Year-End Preparation: Key Markers for ASCs
By Caryl Serbin, RN, BSN, LHRM
When I was an ASC administrator, I was always involved in different types of audits, such as accounts receivable (A/R), performance, financial and processes. However, every December, I started preparing for my year-end report to the governing body. The majority of the formal financial reports were provided by our CPA, but there were still a good number of processes and reports that needed to be generated in-house before year's end.
The following is a suggested list of markers that may be of interest to the governing body and owners.
1. Aged A/R report, concentrating on accounts that have had no activity for one year or more. Determine the reason and make necessary adjustments.
2. Overall report comparing previous year to current year for bad debt, refunds, write-offs and unexplained variances.
3. Aged A/R reports by payer and provider.
4. Provider statistics report, e.g., utilization, gross revenue by physician by specialty.
5. Report on any new providers, specialties and/or procedures added during current year.
6. Report on any new third-party payers added/changed/cancelled during current year.
7. Review fee schedule and make recommendations for fee schedule changes.
8. Report on results of last month’s revenue cycle process audits (scheduling, insurance verification, patient financial counseling, registration, coding, billing, payment posting, collections).
9. Benchmarking reports, with comparison (if possible) to ASCs with similar caseload, specialties, payer types, etc.
10. Report showing inventory on hand.
11. Case cost per specialty.
12. Overall case cost.
13. Overview of payroll to include overtime, paid time-off and wage increases.
14. Overview of accounts payable to include comparison to previous year and outstanding amount at end of current year.
15. Profitability analysis, including profit per procedure and provider.
16. Financial statement analysis.
17. Proposed budget for next year.
18. Goals for upcoming year.
Tackling all of the items on the list may seem like a lot of work, but if your ASC has performed regular monthly audits, you should have most of this information available and will only have to add the December data.
