CMS’ recent approval of electrophysiology ablations has sparked both excitement and concern among ASC leaders across the industry as organizations look into new and expanded outpatient cardiology developments.
But EP ablations are just one of a range of procedures that can support a practice’s growth in the outpatient field. Paul Haas, MD, an electrophysiologist at Peoria, Ariz.-based Cardiac Solutions recently joined Becker’s to share his thoughts on how outpatient cardiology will develop over the next several years.
Editor’s note: This response has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Q: How do you see outpatient cardiology developing over the next five years?
Dr. Paul Haas: There’s a couple things I’ve learned. In the ASC setting, EP is the financial driver of [our success]. And devices are still a large part of that, but the ablations are definitely contributing significantly. You’re definitely going to see a large transition of patients and their ablations being done in the surgical center.
But the other side of it is that you can’t discount the cardiology side, the interventional side. They may not be the higher [revenue] producing procedures, but they’re not money losing procedures. They keep the lights on in a lot of ways, and keep our staff gainfully employed. For example, if I take a week off, yes, it may not be as financially lucrative. But they fill that in with other procedures, and that’s what keeps employees happy.
I think for people who are looking at opening an ASC, yes — it’s great to just look at the EP side of things. But you do also have to include the interventional procedures as well. There’s definitely going to be growth in the number of procedures done in the surgical centers if it’s done safely and if the margins on the procedures are healthy enough to keep them going.
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