EA Health (EA) is the industry expert on Emergency Department (ED) on-call compensation. Since 1992 we have been designing and implementing custom solutions for specialty physician compensation that secure call panel participation and meet hospital budgets. EA has built a state-of-the-art web-based information system, which provides real-time on demand access to the data and processes required to successfully implement and manage our compensation programs. The EA system allows us to generate detailed management reports down to the level of individual CPT codes. These reports assist client hospitals in the monitoring and intelligent management of their programs.

We currently administer ED call compensation programs for over 50 hospitals across 10 states, and we have provided consulting services to 82 hospitals across 24 states. Our experience shows us that guaranteed fee-for-service (FFS) payments based on Relative Value Units (RVU) are the ideal foundation to a hospital’s call compensation strategy. This core FFS strategy may be enhanced with stipends, encounter fees or other payment methods based on specialty/hospital specific need.

Consulting Services

EA Health’s consulting services include Financial Projections for hospitals interested in budgeting the cost of a FFS program; Strategic Assessments for hospitals requiring assistance in understanding their ED call environment and formulating a compensation solution to respond to their situation; and Design Development for hospitals needing to refine and make operational a conceptual compensation model.

Financial Projections: Hospitals considering the FFS method often do not have a reliable way to estimate the cost of such a program. EA utilizes an active database of RVUs actually generated by the over 5,000 EA-participating specialty physicians to estimate program costs based on volume, acuity, and payer mix data provided by the hospital.

Strategic Assessment: EA performs an onsite evaluation consisting of interviews and data analysis in order to identify hospital specific issues surrounding the ED call environment from both the physician and administrative perspectives. Based on the findings, EA develops a model for call compensation, which responds to the issues as effectively as possible. This Assessment will also include the financial projections, as described above, to support the proposed model.

Design Development: EA offers this service to hospitals that desire assistance in communicating their internally planned program to medical staff and/or require help refining that program. EA attends hospital meetings and group discussions to facilitate refinements, consensus building, and implementation preparation. We utilize our standard financial projections to assist with the Design Development process.

The most appropriate phase in which to begin a consulting engagement with EA ultimately depends on which tasks need to be completed in order to implement a solution that is mutually acceptable to the hospital and medical staff.

Management Services

Once a hospital elects to administer ED call compensation through EA Health, our management services commence with a formal Implementation process. During Implementation, EA drafts contractual agreements with the hospital and with the specialty physicians. Concurrently, our client services personnel go on-site to the hospital to conduct informational meetings for participating physicians and their office managers. Additionally, EA trains the hospital personnel who will interface with the program and does the necessary system analysis and setup to manage the program.

EA Health manages on-call compensation programs using our proprietary web based system that allows for efficient organization and tracking of physician contracts, patients and physician services. Our system coordinates physician enrollment and credentialing; patient designation and tracking; compliant handling of medical records; CPT coding and generation of Coding Review Summaries; monthly physician payouts; billing and collections; and regular reporting to hospital management. Additionally, EA provides the customer service staff to address inquiries from participating physicians patients, and hospital administrators. At the hospital’s request we will provide on-going support including meeting attendance, follow-up training, and program reassessment.