procedures in previously.

An effective turnkey ambulatory anesthesia partner ensures client physician do not bear the costs of any start-up or ongoing costs related to anesthesia.  Each procedure day, the anesthesia partner provides all of the anesthesia-related supplies, medications, equipment, and emergency resources (e.g., emergency airway supplies and equipment, crash cart, Dantrolene) needed, at their own expense. While each specialty varies, our physician partners experience savings upwards of $200K per year for both nursing and anesthesia-related items.

Whether you’re a physician practice or a patient, every dollar counts, especially when it goes right back into your pocket. Partners like those in the AMS family are at their core patient advocates, able to proudly say that 99% of their claims are processed in-network, which means no surprise billing for patients.  In addition, 65% of patients pay $0 for office-based anesthesia and 85% pay less than $100. 

AMS has been, and will continue to be, a reliable service provider to all of our physician partners, as evidenced by our 99% client retention rate. Our model alleviates the unnecessary headaches associated with anesthesiologist and pre/post-op nurse staffing and the costs associated with providing the related medications, supplies, equipment, and clinical support staff. We look forward to helping you increase your bottom line and drive down patient costs.