Mr. Romansky has practiced exclusively in the area of health law, representing health care providers, companies, and organizations before Congress and all federal agencies with jurisdiction over health programs. He has served as Washington Counsel to many medical specialty and health trade associations, including the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (now the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association).
In an interview with Becker’s ASC Review, Mr. Romansky discussed the impact of Medicare reduction payments on ASCs. “Any reduction in payments would be painful for an ASC, but policy-makers should be careful about cutting ASC payments or they might end up actually increasing federal spending,” he said. “Yes, most cataracts are now performed in ASCs, and that is a great boon for Medicare. Medicare pays 43 percent less for a procedure in an ASC than in a hospital outpatient department. But if ASC rates were seriously constrained, fewer ASCs would be developed at some point and the market would look for other ways to increase reimbursements. Indeed, we are now seeing hospitals purchasing ASCs and converting them into outpatient departments eligible for the higher Medicare reimbursements.”
