ASC News

Mississippi has the least amount of people looking to start a small business in 2024, according to a Jan. 16 report from business information site The Small Business Blog. 

Mississippi is the state with the lowest labor costs, while Maryland is the state with the highest, according to personal finance site WalletHub.

About 20% of physicians took less than one week of vacation in the last year, according to a Jan. 15 report from Medscape based on a study published in JAMA Network Open. 

Utah is the best state to start a business, while Rhode Island is the worst, according to personal finance site WalletHub.

Independent ASCs have unique challenges to face when navigating the industry.

As the field of medicine faces an exodus of physicians, plummeting job satisfaction and skyrocketing costs, the future of healthcare may seem grim. However, ASCs have an opportunity larger hospitals and health systems do not.

In October, Newsweek released its annual list of the top 550 ASCs in the U.S. for 2024, assigning each facility with a percentage-based score out of 100. 

Many physicians are wary of the rapid growth of Optum, the country's largest employer of physicians and parent company of ASC chain SCA Health. 

The Office of the Inspector General weighed in on whether a consultant providing gift cards to physicians for referrals is considered a kickback.

Health systems nationwide are toying with the idea of bringing back mask mandates following an uptick in COVID-19, RSV and other respiratory illness cases.