As cardiology continues to grow its presence in the outpatient market, ASC leaders are formulating their strategies for safely and sustainably expanding new service lines.
Thomas Hutchinson, administrator of the Surgery Center of Central Florida in Ocala, recently joined Becker’s for an episode of Becker’s Ambulatory Surgery Center Podcast. Mr. Hutchinson discussed the top areas of his focus at a cardiology-focused ASC.
Here are three takeaways from the discussion:
1. EP ablations take center stage: “One of the big trends that everybody in cardiology is looking at for ASCs is EP ablations,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “That’s probably our No. 1 topic right now in our industry.”
EP ablations are one of many cardiovascular procedures that were proposed for addition to the ASC covered procedures list earlier this year. This news was celebrated within the cardiology community, as professional and physician advocacy organizations, such as the American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society, among others, have long advocated for this shift.
“We’ve been pushing for that for a while,” Mr. Hutchinson continued. “We were trying to contract with private payers, and our practice has just kind of struggled with it. I know there’s some other ones that have had a little more success on that side of it.”
He added that the outpatient approval of EP ablations, along with other procedures, is a benefit to ASCs, patients and hospitals alike.
“With Medicare being able to allow us to do those ablations in the outpatient setting, I think that’s a huge advantage to our cardiology patients, and it will take some of the workload off the hospital a little bit,” he said.
2. Potential expansion into vascular surgery. Mr. Hutchinson said that vascular surgery is another area that he and his team are eyeing for potential growth.
“That’ll be something new for us,” he said. “We are looking at a couple of procedures that require vascular surgeons. We don’t have any right now, so we’ll have to, we’re looking at locums for that.”
Venturing further into vascular surgery would mean expanding both staff and the ASC itself, which other leaders may need to consider as they take on new procedures.
“Our ASC is we have three operating rooms, and we only have eight pre- and post-op bays, and we’re looking to add on to our pre- and post-op,” he said. “Physically, we need to grow our building, and we’re going to add on another 10 patient bays for pre- and post-op.”
3. Getting costs in order. The cost investment into new technologies and other equipment necessary for new cardiology procedures is another thing that cardiology-focused ASCs, or those looking to include cardiology, should keep front and center as they think through their growth strategy.
“Think [about] your pro forma on device cost, what the vendors are going to charge you for your capital equipment, the disposables, all that stuff,” he said.
Keeping costs in line is especially important right now, as CMS is yet to finalize its 2026 payment rules for certain procedures and other ASC-related policies.
“We kind of took a leap of faith, and we’re prepared for it for Jan. 1, but we still don’t have any hard numbers on what Medicare is going to reimburse us on these EP ablations,” he said. “So to add this whole service line, we’re going off of projections. I think the biggest thing is to know where you stand, what your capital costs are going to be, your disposable costs, your staff costs, your fixed costs, and just do a good in depth pro forma. So you only have the one variable — the reimbursement — for right now.”
