Deriving cost and revenue per exam from your data

An economic calculation is only as reliable as the data it is built from. This page describes the craft behind it: which sources are combined, how they are linked and checked, and how the metrics on cost and revenue per scanner hour are produced from them.

Which data we combine

• Billing exports: billed codes per exam, payer group (statutory, private, self-pay, accident insurer), and the marking of budget-bound versus extrabudgetary services – pseudonymised
• RIS exports: exam type, scanner, site, planned slot length, status timestamps
• Modality timestamps: the scanner time actually occupied, rather than the planned time
• Cost data from accounting or controlling, already aggregated if preferred
• Volume notifications from your KV and the rules of the applicable fee distribution scheme, where relevant (see RLV and QZV explained)

How we derive the metrics

1. Linking: billing lines, the RIS case and modality timestamps are joined via pseudonymised keys. Where an assignment is not unambiguous, we report that rather than estimate it.
2. Determining occupied time: room time and scan time are reported separately, changeover time apportioned. Clock drift between scanners and manually set RIS statuses are explicitly checked.
3. Allocating costs: together with you we define which costs are directly tied to scanner time and by which key overheads are distributed. The key is documented and can be changed at any time.
4. Allocating revenue: for each exam the revenue is separated by source – budget-bound EBM, extrabudgetary EBM, GOÄ. For budget-bound services, the progression of volume utilisation through the quarter is reconstructed as well.
5. Spread instead of a point value: because durations vary, contribution margins come out as ranges. We show, for example, the range within which 80 % of the exams of a given type fall – the actual values come from your data.

Data quality is part of the result

Every analysis starts with findings on the data itself: which fields are complete, where timestamps are implausible, which exam types are too rare to evaluate reliably. Metrics the data does not support are marked as such rather than smoothed over.

Outcome

• Documented calculation model with all assumptions, allocation keys and data sources
• Data quality report with the limitations that matter for interpretation
• Regular updates, so that changes in costs, reimbursement or case mix become visible

The calculation is a business planning tool and does not replace tax or billing advice.

How it runs

1. Analysis: combining time, billing and cost data, checking data quality and jointly defining the cost allocation.
2. Report and workshop: the documented calculation model, the metrics and their limitations, talked through with you.
3. Implementation (optional): a dashboard with ongoing updates, if the calculation should keep running.

The results feed into economic scheduling.