ChartPath offers independent hospitalist groups a free AR Assessment. Most groups that hear about it have the same two questions before they respond: What does an AR Assessment actually involve? And why would a billing company offer it for free?
Both are reasonable questions. This post answers them directly.
An AR Assessment is a read-only review of a hospitalist group's current accounts receivable data. ChartPath looks at the group's billing performance across a defined period -- typically the most recent 90 to 180 days -- and benchmarks what it finds against what a well-run hospitalist billing operation looks like.
Read-only means exactly that. The group shares a billing report or data export -- typically a standard AR aging report or claims data pulled from your existing billing system. ChartPath does the analysis. The assessment involves no changes to the group's billing workflows, no interference with existing payer relationships, and no access beyond what is needed to review the data. Nothing in the practice's production environment is touched.
The assessment reviews the metrics that most directly reveal billing health for a hospitalist group:
Together, these metrics give a clear picture of where the billing operation is performing well and where it is not.
Every AR Assessment includes a written report documenting what was found. The report explains what each metric shows, how your group compares to hospitalist billing benchmarks, and which specific areas carry the largest revenue opportunity.
The report is designed to be readable by a practice administrator, finance director, or physician owner who does not spend every day in billing operations. The goal is clarity, not complexity.
After the written report, ChartPath schedules a 30-minute call to walk through the findings. The call covers what the data shows, what the most significant revenue opportunities are, and what a group would need to do to capture them.
There is no pitch inside the walkthrough. ChartPath does not use the call to sell billing services. If your group's billing is performing well, that is what the call will say. If there are significant gaps, the call will describe them clearly and let you decide what to do with that information.
The AR Assessment is ChartPath's mechanism for demonstrating value before any commitment. Most hospitalist groups that have not had an external review of their billing do not know whether their performance is strong or where it is falling short. The assessment answers that question.
Groups that find the assessment valuable -- and find that there are meaningful opportunities to improve -- often choose to work with ChartPath. Groups whose billing is already performing at a high level leave with validation and a written benchmark they can reference going forward. Both outcomes are useful.
Any independent hospitalist group that has not had an external billing review in the past 12 months would benefit from an AR Assessment. Groups that have recently been through billing staff turnover, provider onboarding, or payer contract changes have the most to gain from an external benchmark. The assessment takes less than a day to prepare and delivers a written read-out that most groups find more useful than anything their current billing reports provide.