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Major Chicago-Area Hospital to Close -- No Physician-Owned Facilities in Sight; Federal Judge Ruling Temporarily Prevents Anti-Markup Provisions; CMS Issues 2008 IPPS Proposed Rule; Hear Scott Becker on ReachMD Radio
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1. Major Chicago-Area Hospital to Close -- No Physician-Owned Facilities in Sight. Citing mounting financial losses and having exhausted all other options -- including giving the hospital away for free -- SSM Health Care recently announced that it will close St. Francis Hospital and Health Center, located in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island, Ill. The hospital will remain open until SSM receives necessary approvals for its plans from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board and the state Department of Health. Get the complete story and analysis.
2. Federal Judge Ruling Temporarily Prevents Anti-Markup Rule Provisions. Physicians can continue to markup and get paid for the professional or technical component of anatomic pathology diagnostic testing services they order but do not perform after a federal judge ordered a temporary injunction blocking a CMS provision that would have prohibited such practices, according to published reports. Get the complete story.
3. CMS Issues 2008 Inpatient Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule. CMS has issued a proposed rule to update the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS). Under this proposal, payment to hospitals is expected to increase by 3.3 percent on average. Go here for the full story.
4. Scott Becker Discusses Business Challenges Facing ASCs on ReachMD Radio. Scott Becker discusses ASCs, physician-owned hospitals, and political and business issues on ReachMD. Go here to learn how to listen to the interview.
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| Great Speakers at June Orthopedics Driven ASC Conference -- 14 Days Left to Register Early
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The 6th Annual Orthopedics, Pain Management and Spine Driven ASC Conference: Improving Profits, Legal and Business Issues, to be held June 19 to 21 in Chicago, is a chance to network with 500 owners, surgeons, administrators, exhibitors and speakers. More than 70 speakers will present talks focused on strategic, practical, business and legal topics for ASCs.
Here are 12 of the terrific speakers you can hear:
- Dr. Brian Cole, one of the country's most renowned orthopedic surgeons who specializes in cartilage restoration, will speak on the clinical future of orthopedics.
- Tucker Carlson, the well-known political commentator on MSNBC, will speak on the intersection of healthcare and politics.
- Dr. Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon and congressman, will address the audience Saturday morning and provide some of his thoughts regarding the future of healthcare.
- Dr. James Caillouette, founder of a very successful ASC (Newport Orthopedic Institute), will speak on handling cases, such as total joint replacements, in ASCs.
- Dr. James Lynch, an extremely smart and gifted neurosurgeon, will discuss spine surgery in ASCs.
- Dr. Brent Lambert, a leading national physician and developer and owner of ASCs and founder of ASCOA, will speak on turning around ASCs.
- Mike Snow, CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates, will speak on trends in the broad ASC market and how they impact individual ASCs and planning.
- I. Naya Kehayes, MPH, founder of Eveia Health Consulting & Management, is a leader in her field and will speak on managed care contracting.
- Dr. John Caruso, president of the Parkway Neuroscience & Spine Institute and a leader in neuro-spine, will discuss spine procedures and handling complex cases in ASCs.
- Caryl Serbin, the founder of Surgery Consultants of America and Serbin Surgery Center Billing, will speak on billing and coding for ASCs in light of the new Medicare system.
- Dr. Tom Lorish, medical director at the highly respected not-for-profit Providence Health System, and Miriam Odermann, administrator of ambulatory services at Providence Health System, will speak on ASC joint ventures.
- Tom Yerden, founder of Aspen Healthcare and now founder and CEO of TRY Health Care Solutions, will speak on physician-hospital joint ventures.
Download the complete program agenda and event brochure here. CME, CEU and CASC credits available. Register before May 1 and save $100; paid subscribers to the Becker's ASC Review also receive a $100 discount. Additional discounts apply when registering two or more attendees. We've now added 30 more hotel rooms a night to our block to accommodate interest.
There are four easy ways to register:
- Online. Register through our secure Web site.
- Fax. Complete the order form and fax it to (312) 706-2526. Please show ASC Communications c/o a5 as the subject line.
- Mail. Complete the order form and mail it to ASC Communications; c/o a5 Inc.; 1 N. LaSalle Street, 47th Floor; Chicago IL 60602.
- Phone. Call (312) 546-6042 to register.
Six exhibit spots remain. If you are interested in exhibiting, contact Jessica Cole, Dan Bragaw, Emily Noyes or Matt Leemkuil.
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| DHHS Sharply Criticizes American Hospital Association and Affiliates Over Misstatements Regarding Physician-Owned Hospitals; Required Reporting on Horizon, National Quality Forum Endorses 5 Quality Measures for ASCs
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1. DHHS Sharply Criticizes American Hospital Association and Affiliates Over Misstatements Regarding Physician-Owned Hospitals. The first two weeks of April were busy with regard to Capitol Hill activity for physician-owned hospitals. While the American Hospital Association fly-in meeting was making the destruction of the physician-hospital industry one of its top priorities, the Department of Health and Human Services sharply rebuked the American Hospital Association and its affiliates over misstatements regarding the OIG's recent report on physician-owned hospitals.
