U.S. Anesthesia Partners, a physician-owned group serving more than 700 healthcare facilities, has launched Elevated Practice Solutions, a subsidiary aimed at improving anesthesia efficiency at hospitals, ASCs and independent practices.
EPS focuses on improving operations such as revenue cycle management, clinical productivity, and financial metrics, allowing clinicians to prioritize patient care. The company offers swift onboarding — typically under 90 days — and integrates seamlessly with hospital systems. Its services include RCM, credentialing, payer enrollment, quality reporting, provider scheduling, and operating room efficiency dashboards.
Jeff Terry, USAP's executive vice president of health system strategy and innovation, spoke to Becker's about the opportunities in anesthesia revenue cycle management and vision for the company.
Question: Why does USAP see a gap in the market for an anesthesia company like EPS? What makes it a significant resource for hospitals?
Jeff Terry: Hospitals are having to financially support anesthesia more than ever before. Because of this, there's greater pressure to elevate performance — both in terms of revenue cycle billing and collecting, as well as operational aspects of anesthesia.
What's important about EPS is that it's anesthesia-specific. There are several RCM companies doing great work, but certain specialties stand out for having very distinct RCM needs. Anesthesia is at the top of that list. It's extremely nuanced due to how payers handle it and the level of quality capture required. It's a relatively high-dollar specialty, which demands excellence and a tailored approach to truly succeed.
What's particularly significant is that USAP is physician-owned and physician-led. That philosophy is imprinted across the company, manifesting in high expectations for everything, including what we believe is the top-performing RCM out there. Historically, to take advantage of that, you had to become part of USAP. Now, hospitals, practices, ASCs and others can access that RCM and efficiency toolkit without undergoing wholesale change.
Q: How will EPS ensure seamless integration with a hospital's existing systems, particularly EHRs?
JT: This capability is proven and already in use at about 700 locations in the U.S., including 500 hospitals and 200 other facilities, so we've learned to be very lean and flexible. Lean means the integration process is fast and efficient. We typically say it takes 90 days, but we can do it in 60 days if necessary. Flexibility means we've worked with everything from the latest Epic systems with HL7 FHIR interfaces to organizations still relying on paper-based documentation. Today, about a third of ASCs still do their billing and documentation on paper.
We've learned how to build flexible interfaces and put redundancy in place to stay ahead of changes in anesthesia billing requirements. This redundancy ensures we're not wholly dependent on EHR systems, which can be impacted by cyberattacks or outages. For example, we offer a bolt-on app for providers that not only saves them time but also allows us to continue operations and billing even if the EHR goes down. This combination of flexibility and redundancy makes us feel confident in our ability to integrate seamlessly across a variety of systems.
Q: What metrics or KPIs will EPS use to measure success for its clients?
JT: The primary metric for hospitals, other than patient experience and outcomes which are obviously paramount, is cost reduction. By working with us, they reduce the financial support needed for anesthesia. For example, we recently reviewed data from two practices that transitioned to our systems in 2022. By the end of 2023, they had achieved a 10-point uplift in their net collection rate. Depending on a hospital's size, that translates to between $3 million and $5 million in cost savings per year.
Within RCM, we track metrics like net collection rate, self-pay after insurance rate, and clean claim rate. These metrics indicate the performance of the entire RCM engine. On the operational side, EPS tracks metrics like concurrency rate, white space in the OR, and OR utilization.
One of our advantages is benchmarking. With our large install base, we can compare metrics across similar hospitals performing the same types of surgeries with similar complexities. This allows us to identify benchmarks for surgery length, turnover time, and more, providing actionable insights to improve efficiency.
Q: What is the long-term vision for EPS, and how do you see it influencing the broader anesthesia landscape?
JT: The anesthesia workforce is under immense pressure, and this will continue for the next three to five years. Demand for surgeries is rising, especially for procedures that didn’t require anesthesia 20 years ago, like MRIs, GI procedures, and cataracts. Supply isn’t keeping pace with demand.
Our vision is to elevate expectations for the business side of anesthesia practices. For instance, the industry benchmark for net collection rate is 90%, which means losing 10% of potential revenue is considered "good." We believe practices should expect and achieve 95% or higher — our practices average 95.6% or more.
We also want to raise patient expectations, making it easier to get billing questions answered quickly online or via knowledgeable representatives. Additionally, we are improving provider workflows with tools that save time and enhance their experience. Ultimately, our goal is to transform the business side of anesthesia — elevating expectations across billing, patient satisfaction and operational efficiency.