Between the ASC megadeals of 2026 and more traditional practice acquisitions, a set of smaller transactions is changing who owns ASCs and why. Over the past two months, a health plan has signed on as a co-owner of surgery centers,…
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The No Surprises Act was built to take patients out of the middle of out-of-network billing fights. The arbitration process it created to settle those fights between insurers and providers has since become a fight of its own. Over the…
CMS is unwinding the inpatient-only list, payers are steering cases out of the hospital and forecasters expect outpatient volume to grow nearly three times faster than inpatient over the next decade. Here is how six health system executives are describing…
Centene is the latest national insurer to roll out a prior authorization gold card program, joining UnitedHealthcare and Humana. For ASCs, the catch is where the exemption lands: in most programs, the gold card belongs to the surgeon’s practice, not…
Seventy-seven percent of medical students and 74% of residents reported carrying debt from medical school, compared with 30% of practicing physicians, according to Medscape’s “Medical School Debt-Management Report 2026.” The report, published Oct. 16, is based on an online survey…
Stamford, Conn.-based physician Steven Murphy, MD, and his practices, Murphy Medical Associates and Diagnostic and Medical Specialists of Greenwich (Conn.), have agreed to pay $866,539 to resolve allegations of COVID-19-related and healthcare fraud, according to an Oct. 16 news release…
CMS has approved B. Braun Medical’s Stimuplex Single-Shot Nerve Block Needles for separate Medicare payment under the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act, effective retroactively to April 30. The devices qualify as non-opioid medical devices under the law,…
CMS’ final 2026 outpatient payment rule added 560 codes to the ASC covered procedures list and began a three-year sunset of the inpatient-only list. The changes widened the pool of cases ASCs can take. Health systems want the same cases.…
Many ASCs are paying anesthesia groups coverage subsidies to keep their ORs staffed. Casper (Wyo.) Surgical Center has never paid one in its 26 years. The share of ASCs expecting to pay anesthesia stipends jumped from 28% in 2024 to…
Paramus, N.J.-based Valley Health System has established a graduate medical education fellowship program in gastroenterology. The health system is launching the program in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, according to an Oct. 15 news release…