The DHHS letter states as follows regarding a report by the AHA, the Federation of American Hospitals and the Coalition of Full Service Community Hospitals: "The document includes several statements that misrepresent our findings and draw conclusions that we did not make in our report". It then specifies those misstatements. View the full letter from the DHHS to the AHA here.
In addition, three other documents were released that were very beneficial to physician-owned hospitals. Separately, Physician Hospitals of America has learned that provisions prohibiting physician ownership of hospitals may be inserted into the Senate version of the farm bill. Get the complete story and analysis.
2. Looking Ahead to Required Reporting, National Quality Forum Endorses 5 Quality Measures for ASCs. In an effort to enhance the ability of ASCs to report healthcare outcomes and processes in a standardized manner, the National Quality Forum has endorsed five quality measures for ASCs developed by the ASC Quality Collaboration. The five facility-level ASC measures endorsed by NQF are patient burn; prophylactic intravenous antibiotic timing; patient fall within the ASC; wrong-site, wrong-side, wrong-patient, wrong-procedure, wrong-implant surgery; and hospital transfer/admission. Go here for the complete story.
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| 12 Recently Posted Articles at BeckersASC.com
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| Take Our Survey; Upcoming Managed Care Contracting and Orthopedic Coding Audioconferences from ASC Communications; RMC MedStone Acquires Houston ASC
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1. Tell us what you want to learn about. We need your help! We are working to determine future topics for audio conferences and for seminars at our October Improving the Profitability of and Establishing ASCs -- Business and Legal Issues Conference in Chicago and want to know what you want to learn about. Please take a few minutes to take the survey. Your input helps us ensure we are better meeting your needs with these resources. Thank you for your time and assistance.
2. Two Upcoming Audioconferences from ASC Communications. We are offering two high-quality audioconference events to help ASCs enhance operations.
- Managed Care Contracting for ASCs -- Trends and Tactics to Maximize Reimbursement. Caryl Serbin and Naya Kehayes will present this May 8 audioconference. Click here to register, or call (800) 417-2035 for sponsorship information.
- Orthopedic Coding for ASCs. Stephanie Ellis will present this June 11 audioconference. Click here to register, or call (800) 417-2035 for sponsorship information.
3. RMC MedStone Capital Acquires River Oaks Surgery Center in Houston. Michael Lipomi, president of RMC MedStone Capital, announced that the company has acquired a controlling interest in River Oaks Surgery Center in Houston. The 13-year-old, 13,200-square-foot multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center has five ORs. Go here for more on RMC MedStone Capital.
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Thank You to Great New Advertisers and Exhibitors
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We are delighted to highlight the following new advertisers, exhibitors and sponsors. For more information and a full list of ASC resources, go here.
1. Anesthesia Healthcare Partners. Anesthesia Healthcare Partners offers turnkey anesthesia services to hospitals and surgery centers across the country. Look for AHP in the May/June issue of the Becker's ASC Review. For a complete profile, go here.
2. ASCs Inc. Thank you to ASCs Inc. for expanding its efforts with the ASC Review. ASCs Inc. helps physician-owners of ASCs form strategic relationships with leading ASC management companies and hospitals, and also represents physician-owners of ASCs and medical office building real estate. For a complete profile, go here.
3. B.E. Smith. B.E. Smith offers solutions for both executive Search and interim management services. Check out BE Smith's ad in our recent issues of E-Weekly. For a complete profile, go here.
4. The CN Group. Thank you to the CN Group, which participates in the development, operation and ownership of outpatient healthcare facilities, for becoming a new full-year advertiser. For a complete profile, go here.
5. Pacific Surgical Partners. Pacific Surgical Partners was founded by Don Cook, a long-term surgery center veteran. He has started his new company with a few surgery centers in the Los Angeles area. For a complete profile, go here.
6. Principle Valuation. Thank you to Principle Valuation, which specializes in healthcare valuation, a new networking break sponsor for the June Orthopedics and Spine Driven ASC conference. For more information, go here.
7. Provation Medical. Thank you to Provation Medical, maker of ProVation EHR, an electronic health record designed for busy, cost-conscious ASCs, for adding to its run of Web site ads. For a complete profile, go here.
8. Surgical Notes. Surgical Notes, a nationwide provider of medical transcription, coding and other related value-added information technology services for ASCs, is now running in our E-Weekly. For a complete profile, go here.
9. The Joint Commission. Thank you to the Joint Commission, the preeminent accreditation body, for exhibiting at the June Orthopedics and Spine Driven ASC Conference. For more on the Joint Commission's services to ASCs, go here.
10. Count Me In. Count Me In, a maker of time-clock software and labor tracking solutions, will also exhibit at the June conference. Learn more about Count Me In here.
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| Becker's ASC Review Paid Subscribers
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Beckers ASC Review paid subscriptions. If you are a Becker's ASC Review paid subscriber, you are entitled to the following benefits:
- Copy of each issue delivered to your mailbox.
- Discounts on the cost of audioconference and Webinar registrations.
- $100 off registration for both main and pre-conference sessions at the June conference.
- $50 off registration for both main and pre-conference sessions at the October conference.
- Free copy of the VMG Health Intellimarker benchmarking survey, an extremely valuable guide.
To subscribe to the Becker's ASC Review go to www.BeckersASC.com.
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