Physician Advisors Are Not Commodities: A Strategic Look at External Support

Like surgeons, coders, or nurses, the impact of a Physician Advisor depends on far more than individual credentials. Their effectiveness is shaped by how they’re trained, who they’re mentored by, and whether they understand the whole landscape of the revenue cycle and payor behavior.

Have they been guided by experienced colleagues who can protect revenue and navigate denials? Or have they been inadvertently trained by payors, shaped by repeated denials rather than empowered to prevent them?

Even the most capable Physician Advisors may fall short when internal programs lack these supports. Worse yet, leadership often doesn’t realize the shortfall because the missed revenue, compliance risk, and under-captured denials remain invisible.

When structured correctly, this role is a revenue preservation and generation engine. However, when approached as a checkbox or stopgap, it becomes an expensive missed opportunity.

The Hidden Costs of Internal Programs

Many health systems assume “a Physician Advisor is a Physician Advisor.” But that mindset overlooks significant variability in performance and cost:

• Internal Physician Advisors often split time between clinical and UM responsibilities.
• The “cost” of a Physician Advisor generally doesn’t account for the lost revenue as a result of uncovered PTO, training, coverage gaps, or recruitment churn.
• They may lack access to national payor insights, performance benchmarks, and real-time escalation support.

What Makes External Physician Advisors Different?

At Brundage Group, our Physician Advisors:

• Are fully dedicated to UM  or Physician Advisor work (no moonlighting or rounding distractions).
• Operate inside a high-performance infrastructure.
• Use proprietary analytics to identify revenue risks in real-time.
• Are held accountable for measurable results, not just process adherence.

Unlike internal hires, external Physician Advisors can be scaled up, down, or disengaged based on performance without HR complexity.

Strategic, Not Supplemental

Choosing external Physician Advisors isn’t just about filling gaps. It’s a strategic decision to improve:

• Reimbursement — by ensuring correct patient status from the start
• Compliance — by supporting documentation that withstands audits
• Operational efficiency — by enabling quicker decisions and escalations

Our national perspective allows us to detect trends, adapt strategies, and provide clients with regional and national peer benchmarks and insights into payor behavior.

It’s Not Just Who’s in the Seat—It’s What You Put Behind Them

At Brundage Group, our Physician Advisors are:

• Experts in denial prevention and overturn strategies
• Data-driven and proactive
• Unafraid to push back against inappropriate payor tactics
• Skilled at identifying and capturing Ghost Revenue

We’re not incentivized by “win rates;” your financial outcomes and compliance integrity incentivize us.

Internal vs. External: A Snapshot

Category	Internal Physician Advisor	External Physician Advisor
Focus	Split (clinical + UM)	100% UM focus
Tools & analytics	Varies	Proprietary performance benchmarking
Coverage gaps	Common	Fully staffed & scalable
Payor strategy insight	Limited to internal experience	National, real-time insights
Accountability model	HR-based	Performance-based service model

Bottom Line: Results You Can Measure

Hospitals that partner with Brundage Group routinely see:

• 10 percentage point increase in Inpatient rates
• 10 percentage point improvement in overturn rates
• Millions in additional net revenue annually

We help reframe the Physician Advisor investment, not as a cost center but as a strategic lever for margin protection, compliance assurance, and revenue growth.