Maximizing Value of Benchmarking through Participation

Members of the AAOE Benchmarking Council have conducted a session titled Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation at three AAOE Annual Conferences. This series of sessions provides a wealth of practical insights for orthopedic practices. This article will summarize the key themes and recommendations provided during these education sessions. 

The Importance of Participation in Benchmarking 

Participating in benchmarking surveys, like those offered by AAOE, allows practices to gain access to relevant, orthopedic-specific data. Benchmarking results provide the ability to:  

• Compare across regions and specialties using report filters. 

• Identify areas of strength and potential weaknesses. 

• Inform decisions related to compensation, staffing, service expansion, and other areas. 

 
Without benchmarking, do we really know how we're doing? How do you compare to other practices? 

2023 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session. 

Return on Investment (ROI) from Benchmarking 

The sessions highlighted how benchmarking results translate into tangible benefits: 

• Practices using benchmarking data saw improvements in overhead management, increased collections, and better alignment of compensation with productivity. 

• By analyzing per-patient revenue and costs, practices optimized service lines like MRI and physical therapy, often uncovering opportunities to generate additional revenue. 

By using the AAOE Benchmarking Results, one practice identified that it was earning $30 less per MRI scan compared to national averages. After looking into the reasons why their performance was low in this area, the practice discovered that it was paying more in read fees than other orthopedic practices. This allowed the practice to renegotiate its fees and improve the profitability of its MRI service.   

2019 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session. 

Physician Compensation and Productivity 

Compensation continues to be a critical focus. Benchmarking data is used to: 

• Ensure pay is competitive and aligned with output. 

• Educate physicians on realistic expectations, particularly when transitioning between practice sizes or regions. 

Benchmarking is a key tool where you can go in by demographics, by regions of the country, by practice size, by specialty, and just use the data to compare different variables. This allows physicians to more accurately compare what their compensation would look like in another location and/or at certain levels of productivity. This data is really helpful when recruiting new physicians and when meeting with physicians currently in your practice so they can see the most recent trends in compensation across specialties. 

2019 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session. 

Staffing and Overhead Optimization 

Staffing costs are often the largest contributor to overhead in orthopedic practices, but benchmarking data can help optimize these expenses. For example: 

• Use full-time equivalents (FTEs) per provider and cost-per-FTE data to evaluate staffing efficiency. 

• Leverage data to decide whether to hire in-house or outsource certain functions, such as billing. 

One practice used benchmarking data to decide whether it should outsource its billing departments. Specifically, it looked at current staffing numbers compared to available benchmarks and discussed the pros and cons of maintaining that current staffing level as compared to the cost of outsourcing billing. The practice was able to look at other practices its size and in the same specialty and use benchmarking data to inform their decision to keep billing in-house and increase the number of FTEs dedicated to billing.  

2024 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session. 
 

Internal Benchmarking to Drive Change 

Many practices are leveraging benchmarking internally to foster competition and collaboration among providers: 

• Individualized dashboards for each provider compare metrics like productivity, compensation, and overhead contributions. 

• Sharing data across teams encourages transparency and standardization of best practices. 

Physicians in one practice thought they were seeing the same number of patients and using the same schedule as other physicians. In looking at internal benchmarks, however, the practice discovered that some physicians were off by 1,500 to 2,000 visits per year compared to others. Thus, the practice started looking at the templates being used for scheduling by the physicians who were doing well. This information resulted in a big change in the practice, where most of the physicians changed their templates to align with what the top performing physician was doing, 

2023 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session. 
 

Addressing Challenges in Benchmarking 

The sessions also acknowledged common obstacles and how to overcome them: 

• Practices often struggle to distill benchmarking results into actionable insights. Custom dashboards and focused metrics help. 

• Educating physicians on the relevance of benchmarking and involving them in the data review process fosters acceptance. 
   

Use concise, visually appealing dashboards to present key metrics to physicians, as data-driven discussions often spur meaningful changes​. 

2024 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session.

By participating in benchmarking and leveraging its insights, orthopedic practices can uncover opportunities, validate decisions, and align operations with industry standards. The discussions included in the Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation sessions highlight how consistent engagement with benchmarking surveys drives growth, efficiency, and sustainability in an ever-changing healthcare environment. Practices that integrate benchmarking into their strategic planning stand to gain a competitive edge in delivering quality care and achieving financial success. 

AAOE Annual Conference Session Speakers:

2019 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session: 

• Chris Greenman, MBA/MHA, CMPE, Vail Summit Orthopedics 

• Terrance Rosenthal, MBA, ATC, The Orthopaedic Clinic PC 

• Olivia Wolf, MBA, CPC, Alaska Shoulder & Orthopaedic Institute, LLC 

2023 Maximize the Value of Benchmarking Results through Participation session:  

• Beverly Cook, MBA, ACMPE, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush 

• Chris Greenman, MBA/MHA, CMPE, Vail Summit Orthopedics 

• Terrance Rosenthal, MBA, ATC, The Orthopaedic Clinic PC 

2024 Maximizing the Value of Benchmarking through Participation session: 

• Charles Bush-Joseph, MD, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush 

• Beverly Cook, MBA, ACMPE, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush 

• Tara Holicky, Greater Chesapeake Hand to Shoulder 

• Samantha Julias, MS-HSA, Vero Orthopaedics 

• Patrick Kiss, CPA, Growth Orthopedics 

Note: ChatGPT was used to summarize the transcripts from the sessions.