State Medicaid crises present opportunities. Under growing pressure to reduce Medicaid spending, states appear to finally be starting to understand opportunities for cost savings by using ASCs, but they are still wary of antagonizing the hospital lobby. ASCs still need to make sure they wouldn’t lose money on the new Medicaid initiatives.
Our strongest case could be turned against us. Sen. John Kerry’s military record was one of his greatest strengths coming into the 2004 presidential campaign, but the Swift Boat campaign successfully turned that against him, Mr. Schwartz said. Opposing politicians and the media are trying to do the same thing with ASCs’ glowing reputation for low infection rates by focusing on a few isolated cases of infections in certain centers. “It’s a perception problem,” Mr. Schwartz says. “If we don’t turn that perception around, it is going to a barrier for all of our initiatives.”
New fraud regulations could target ASCs. New federal fraud regulations, enforced locally through U.S. Attorneys’ offices, could target ASCs. They are part of the Obama administration’s broad crackdown on healthcare fraud. The language of the new regulations is quite open, allowing U.S. Attorneys to cast a wide net, which could “bring in a whole lot of people who work at a surgery center,” Mr. Schwartz said.
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