Anesthesiologist Jason Hennes, MD, founder of Anesthesia Data Services and partner at Midwest Anesthesia Partners, joined Becker’s to discuss how a mix of hospital employment shifts, ASC stipend complexity and unreliable manual workflows pushed his group to build a proprietary anesthesia data and scheduling platform.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: What specific frustrations in anesthesia services pushed you to build your own system, as opposed to relying on an existing solution?
Dr. Jason Hennes: It wasn’t so much frustration as a practical need. Our group, like many others, was hospital-based and in contract negotiations that ultimately didn’t work out. The hospital moved to an employed model, and those of us who remained began providing services under a staffing agreement — similar to a locums setup. This staffing agreement had different pay rates for different services, like call and pager rates, and tracking and accounting for all of that gets complicated.
Around the same time, the economics of the anesthesia space forced us to enter into contracts that contained support stipends with some of our ASC facility partners. The stipend terms vary widely across surgery centers we cover: some are flat-rate for a fixed number of hours, some are hourly, sometimes we handle billing and collecting, and sometimes the centers do. So, just like on the hospital side, we had multiple contracts with different accounting rules that had to be managed correctly.
Furthermore, we switched from a model of paying ourselves based on units to an hourly reimbursement system. We’re a large group, so we have a lot of providers. Every day, we need to collect information on who worked, what services they performed, and for how long — then handle all the accounting. That was the initial impetus for building the platform.
Initially, I built a workflow using Microsoft’s Power Automate. Power Automate allows data to flow between Microsoft’s main applications, so Forms submissions can flow into Excel spreadsheets for calculations, but it wasn’t reliable. People would submit the forms and the data didn’t always populate in the spreadsheet. Also, we had limited ability to minimize the chance for human error in the workflow. We couldn’t depend on it.
So, I worked with some outside software developers and created Anesthesia Data Services. The main goals were: first, reliably collecting work information; and second, storing contract details so the system can calculate invoices for the facility and, on the provider side, what each person gets paid.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about what was at stake? What could have happened if you kept dealing with errors under previous models?
JH: With the Microsoft system, if we missed something, like forgetting to bill, we simply lose revenue needed to run our practice. On the other side, if the system allows double billing or other mistakes, surgery centers can get invoiced incorrectly.That creates both a financial issue and a relationship issue.
Building a proprietary system lets us lock things down and customize more. We put in place multiple checkpoints to minimize the chances for inaccurate data entry, and in the event it does happen, users can correct their entries even after submission.
We also expanded the platform into scheduling which wasn’t part of the original accounting goal but has evolved into a key functionality of the platform. Historically, room counts came last-minute—via phone call, email, or text the night before. But the anesthesia labor market has changed. With more employed positions and locums work available, providers increasingly expect guaranteed schedules days or weeks ahead, rather than being added or dropped at the last minute. Using ADS allows facilities to enter their service requests as far into the future as they want, and if their needs change, they can edit those requests.
As requests come in, we see it in real time. We can approve it, confirm coverage, or reach out if there are issues. Once approved, it automatically builds our staffing grid. Providers can be assigned at any point, and in turn they can use data from their assignments to submit their billing, which is another way for us to control the accuracy of work data submission. The system also stores credentialing and skill details, so you can’t assign someone where they aren’t credentialed. It also tracks who does pediatrics or cardiac, so if a room is labeled as peds, it won’t allow assignment of a non-peds provider. Feedback from our facilities has been very positive. They appreciate the transparent communication of assignments, and we are very interested in creating more features that improve the interaction between facilities and groups. Anesthesia Data Services has allowed the group to successfully navigate its new business model. It is available for other groups to use as well, so I am hopeful tools we have built will be used by practices across the country and strengthen their ability to provide anesthesia services in this rapidly evolving market.
