The Situation
A large radiology group on the west coast was a successful Fi-Med RCM Plus client for greater than ten years. In 2020, they decided to look for cost savings across the group. One of the areas they selected was to look for a lower cost revenue cycle management company, so they terminated their contract with Fi-Med and decided to use an offshore RCM company because they were cheaper by 2%.
The Problem:
What they failed to understand is that the services were not comparable to the services provided by Fi-Med.
The offshore company did not include the following:
- Provide Fi-Med’s state-of-the-art technology revealMD that identified over and under coding that was creating audit or loss of revenue.
- The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to identify coding, by insurance, that promoted the best reimbursements and ensure consistent coding effectiveness and compliance.
- Have industry specialists that Fi-Med provided that understood radiology and could work closely with them on their coding to ensure effective reimbursements and avoid potential audit risks.
This large radiology group lost hundreds of thousands of dollars through a mistake in judgement.
The Solution:
In 2022, the radiology group reached back out to Fi-Med regarding returning as a client. Fi-Med performed a comparison for them of their last 12-months of charges and revenue. The results presented, in comparison to Fi-Med’s performance, that while charge totals remained the same, they lost an estimated $835,508 in revenue or 24% of revenue by offshoring their accounts receivable management. Offshore company also increased their fees by a percentage point in 2021. Yes, the radiology group would have had to pay Fi-Med more for their services but presented a 90-percentage point return on investment.