Syntellis Performance Solutions’ Analysis of Over 125,000 Physicians Finds Net Revenue Per Physician, Volume and Productivity Continue Slow, Steady Rise in 2021

CHICAGO – May 11, 2021 – Syntellis Performance Solutions, the leading provider of enterprise performance management (EPM) software, data and analytics solutions, released new financial analysis of the healthcare industry that shows reason for cautious optimism, with net revenue per physician, volume and productivity on the rise. The Syntellis analysis is based on regularly updated physician data that reflects ongoing COVID-19 impact and is now available in its best-in-class Axiom Comparative Analytics solution.

Physician data delivers critical financial, payroll, and labor utilization benchmarks from more than 125,000 physicians and 10,000 physician practices that are updated on a monthly basis. Axiom Comparative Analytics and the new physician data help healthcare finance teams, physician leaders and practice-management executives pinpoint physician-related financial performance improvement opportunities and make data-driven investments and strategic choices. Syntellis’ 2021 Healthcare Financial Trends Survey showed that healthcare finance teams cited data and analytics as key elements in their ability to rise to serious pandemic-related challenges, acting with agility and flexibility in planning for various future scenarios.

“We’re hearing from hospital finance experts that activity from physician practices is essential to recovery from the pandemic, yet boards are understandably reluctant at times to continue investing in those physician practices due to a focus on cost containment,” said Kermit S. Randa, CEO at Syntellis. “The impact of COVID-19 is represented in our data and can help physician leaders justify continued investment in those practices as we enter later stages of the pandemic.”

Leveraging the new Physician Data in Axiom Comparative Analytics, which includes actuals from all of 2020 and beyond, Syntellis found:

• Volume, productivity continue to rise: In the quarter ending March 2021, physician work-relative value units (wRVUs) per full-time equivalent (FTE) increased 3.6 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Physician wRVUs per FTE increased 2.8 percent across all specialty cohorts from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021.
• Revenue is increasing slowly: Revenue continued a slow upward trend throughout the first quarter of 2021 compared to Q4 of 2020. Net revenue per physician FTE increased one percent from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021. However, revenue remains 9.4 percent higher at the end of Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020. 
• Expenses are climbing quickly, surpassing earliest pandemic levels. Physician practices had an expensive start to the year, with a 4.4 percent quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) increase from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021 and a four percent increase in YOY expense.
• Increase in investment is being influenced by expenses. Health systems are investing an average of $239,502 per physician as of Q1 2021, representing an eight percent increase from Q4 2020. However, investment per FTE remains 1.9 percent below Q1 2020’s pre-pandemic levels. 
• Physician compensation contributes to rising expenses. Physician compensation per FTE is part of the increase in expense in Q1 2021, as the data shows a 7.3 percent increase from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021, although Q1 2021 compensation per FTE is only 1.1 percent higher than Q1 2020. 

Syntellis’ Axiom Comparative Analytics helps health systems make data-driven decisions and ensure financial success with specific, objective and observable metrics. With the availability of the industry’s largest volume of physician data, Syntellis is taking healthcare finance analytics to the next level, enabling finance teams to:

• Increase the net return on physician practices: Axiom Comparative Analytics identifies the profitability of physician practices and whether they’re performing better or worse than the market.
• Align physician compensation more closely to the market: Axiom Comparative Analytics helps pinpoint whether an organization is compensating physicians at a higher or lower rate than the rest of the market and by how much.
• Improve physician productivity: Axiom Comparative Analytics lets finance professionals determine whether an organization’s physicians are more or less productive than their peers, and if so, by how much and whether it differs by specialty.

“Axiom Comparative Analytics provides the solution to limited data access that we’ve unfortunately faced for years. Now, we have streamlined data comparisons with a benchmark group so we can compare ourselves to similar healthcare providers rather than anonymized survey data,” said Shannon Dunphy-Alexander, Senior Executive Director - Finance at Mercyhealth Wisconsin and Illinois. “It has both long-term and short-term benefits, too, which is hard to find in new performance solutions today. We’re able to respond to fluctuations faster because of real-time data insights and in the long-run, we’ll be able to better strategize and plan for expense opportunities.”

Axiom Comparative Analytics is powered by Syntellis IQ, an expansive data engine that leverages advanced data science techniques, including natural language processing and machine learning, and has been driving actionable insights for finance teams for more than two years. Axiom Comparative Analytics provides in-depth analysis and data for healthcare leaders that can be organized by specific peer group — such as by specialty, practice size, or region — or broken out by individual providers. While other physician data solutions rely on months-old data from self-reported physician surveys, Axiom Comparative Analytics uses the same timely data that physician groups use to track their own finances and operations, which is refreshed monthly.

According to client satisfaction data from Black Book Research, Axiom Comparative Analytics by Syntellis is ranked #1 for benchmarking and analytics software based on its innovation, the reliability of its data and for the ability to align with organizations’ strategic goals. The solution was honored in April with a 2021 Gold Stevie Award for Data Visualization Technology. For more information on Comparative Analytics, please visit the Syntellis website.

About Syntellis Performance Solutions

Syntellis Performance Solutions, previously Kaufman Hall Software, provides innovative enterprise performance management software, data and analytics solutions for healthcare organizations. Its solutions include enterprise planning, cost and decision support, and financial and clinical analytics tools to elevate organizational performance and transform vision into reality. With over 2,800 organizations and 450,000 users relying on its Axiom and Connected Analytics software, combined with No. 1 rankings from Black Book Research and an HFMA Peer Review designation for six consecutive years, Syntellis helps healthcare providers acquire insights, accelerate decisions and advance their business plans. For more information, please visit www.syntellis.com.

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Press Contact

Stephanie Fergione
syntellis@inkhouse.com