ASC News

CMS on Nov. 2 finalized the Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System final rule for 2022.

Bipartisan legislation aimed to improve CMS access to ASCs, dubbed The Outpatient Surgery Quality and Access Act of 2021, was recently introduced in the House and Senate, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association said in a Nov. 3. email. 

Westlake Village, Calif.-based Specialty Surgical Center of Westlake has added a Mako surgical robot, according to a Nov. 1 LinkedIn post.

Casa Grande, Ariz.-based Pinal Cancer & Surgery Center joined the American Oncology Network, according to a Nov. 1 news release. The affiliation took effect Nov. 1.

The COVID-19 pandemic shook the ASC industry, and while some centers have fully recovered, others are still struggling to return to pre-pandemic stability. 

McLaren Macomb renamed a surgery center on its main campus in Mount Clemens, Mich., to the Joseph P. Aesy Surgery Center after a $3 million donation from a local business leader, the hospital said Oct. 27. 

The reduction in patient numbers with the influx of concierge medicine means that many patients are left without primary care physicians at a time of increasing shortages in the specialty. 

Orangeburg, S.C.-based Regional Medical Center is about $312,000 over budget for the month of September due to expenses involved with its hospital's ASC litigation, The Times and Democrat reported. 

Maryland state delegate Terri Hill, MD, is being reprimanded and fined $15,000 by the state physicians board after she attended legislative meetings via Zoom while performing surgery, according to an Oct. 29 Baltimore Sun report.

A public health order issued Oct. 31 by Colorado's health department is preventing nonessential cosmetic surgeries from being performed in November.