Becker’s Hospital Review: Why Anesthesia Operations and Revenue Cycle Management Should No Longer Be Managed Separately

October 7, 2026

For hospital executives, rising anesthesia subsidies often get treated as a staffing or reimbursement problem. The real issue sits between the two: how effectively staffed anesthesia capacity converts into procedural volume, documented care, and collected revenue. In a new Becker’s Healthcare article, Jason Klopotowski, MD (Surgical Directions) and Jason Greenberg, MD (Ventra Health) make the case for why anesthesiology is both an operational and financial issue, and why separating the two obscures where value is actually being lost.

→ Read the Full Article on Becker’s

Inside the Article

Productive Capacity Is the Starting Point

No RCM strategy can recover revenue from a staffed operating room that never produces a case. The article examines adjusted OR utilization against a practical 75% target, and walks through a 23-room OR example where unused anesthesia capacity contributed an estimated $4 million in annual fixed overhead.

Revenue Leakage Starts Before Billing

Enrollment delays, documentation gaps, and breakdowns in communication between clinical and revenue cycle teams can quietly erode reimbursement long before a claim reaches the payer. The authors detail how provider enrollment and documentation accuracy shape financial performance from day one.

One Dashboard, One Financial Story

Adjusted utilization, provider productivity, and cost per case tell only part of the story. Paired with net cash collections, cash per case, and days in AR, hospital leaders gain a complete financial picture—and a clearer view of where operational and RCM metrics diverge.

A Real-World Example

The article references a 2026 Ventra Health case study involving Centra Health, whose anesthesia service line reported average days in accounts receivable of 35, a denial rate below 5%, and 20% of AR over ninety days, excluding self-pay. Following the 2024 Change Healthcare disruption, Centra also reported a 4.3% improvement in net collections rate, a $46,000 increase in average monthly collections, and an $18 increase in collections per visit. These results are specific to Centra and should not be viewed as universal benchmarks.