The biggest factors to watch for include:
1. High deductibles — more patients have high deductible plans and ambulatory surgery centers are increasingly chasing individual patients for their portion of the bill. Some are implementing strategies to collect as much as possible upfront while others are employing credit services.
2. Malpractice premiums — these continue to drop due to tort reforms, which is a positive trend for surgeons.
3. ICD-10 — after the ICD-10 implementation extension many wonder whether the actual deadline will be October 2015. If it is, ASCs will weather through the change as physicians and coders make the transitions. Those that are unprepared and untrained will take a bigger hit.
4. Transparency — there are new websites reporting payments to physicians that could have an impact on income outside of reimbursement for medical services provided.
5. Telemedicine — some trends show telemedicine is taking some patients away from the traditional practice setting, which could ultimately impact the cases physicians bring to ASCs. However, the quality delivered via telemedicine is still questioned in many respects.
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