Anesthesia Consulting FAQ

It is the question we are asked most, usually last and quietly. In our experience the opposite happens: most disputes escalate because the two sides are arguing from different numbers, not because either is acting in bad faith. Putting an independent, transparent model on the table moves the conversation from assertion to arithmetic. We share our methodology with both parties, and your group is free to challenge it — that is the point.

Neither, and that is the point. A hospital engages us, but the work is only worth anything if the group can check it too — so we will say plainly when an ask is justified, and equally plainly when it is not. An analysis that only ever concludes "pay them less" is not analysis, and it does not survive contact with the other side's advisors. Being able to say a subsidy is defensible often ends an argument, which is worth more than the engagement costs.

Fixed fee for a defined scope, agreed before we start, so the cost is a line you can approve rather than a meter that runs. We do not take a percentage of savings — contingency pricing gives an advisor a reason to find a problem whether or not one exists, which is precisely the incentive you are hiring us to be free of.

No, but it changes what is worth doing. A benchmark review can be turned around quickly enough to inform a renewal conversation; a full service-line assessment cannot. Tell us the renewal date at the outset and we will scope to it, rather than starting work that will not land in time to be useful.

The senior person who models the service line is the one in the room when it is questioned. There is no analyst layer, and no staffing arm that would benefit from changing your group. The fee is fixed before the work starts. We would rather repair the arrangement with the group already covering your rooms than send you into a search.

A benchmark review is measured in weeks and is scoped to the renewal date. A targeted revenue-cycle audit or operational baseline is often four to six weeks. A full service-line assessment, a stipend renegotiation, or an RFP runs longer, sometimes three to six months. We define the milestones before we start, and we say so at the outset if the calendar will not support the work.

Both. Hospitals ask us to price a subsidy, a coverage model, or an RFP. Groups ask us for help with payer negotiations, staffing models, and a number the hospital can check. In either case the usual goal is to make the current arrangement hold, not to replace the people in the rooms.

Historical OR utilization, the block schedule, billing and claims data (CPT codes and ASA units), and the current provider contract. A benchmark review can start from a thinner set: the block grid, case counts by room, staffing by type, and the subsidy terms. We do not need patient-identified information for that first pass, and transfer of anything that is protected health information is handled under a BAA.

Yes, when fixing the current arrangement will not work. We are not a staffing company and we do not place clinicians. The usual engagement is to put a defensible number next to the coverage you already have, so the hospital and the group already in the rooms can agree. When a search is genuinely necessary — the group cannot cover the schedule, or the relationship has already ended — RFP support writes the specification, brings comparable proposals, and tests the incumbent fairly if the incumbent should still be in the field.