Gross revenue can be simply defined as charges billed. Net revenue, on the other hand, is more reflective of the revenue you expect to actually receive. In a healthcare environment, the spread between gross and net revenue can be fairly significant depending on who pays the bill.

A bar chart provides a simple visual comparison of gross vs. net revenue. Although the stacked bar chart initially seemed like the best choice to me, over time I've found that a regular bar chart with the bar overlap set to 100% works well too.

In this example, the goal is to chart the change in gross and net revenue in the Commercial / Contract and Government areas for the annual periods 2006 and 2007. Below is how I've set up the data:

The Chart Wizard produces the following:

The next task is to overlay the bars by setting the overlap to 100%. To do so, go to the Format Data Series dialog box - Options tab and change the overlap to 100%.

Finally, with a series of minor formatting changes the chart looks like this:

The chart shows the following:

• The Government area is above the blue line and the Commercial / Contract area is below the blue line.
• The Commercial / Contract revenue grew while the Government gross revenue showed no increase and reimbursement decreased.
• The Commerical / Contract reimbursement is significantly higher than the Government reimbursement. As a result, the Commercial / Contract area looks much more attractive from a financial perspective.