Becker's ASC Review

35 ORTHOPEDICS How 4 surgeons are thinking about growth in the next 3 years By Alan Condon F rom increasing patient volume to expanding surgical presence and doubling down on white-glove service, four spine surgeons share how they are thinking about growth in the coming years. Question: How is your practice looking at growth in the next three years? Neel Shah, MD. DISC Sports & Spine Center (Newport Beach, Calif.): is question hits close to home. I packed up my practice in New York City and moved to Southern Cali- fornia in the middle of the pandemic. In terms of growing my practice, I am looking at how to better engage with patients both inside and outside of the office. is includes developing a curated, well-reviewed informational portal on my website and using social media to better educate our patients. Richard Kube, MD. Prairie Spine (Peoria, Ill.): We are focused upon growing our spine surgical presence in the free market medical space. With rising costs, there is a distinct synergy that is created between healthcare consumers and value-based providers. I believe that further educating con- sumers regarding options will help to grow this market. We believe much of this market is obtainable by our practice. Brian Gantwerker, MD. Craniospinal Center of Los Ange- les: Practice growth is looking more and more like diversifica- tion. As so many practices are absorbed or closed by larger entities, we look to distinguish ourselves by our availability, outcomes and patient experience. What sets good practices apart from the larger entities is that patients are seen by a doctor, not a midlevel or resident. Patients that wish to have an experience where their surgeries are explained to them in detail, what they can expect and have an open forum to ask questions and under- stand not just the 'how,' but also the 'why,' and not shuffled off, will find us. Hopefully that will continue to happen. I have no single benchmark or level that I am going aer, but I look to my patients and staff and see how we are doing. Just getting more referrals and operating and doing 20 cases a week is not growth. Growth is the enhancement of patient lives, whether it is doing or not doing surgeries, helping someone however you can whenever you can, building your reputation not only as a surgeon, but as a doctor, and holding yourself accountable all the time. Andrew Hecht, MD. Mount Sinai Health System (New York City): Our plan for growth is tied to the unwinding of the CO- VID-19 pandemic. As our surgeons and noninvasive specialists resume normal activity, we will continue to grow our volume and physician complement. We are also expanding our Mount Sinai spine care network throughout the region. n South Dakota neurosurgeon to pay $4.4M to resolve kickback, false claims allegations By Laura Dyrda A Sioux Falls, S.D.-based neurosurgeon and the two medi- cal device distributorships he owns will pay $4.4 million to resolve False Claims Act violation allegations, the U.S. Justice Department said May 3. Neither Wilson Asfora, MD, nor his Medical Designs and Sicage distributorships will be allowed to participate in federal health- care programs for six years under terms of the settlement. The federal government accused the companies of paying Dr. Asfora distributions in exchange for using their devices. The companies also allegedly resold other manufacturers devices and split profits with Dr. Asfora for devices he used. The compa- nies separately paid $100,000 in penalties to settle allegations of violating the Open Payments program because Dr. Asfora's ownership and payments weren't reported to CMS. The settlement also resolves allegations that Dr. Asfora submit- ted claims for medically unnecessary procedures using devices from the distributorships. The U.S. also accused Dr. Asfora of accepting kickbacks from Medtronic for using SynchroMedII infusion pumps. Medtronic allegedly paid for large meals at a restaurant Dr. Asfora and his wife own in exchange for his use of the pumps. n Total hip surgeries soared in these 9 states during 2020 By Laura Dyrda S urgeons in nine states performed at least 115 percent more total hip replacements in 2020 than in 2019, accord- ing to data from Definitive Healthcare. Here are the 10 states and percentage of total 2019 total hips performed in 2020: 1. Vermont: 138 percent (added 54 cases) 2. Washington: 130.8 percent (added 1,060 cases) 3. Louisiana: 127 percent (added 460 cases) 4. Georgia: 118.8 percent (added 1,090 cases) 5. New Hampshire: 118.1 percent (added 299 cases) 6. South Carolina: 116.7 percent (added 307 cases) 7. New Mexico: 115.9 percent (added 107 cases) 8. Illinois: 115.2 percent (added 1,007 cases) 9. North Carolina: 115.1 percent (added 538 cases) n

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