What Distinguishes Anesthesia Billing from other Medical Billing Services?

Anesthesia billing is known to be one of the most complex medical specialties to bill for because it cannot be incorporated into a single-bill strategy. There are many reasons why anesthesia billing is complex mostly due to compliance and a different type of medical coding. This makes it hard for facilities to standardize their medical billing processes for anesthesia and non-anesthesia services. However, with all these challenges, anesthesia billing can be easily be outsourced to anesthesia medical billing companies to help anesthesiologists and hospitals avoid any billing errors.?

The Need for Anesthesia Medical Billing Services:

Anesthesia billing is critical to the success of hospital and surgical center operations, yet it requires a higher level of accurate documentation and coding. To ensure billing accuracy and compliance, it is important to have appropriate and precise documentation of the services, the units used and who provided the services either by the anesthesiologist or others on the medical team. Failure in providing proper documentation might result in denied claims or in some cases, lost revenue.?

Anesthesiologists should be aware of the components of anesthesia billing to make sure that every penny earned can be collected and billed right away. Anesthesia medical billing services assist anesthesiologists to understand the right way to document the process and avoid any complications.?

Components of Anesthesia Billing:

The components of anesthesia billing are what make it unique as compared to other hospitals or surgical center procedures. There are 3 main components that contribute to determining the bill: base units, time, and non-time procedures.

• Base Units: The base units are used to determine the complexity of the anesthetic service that is provided to the patient. The base units are annually determined by the ASA.
• Time Units: These refer to the time spent by the anesthesiologist administering the anesthetic to the patient and monitoring the patient’s condition - before, during, and after the surgery.?

They are calculated by dividing the time spent on delivering the service (in minutes) by 15.

• Modifiers: Modifiers tend to explain who performed the procedure: whether the anesthesiologist performed the case personally, medically directed a CRNA, medically supervised a CRNA or the CRNA performed the case personally.
• Additional Procedures: Additional procedures include any services provided by the anesthesiologists and the CRNAs which weren’t bundled to the procedure such as arterial lines, central lines, and nerve blocks.

How Are Anesthesia Charges Calculated?

The anesthesia charges are calculated upon the following formula:

(Base Units + Time Units + Modifiers) x Conversion Factor

• Base units determine the complexity of the anesthesia service provided. It increases with the increase of the skill level required by the anesthesiologist during the procedure.
• Time units are calculated by dividing the minutes spent on delivering the service by 15.
• Modifying units refer to emergencies and other conditions that are related to the patient’s health.
• Conversion factor refers to the cost assigned to each unit and specific to the anesthesia provider’s location.

In order for anesthesiologists to maximize eligible revenue from the anesthesia services provided to their patients, they need to fully understand these complexities in the billing process or hire an expert who possesses experience and knowledge in both, anesthesia billing and coding.?

At Medi-Corp, our team of experts works hard to take the complexities out of our client’s anesthesia billing process, reduce errors, and maximize eligible revenue to save you time and money.?

To learn more about our services, contact us at [email protected].