A practical way for ambulatory surgery centers to offer anesthesia billing as a provider incentive, without adding extra work for the business office.
Anesthesia provider shortages are a real operational risk for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). In an article from Becker's ASC Review, two-thirds of ASCs rank anesthesia coverage among their top financial challenges, and for good reason: without dependable coverage, cases get delayed, schedules tighten, and growth stalls. For many centers, securing anesthesiologists and CRNAs has become as important as recruiting surgeons.
A growing number of ASCs are offering anesthesia billing as an incentive to attract and retain anesthesia providers. The strategy works, but only when the billing team can manage it. A provider incentive that overloads the business office creates a new problem in place of the old one.
Meet SIS Office Anesthesia
SIS Office Anesthesia gives ASCs a simple way to bill for anesthesia provider services within the SIS platform their teams already use. It is built as an add-on module to the SIS Cloud suite. Centers can offer anesthesia billing as a provider incentive without adding a separate system or having to research and vet an additional vendor and their solution.
"Anesthesia coverage is one of the first things we hear about when we talk with ASC leaders," says Rhonda Hixson, Product Manager for SIS Office. "Centers know that offering anesthesia billing can help them secure providers. What they need is a way to do it that their billing team can actually manage."
Why Ease Matters
The value of SIS Office Anesthesia goes beyond giving ASCs the ability to bill for anesthesia. It lets them do it without creating a major extra lift for the team.
ASC business offices are lean. Many centers depend on one or two billers to keep claims moving. Adding a new type of billing can mean new screens, new processes, and new training. That burden can quickly outweigh the benefit.
SIS designed SIS Office Anesthesia to remove that friction. "We built it so a biller who knows SIS Office can sit down and recognize everything," Hixson explains. "Anesthesia billing has its own language, with units and time, but the screens, the tabs, and the workflow are the same. Your team learns the billing concepts, not a whole new system."
Key Features That Drive Real Benefits
Each capability in SIS Office Anesthesia is designed to make anesthesia billing accurate, efficient, and manageable for the team.
Accurate, Configurable Calculations
Configure the calculations needed to capture anesthesia-specific charges based on Base Units, Time Units, and Risk Units. Once your formulas are set, the system handles the math on every case. This removes the manual guesswork that slows down billing.
Flexible Rates for Every Provider
Set different rates for anesthesiologists and CRNAs, and input ASA and CMS values. Your center can tailor billing formulas to match how it operates and adapt easily as providers and payer mix change.
All Your Information in One Place
Access patient demographics, insurance details, and anesthesia documentation directly from your SIS Cloud platform. Less manual entry means fewer errors that delay claims and payments.
The Same Experience Your Team Already Knows
SIS Office Anesthesia uses the same interface and billing flow as SIS Office. Your team can start anesthesia billing with minimal training and without slowing down the revenue cycle.
Unified Billing in One Platform
Because SIS Office Anesthesia is part of the SIS Cloud suite, your billing work stays consolidated with one trusted partner. There are fewer logins, fewer handoffs, and fewer systems to manage.
"Every feature comes back to one question," explains Hixson. "Does this make the biller's day easier or harder? If it adds steps, it doesn't belong."
Proof From an Early Adopter
Livonia Outpatient Surgery Center was one of the first ASCs to implement SIS Office Anesthesia. Before the switch, the team entered each case twice: once in SIS Complete and again in their anesthesia billing system, a process that took bandwidth from several staff members.
Since go-live, Facility Administrator Laura Picano-Wilson reports clear improvements:
- Easy setup: Billing formulas and provider rates were simple to configure, even with limited anesthesia billing experience.
- One biller manages everything: The full anesthesia billing workflow is now handled by a single biller.
- No duplicate work: Case information no longer needs to be entered multiple times, which frees up staff time.
- Claims are getting paid: Claims and statements are going out, and reimbursements are coming in.
- No added workload: The team took on anesthesia billing without increasing the burden on the business office.
- Strengthen provider recruitment and retention by offering a valuable billing service
- Protect your schedule with more dependable anesthesia coverage
- Expand your services without expanding your business office workload
- Keep billing consolidated within one familiar platform
"Honestly, the best word I have for it is 'easy.' I know very little about anesthesia billing, but setup was simple, and because the screens and workflows look just like the rest of SIS, we started billing right away. We freed up our staff, our biller does everything in one place, and most importantly, we're getting paid. It really doesn't add to your workload at all."
Laura Picano-Wilson, RN, CNOR, CAIP, Facility Administrator, Livonia Outpatient Surgery Center
The Strategic Impact for ASCs
SIS Office Anesthesia is more than a billing tool. It gives ASC leaders a practical lever for one of their most pressing challenges: securing the anesthesia providers who keep cases moving.
With an easy-to-implement, easy-to-use solution for anesthesia billing, your center can:
The takeaway is simple. Your ASC can offer a meaningful provider incentive, and your billing team doesn't have to absorb the pain to make it happen. That is what it means to Operate Smart™.
See SIS Office Anesthesia in Action
SIS Office Anesthesia is available for an additional fee to clients using any SIS Cloud solution, including SIS Complete, SIS Office, SIS Charts, and SIS Advanced.
Current SIS clients can contact their SIS Sales Representative to learn more. You can also request a demo to see how SIS Office Anesthesia fits into your operations.
When anesthesia billing is easy, everyone benefits: your providers, your billing team, and your center's long-term growth.
