5 of the biggest challenges in healthcare that are opportunities for ASCs

Ambulatory surgery centers face several challenges this year, but there are opportunities for growth and success.

A few of the biggest challenges include:

• Electronic medical record implementation
• High deductible health plans
• Payment collections
• Patient satisfaction
• Driving case volume

Although electronic medical records are a huge investment, there are several reasons for ambulatory surgery centers to begin implementing them, with one of the most important being reimbursement. Medicare reimbursement will eventually be impacted for centers that don't have EMR, and they'll be left behind in a data-driven world.

"Implementing electronic medical records will improve the much-needed data reporting elements necessary for reducing operating costs and establishing more accurate budgets. An EMR will aso assist in monitoring and reporting on quality of care, safety, patient satisfaction and efficiency based upon price per procedure," says Jeff Blankinship, president and CEO of Surgical Notes. "In addition, EMR will allow the facility to better monitor and gauge reimbursements from the payer, thus improving collections while reducing the accounts receivables."

The data collection will help ASC owners run a better business as well as pivot toward new strategies to counter struggling reimbursements and rising expenses.

"As we all know, ASCs are struggling to improve reimbursements industry wide," says Mr. Blankinship. "The Affordable Care Act has created a high deductible and high co-pay environment for consumers. More and more ASCs are beginning to advertise cash prices to consumers and self-insured employers, thus driving more patients away from hospitals for outpatient surgeries."

As patients see their deductibles increase and medical bill stack up, they're looking more closely at cost of care. Patients are searching for the highest value healthcare, and surgery centers with bundled packages and/or transparent pricing along with low infection rates and high patient satisfaction are a huge attraction.

"The benefit [of price transparency] is ultimately more surgical patients and satisfied patients," says Mr. Blankinship. "A hospital surgery is the only medical service which you almost always never know what the cost will be until after the service has been performed, sometimes months afterward with balance billing."

However, with change in the market comes opportunity and one of the best new opportunities for ASCs is self-insured employers and municipalities. These employers and municipalities can create narrow networks that offer real savings for the payer.

"Self-insured employers now number more than 65 percent of the workforce," says Mr. Blankinship. "The opportunity to direct outpatient procedures away from expensive hospitals will prove to be the trend in coming years."

To fully take advantage of these opportunities and prepare for the future, Mr. Blankinship suggests a few quick steps ASCs can take starting now:

• Focus on consumerism
• Marketing of physician referrals
• Create narrow networks with local self-insured employers
• Support state and national associations and the ASCA PAC

 

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