ASC Management Issues
Oregon Economic Forecast
Monday, May 25th, 2009The first quarter of 2009 marks the fifth consecutive quarter of job losses. The annualized drop
of 8.2 percent is the largest quarterly employment decline since the second quarter of 1980. The
year-over-year …
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Executive Summary May 2009 Forecast
Economic Stimulus Package Sends Clear Message: Adopt EHR Technology Now or Pay the Price Later
Monday, March 16th, 2009By improving the efficiency and quality of health care services, electronic health records (EHRs) have been hailed as a promising new component of America’s future health care industry. However, due to cost and other perceived implementation obstacles…
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http://www.faegre.com/showarticle.aspx?mailingId=1374&Email=gkurth@spinemark.com&Show=9012
In Just a Flash, Simple Surgery Can Turn Deadly
Monday, March 2nd, 2009An electrical spark from a surgical tool sets off a fire in the breaking tube of a young tonsillectomy patient…..
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123491688329704423.html
Kathy Bryant’s Year in Review
Friday, January 30th, 2009Two big changes confronted ASCs on January 1, 2008. Medicare began paying ASCs based on a new payment system that varied greatly from its predecessor, and the new ASC Association, formed through the merger of the two previous national ASC Associations, began advocating for ASCs in Washington, D.C., and in forums across the country. As…
OIG Advisory Opinion No. 08-08
Thursday, July 31st, 2008On July 25th, the Office of Inspector General posted Advisory Opinion No. 08-08, a new advisory opinion concerning an investment in an ambulatory surgery center by a group of surgeons and a healthcare corporation that owns hospitals.
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Response to “Health Affairs” article
Friday, April 4th, 2008Ambulatory Surgery Centers Are Strengthening a Critical Funding Source for Safety-Net Hospitals
by Craig Jeffries
Former President, AAASC
The article by Gabel et al. attempts to conclude that the safety-net hospitals suffer because physician-owners route low-paying/higher-cost Medicaid patients to hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). However, their data clearly demonstrate that 55% of these Medicaid patient…
Quality Reporting on the ASC Side
Monday, January 1st, 2007Same-Day Surgery
As outpatient surgical care has shifted from hospitals to alternative locations, the patient safety and quality regulations and the cost and quality reporting requirements have not moved into that setting, says Ellen Pryga, director of policy for the American Hospital Association in Washington, DC. “We need to get to a place where we have…
30 Years Later, Ambulatory Surgery is Braced for Market, Payment Changes, New ASC Payment System, Quality Reporting to Affect Direction
Monday, January 1st, 2007Same-Day Surgery
Even after 30 years, the outpatient surgery field still is constantly adjusting to changes in procedures, policies, and payments.
Consider these recent actions:
*Surgical procedures are moving not only from traditional hospital-based setting into ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), but also to physician offices.
*A payer has decreased payments for some procedures in the hospital and increased reimbursement…