Overview: About Pacific Valley Medical Group (PVMG)
For more than 20 years, Pacific Valley Medical Group has been at the forefront of Anesthesia services, with diverse specialties including cardiac, obstetrics, pediatrics, and pain management. A team of nearly 100 physician anesthesiologists and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) serves more than 30,000 patients annually across 20 hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in the greater Los Angeles County area. Notably, PVMG has grown considerably in the past few years, adding providers and facilities at a time when other independent practices are consolidating or shrinking. According to practice leaders, strong revenue cycle performance is critical to their efforts to hire and retain providers amid a widespread physician shortage in Anesthesiology.
Building a Foundation of Trust
Seeking visibility into their performance metrics and improvement in their denial rates, PVMG sought new revenue cycle management (RCM) support heading into 2025. They felt an immediate connection with Ventra Health’s senior leaders, who had deep clinical and RCM expertise in the complexities of the Anesthesia specialty.
“We had a high-level alignment of goals,” says Phillip Lau, MD, Managing Partner of PVMG. “I could see we’d be able to work together to achieve the vision that I had for Pacific Valley Medical Group.”
The Ventra team brought resources to bear during the implementation phase, building a foundation of trust for the new partnership. PVMG says several successes during the transition let them know early on that their new RCM normal wasn’t business as usual.
- PVMG’s extraordinarily complex compensation structure required custom programming for four different compensation methodologies. Ventra built the system during the rapid-fire transition, ensuring it was ready on schedule without any payroll delay.
- Account management continuity ensured there was no abrupt handoff at go-live. PVMG’s dedicated account manager was with the team from day one, through implementation and go-live, and now stays with them in perpetuity. PVMG can count on having a liaison who sees their full RCM picture on compensation, billing, payer mix, facilities, and more.
- Communication cadences and response times far exceeded expectations. With command of the nuances of Anesthesia RCM, the Ventra team outlined clear processes, timelines, and check-ins. And, if anything came up in between, PVMG says the Ventra team was remarkably responsive.
“From implementation forward, we have an entire team of experts who can step in and make things happen quickly,” says Melanie Clasen, Senior Director of Client Success for Ventra Health. “I think this is the reason we are so successful.”
Data Drives Decision Making
Performance reports and a user-friendly dashboard were implemented quickly for PVMG, giving practice leaders real-time insights into their billing performance and metrics. Ventra leverages vSight™, its powerful data & analytics platform, to uncover opportunities to optimize PVMG’s revenue cycle and reimbursement. Customer success and data professionals consult directly with PVMG leaders to put the metrics in context and use them to make meaningful RCM improvements, such as reducing denials and shortening days in AR.
According to Dr. Lau, real-time data insights and consistent communication have created the transparency PVMG needs to monitor performance. The dashboard, paired with expert interpretation from the Ventra teams, will continue to help PVMG make decisions on compensation plan changes, practice direction, and overall business growth.
“Real-time feedback helps me sleep better at night knowing things are running smoothly,” Dr. Lau says.
“We had a high-level alignment of goals. I could see we’d be able to work together to achieve the vision that I had for Pacific Valley Medical Group.”
—Phillip Lau, MD, Managing Partner of Pacific Valley Medical Group
RCM Transparency is Part of the Culture
Process improvements have also increased visibility into RCM performance. Providers are now using vChart™ to digitally upload charts and make them instantly available to the billing team. As a result, providers can view and reconcile their cases in the portal much sooner and ultimately get paid faster.
RCM transparency not only improves the bottom line for PVMG—it also improves morale. Visibility into the billing cycle has already lowered stress for providers, assuring them that they will be paid fairly for the quality care they deliver.
“Feeling confident about compensation affects the daily life of our providers, and it has a big impact on how they feel about working at Pacific Valley Medical Group,” Dr. Lau says. “It’s a big part of the culture of a group.”
In fact, PVMG has found there is no stronger recruiting tool than a happy team.
“When potential new colleagues hear positive feedback from our current anesthesiologists about the business side of our practice, that really helps set us apart from other groups,” Dr. Lau says.
Download Success Story as PDF
