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The Neurologic & Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago (NOHC) was ranked the top hospital in Illinois and among the top 5 percent in the country for spine surgery in 2008, according to the latest HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study, released…

Oxford Partial Knee (Biomet), Qui-Connect Arthro Sheaths (Richard Wolf Medical Instruments),  Ultra Fast-Fix Meniscal (Repair System),  560 Series High-Definition Camera System (Smith & Nephew),  Vertier Surgical Table (Stryker Orthopedics), Visum LED Surgical Light (Stryker Orthopedics), Conserve Total Hip Implant (Wright…

The cost of implants — and getting reimbursed for them — continues to be imposing for orthopedic and multi-specialty ASCs (see “Reimbursement, Profit and Patient Selection Issues — Spine and Orthopedic Cases” on pg. 1 for more). Here, in an…

Stephanie Wasek: We all hear about the impact of overweight and obese patients on the population and healthcare system; obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is just one of the conditions associated with these patients. How prevalent is this problem in ASCs?…

In this period of economic challenges, there may be many reasons a physician might want to cash out some of his investment in an ASC. Further, given the credit crunch, younger physicians who want to take the opportunity to buy…

1. Movement to outpatient settings. There is a global trend across specialties, including orthopedics, neurology and cardiology, that increasingly complex procedures are moving toward outpatient settings.

While the expanded list of Medicare-approved procedures may have resulted (or will result) in your ASC’s performing new procedures this year, this does not mean you can or should be any less careful with how you code your older procedures.…

1. Can an ASC offer hospital-employed physicians incentives to use an ASC? It is generally improper to provide financial incentives to a physician in exchange for referring cases to a surgery center. For example, one could not offer hospital-employed physicians…

It’s easy to get caught up in focusing on the clinical side of your ASC; after all, bringing in procedures and performing them efficiently and at a high level of quality are the foremost keys to producing revenue. But when…

The ability to perform total knee arthroplasty, or TKA, in the ASC setting depends on state law — you must be allowed to keep patients up to 23 hours, if necessary — but if your state permits overnight stays, such…