What changes in the appointment book when every service is billed

Every exam, consultation or procedure performed generates a charge tied to a code. The act that does not happen generates nothing: no activity record, no billing line, no data to plan the following month with. HealthCare.gov puts the definition in one line: fee for service is a method in which doctors and other providers are paid for each service performed.

What changes in the appointment book when every service is billed?

Who reads the report changes. The appointment book stops being a scheduling-desk matter and lands on the executive team, because the number of appointments performed and the number of billable services recorded end up being almost the same number.

• An appointment that collapses does not come back: the day has passed and the room stood occupied by nobody.
• Overbooking and the waiting list become occupancy tools, with the attendance risk that carries.
• An order written and never booked is committed activity that was never executed.
• Month-end is built from what was performed, so a week of collapsed appointments shows up in the report before it shows up in the bank.

The mirror image is capitation, where the same fact reads as avoided spend. A provider with mixed contracts needs both readings, and the measurement methodology has to declare which one it is using before showing any number.