Editor's Note The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association on July 7 posted a quality reporting alert that provides instructions on required reporting that all Medicare-certified ASCs must submit to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ASC Quality Reporting Program by August 15. ASCs must report on five measures (ASC-6 through…

Read More

Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on July 1 issued a proposed rule for CY 2016 for the hospital outpatient prospective payment (OPPS) and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment systems. CMS proposes an OPPS decrease of .01%. The change is based on a projected hospital market basket increase…

Read More

Screening heavier patients for ambulatory surgery just became a little easier, thanks to a new brochure from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) Institute for Quality Improvement, Skokie, Illinois. Titled “Ambulatory surgery and obesity in adults: Preventing complications,” the two-page toolkit draws on some 40 research articles outlining…

Read More

Patients come first. That is the brief, yet insightful, first principle for the ambulatory surgery industry: Give patients a safe, cost-effective, convenient, and attractive place to have their elective surgery, and profits and career satisfaction will follow. Well, perhaps, but it is all too easy to become involved in regulations,…

Read More

Like all healthcare facilities, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) generate medical waste. Some of that waste is well known to be hazardous, such as blood, tissue, or used needles and syringes. Another type of waste is leftover medication, which is subject to its own regulations and disposal practices. Compliance is a…

Read More

Fremont Surgery Center stands in America’s heartland, about 30 miles northwest of Omaha, Nebraska. It faces economic conditions typical of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) across the country: stable revenue but minimal growth prospects. Last year, however, Fremont made a strategic move that placed it in the industry’s vanguard. Fremont was…

Read More

The decision to add a new procedure in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is a matter of weighing risks and opportunities. A long list of variables must be analyzed and compared. Is the prospect of higher profit worth the investment that will be required in staff and equipment? Is our…

Read More

Delivering quality healthcare doesn’t end when a patient leaves the postanesthesia care unit. It continues until the final installment of the bill is paid. It continues even when the payment is overdue, missing, or refused. To stay in business, an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) must collect the fees it has…

Read More

Most ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have some form of computer-based recordkeeping, such as scheduling and billing systems. So far, however, few have made the leap to electronic medical records (EMRs). With an EMR, clinicians enter data at the point of care, and that information is accessible to other clinical and…

Read More

Peak One Surgery Center in Frisco, Colorado, had a lucrative day this past October, when surgeons performed 14 procedures on local residents in the following specialties: orthopedics, general surgery, gynecology, pain management, and gastroenterology. Their pay? A mountain of gratitude.   Helping at home Frisco, population 2,683, is located in…

Read More