Anesthesia Management: MGMA: 4 management areas in which better performers excel

There are common traits among better-performing medical practices, according to data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released. In particular, groups earning the “better performing” designation held sharp focus in the following areas:

· Profitability and cost management. Better-performing multispecialty groups reported a 55.91 percent total operating cost as a percent of total revenue, compared to 70.42 percent of lower performers. As another indication of fewer lost profits, better performers reported a no-show rate of 4 percent compared to 4.25 percent among others.

· Productivity, capacity and staffing. Better-performing practices reported a ratio of 6.33 clinical support staff per full-time equivalent (FTE) physician, compared to 4.31 in other groups. However, this investment translated to a median cost of $52,009 per FTE physician to support total business operations staff among multispecialty practices, according to a separate MGMA analysis.

· Accounts receivable and collections. Better performers reported that just 8.05 percent of their total accounts receivable was in the 120-plus day category, indicating they collect faster than lower-performing groups.

· Patient satisfaction. More than 80 percent of better-performing groups indicated they use patient satisfaction surveys. Moreover, the surveys used by top performers include questions to assess appointment availability (51.68 percent), overall experience (55.03 percent), physician communication style (40.27 percent) and recommendation of practice to others (46.31 percent).

MGMA used data from the 2,518 responses to its 2014 Cost Survey to designate better performers.