Alan Condon

A CMS emergency regulation, issued Nov. 4, requires COVID-19 vaccination for staff at healthcare facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

CMS on Nov. 2 posted its 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule final rule, which includes updates on policy changes for Medicare payments and other Medicare Part B issues.

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

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

From an ASC that allegedly hid malpractice suits from an insurer to another that accuses a commercial payer of reimbursing $190,600 less than the cost of a spine surgery, here are three ASC-insurer disputes that grabbed headlines in October:

An ultrasound technician was awarded a $2.2 million verdict after she was fired from a women's health clinic days before her surgery to treat a work-related injury, the Sioux City Journal reports.

An insurer on Oct. 26 asked a California federal court to revoke an ASC's professional liability policy after it accused the surgery center and one of its spine surgeons of failing to disclose malpractice lawsuits in its insurance renewal application,…

Over the past 18 months, ASCs played a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Now they are poised to take center stage as high-quality, low-cost providers within the value-based healthcare ecosystem. However, many barriers to growth exist.

Orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, MD, has formed Andrews Ambulatory Surgery, a joint venture between Andrews Medicine and Sovereign Healthcare, a development and management company in Mission Viejo, Calif. 

Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates, a division of UnitedHealth Group's Optum, on Oct. 19 filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses it of making agreements with competitors not to poach senior-level employees, Law360 reports.