How Does Your Practice Measure Up? Insights from Benchmarking Medicare Payments

Physician practices have historically had difficulty benchmarking their services because there are limits to the transfer of payment information among healthcare providers. Using standard analysis tools (e.g., Microsoft Excel) and data from CMS, we outline and provide a detailed example of how a physician practice can benchmark one revenue stream within its local geographic market. The data cover patients serviced under original Medicare from 2012 to 2014. In today's healthcare environment, with changing payment methodologies, understanding the revenue streams for a physician practice is essential to a practice's overall financial health.