We Know Trauma Charges

Trauma finance is a crucial aspect of sustaining and enhancing trauma care, and trauma charges are an important component of trauma finance. Greg Bishop, President of B+A, presented the 68x charge to the National Uniform Billing Committee, which was approved by CMS in the early 2000s, so we have a deep knowledge of how and when to utilize trauma charges. We apply a straight-forward approach to trauma charge optimization to ensure the codes are built, the charges are applied, and the collection is monitored.

Components of the Project

The components of a typical trauma charge optimization project may include the following:

• Identify key stakeholders across clinical and financial departments to form a temporary steering committee.

• Analyze historic data to identify when trauma charges are being utilized and assess if those charges are being applied correctly.

• Work with the team to determine trauma response and trauma room charges and ensure medical record documentation supports the trauma charge process.

• Establish a process for identification of patients eligible for trauma charges.

• Build inter-departmental collaboration between the trauma program and the billing department to monitor compliance and revenue collection.

Optimizing the Trauma Center Bottom Line

Trauma charges are most effective when managed care contracts are negotiated appropriately. Given our vast experience with trauma charges, we can quickly determine if payer contracts are negotiated to provide high payment or carve-outs on trauma patient care. In other words, payers won’t pay the trauma charges if their contracts do not stipulate to do so. B+A can assist your payer team to recognize opportunities for renegotiation of terms to generate more revenue for the trauma program and the hospital.

We’ve Got Your Back for the Long Term

The last few years of healthcare have been turbulent and damaging to hospital finances. As circumstances change, our financial model deliverable allows you to modify assumptions to determine how changes affect the bottom line. B+A also provides strong support to former clients. Our clients will tell you they feel supported by us if needed. We stand by our work.