Controlling costs while delivering high-quality care remains a pressing challenge for many ASCs.
From staffing pressures to shifting reimbursement models and rising supply costs, two leaders joined Becker’s to discuss the hardest costs to manage.
Question: What areas of cost control are the hardest to manage while maintaining quality care?
Editor’s note: These responses were edited lightly for clarity and length.
Tasha Cieslak. Practice Manager at The Gastro Clinic (Lafayette, La.): Staffing remains the most difficult area. RN salaries continue to climb and retaining skilled team members while managing costs is an ongoing challenge.
Disposable supplies are another significant factor. In the past, we could invest in reusable products, maintain them properly, and realize a solid return on investment. Today, most new technologies are designed for single use. The shift toward “one-and-done” products has greatly increased ongoing supply costs compared to the reusable models of years past.
Josh Mastracci. Director of an Investment Bank TM Capital’s Healthcare Practice: Staffing and reimbursement pressures are the areas of cost control hardest to manage while maintaining quality care, in our view. Rising compensation demands and burnout are driving up wage costs and hiring less experienced staff can reduce salary costs but increases training expenses and risks quality lapses. Structured training programs like bootcamps and infection control training are essential but meaningfully add to overhead. Margin pressures are being exacerbated by reimbursement pressures. CMS and private payers continue to reduce reimbursement — particularly for high-volume procedures — and proposed legislation to eliminate facility fees could severely impact the ability to continue to offer care in higher quality outpatient settings.
