Healthcare Reform Impact on ASC Pain Management: Q&A With Amy Mowles of Mowles Medical Practice Management

Written by Rob Kurtz | August 03, 2010

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Q: How is healthcare reform likely to impact the pain management component of my ASC?

Amy Mowles, President and CEO, Mowles Medical Practice Management: For the overall impact of health reform, I see the insurance companies having less leverage than before. Those insurance companies that currently have the most leverage to close their network or make an ASC go through rigmarole just to be credentialed, it's because they have so much of the market share they can afford to do that.

Let's say down the road that there is the suggested government option. Wouldn't you think it likely that a lot of large employers would say they can't afford the private commercial payors and are thus not going to fund it since they have the government option?

In the end, I don't see much changing with pain management. If you're a chronic pain patient with a bad back and you get epidural injections once every three months and for those three months you have a pretty good quality of life, I don't think you're going to be too quick to give that up. They're going to find a way to pay for it because they have become accustomed to the enhanced quality of life these procedures give them.

It's not like someone in orthopedics who will delay a knee replacement because they're still walking around and their physician hasn't convinced them that it's going to be much worse to wait.

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