With only a little more than a couple of months left in 2011, there’s still time for ASCs to squeeze in some important, yet achievable, healthcare goals.

Healthcare experts, in a recent news article published in Becker’s ASC Review, listed several potential accomplishments for ASCs to consider.

Joan Dentler, president of ASC Strategies; Reed Martin, chief operating officer of Surgical Management Professionals; and Joseph Zasa, managing and founding partner of ASD Management, listed 14 goals to help improve patient care and achieve medical benchmarks in ASCs.

These goals include: reviewing your physician service contracts; meeting with your local hospital; analyzing your group purchasing organization; improving your OR utilization statistics; reducing your accounts receivable days to 35; adding one more physician to your ASC medical staff; and reducing excess medical supply inventory by year’s end.

With regards to the goal ‘conducting a revenue cycle review,’ Dent said, “Just because money is coming in, it doesn’t mean you’re collecting every penny.”

“If you haven’t performed a third-party coding/billing review in 2011, you should schedule one before the end of the year. This is important whether you are performing the function in-house, or if you’re using a physician outsourcing company; any good coder/biller — or company — should welcome a third-party audit,” Dent explained.