Charge Per Encounter
Description:
This KPI shows the average gross charges per patient encounter.
Why Is This KPI Important?
Monitoring Production: Tracking Charges per Encounter allows the practice to ensure that consistent levels of charges are being generated by each provider or across the practice. During the winter, Charges per Encounter are expected to decrease as Pediatricians see more sick visits. During the months of June and July, they increase to reflect the larger number of checkups being completed before the children return to school. These seasonal variations should be anticipated, especially if you carry a private inventory of vaccines.
This KPI is also useful to compare various providers. Sometimes, certain providers may have more aggressive coding patterns than others and could provide learning opportunities for providers to share their coding strategies.
Future Gross Charges: Charges per Encounter is especially helpful when budgeting or projecting financial activity. For example, if the practice is looking to estimate the gross charges for a period of time in the future, they can simply estimate the number of encounters they expect and multiply that times the Charges per Encounter. Doing this takes into consideration the provider's capacity and any seasonal variation in charges if you examine future charges on a monthly basis.
This KPI can be run on an individual provider level or across the entire practice.
PMI Recommended Frequency to Run this KPI:
Monthly
Formula:
Total Charges / Office Encounters
Show the Math:
$975,500 / 4,000 = $243.75
How Should I Track It?
This KPI can be tracked using an Excel spreadsheet by Practice and/or Department if you categorize expenses properly.