As High-deductible Plan Trend Continues, What’s Next for Surgery Centers?

Increasingly, people who need surgery have to pay for large chunks of the costs as employers and payers shift cost burdens to patients through high deductibles. This means ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) need to know their costs and be transparent with what patients will pay out of pocket.

When It Comes to Negotiating Sustainable Contracts, Know Your Costs

ASCs are entering a new era of higher deductibles and payer consolidation that will result in the survival of the fittest, centers that can cut costs to be more competitive and negotiate sustainable contracts with payers. Insiders offer some potentially useful tactics for making the most of the new payer environment.

Healthcare Climate Breeds New Opportunities

The current healthcare environment appears to make this a good time to open a new ASC. The trend of employer-sponsored health plans and payers looking for lower-cost alternatives to hospital procedures is creating new opportunities for the industry’s growth.

Study: Consumers Shop by Price When Payers Use Cost-sharing

Reference pricing can save billions of dollars in healthcare costs. This model has proven to be successful at steering consumers to lower-cost providers, such as ASCs.

Staffing Biggest Cost Containment Target Area

A few tips for surgery center administrators looking to cut costs.

Surgeons Can Address Societal Structural Inequality

Some surgeons are calling on ASC physicians to raise their voices to help stop the structural violence that is tearing apart some urban areas and robbing thousands of young people of their childhoods.

Bloat in the ASC

Rare is the facility where one can do that without seeing a linen cart, suture cart, piece of equipment, stretcher, X-ray rack, or other obstacles taking up space. Our patients also see this, and it is disarming to those who consider hospitals and surgery facilities to be like they see on TV: neat and spotless.

AAAHC Offers New Education, Resources on Disaster Preparation

Surgery centers should start by creating a crisis plan and practicing scenarios before a disaster strikes. Studies show that ASCs can prepare for emergencies more effectively by holding simulations or disaster drills.

AAAHC Asks ASCs, Others to Focus on Medication Reconciliation

Medication reconciliation can reduce problems for patients and prevent some ED visits and hospital admissions. A new toolkit educates ambulatory providers about how to avoid preventable adverse drug events. Providers should familiarize themselves with the medications their patients are taking before procedures, ensure accurate medication information and instructions after surgery, and learn how medications taken presurgery can affect patients if they are taking that medication in the days leading up to surgery.

Joint Commission Advisory Addresses Ensuring Accurate Patient Identification

Mistakes in patient identification can lead to wrong-patient errors, delays in treatment, and serious problems. In October, The Joint Commission issued an advisory on how healthcare providers can ensure accurate patient identification.