Becker's ASC Review

34 Thought Leadership 12 ASC administrators provide industry outlooks By Ariana Portalatin T he COVID-19 pandemic has brought on many changes to the ASC indus- try, including new service offerings and shifts in competition between hospitals and surgery centers, leading facilities to adapt in order to continue offering patients quality care. ASC administrators were asked to describe their current overall outlook on the industry. Twelve administrators summarized the cur- rent ASC landscape, its challenges and what they see as opportunities for growth. Here are their responses: Anna Weaver. Brunswick Surgery Center (Leland, N.C.): An ever-changing reim- bursement landscape will continue to drive business to the ASCs. Medicare is remov- ing several [inpatient/hospital outpatient department] CPT codes and adding them to the covered CPT codes allowed in the ambulatory setting. Commercial payers are looking for the most cost-effective location for their patients as well. I see a bright fu- ture and increased volumes for ambulatory surgery centers. Christina Holloway. ASC Bala Cynwyd (Pa.): ASCs are finding strategic avenues of providing high-quality patient care in ways that allow patients convenience and cost-effective options for the most success- ful outcomes. Opportunities to heal at home whenever possible is a bonus in the current social climate. Kevin Curtis. AZ Heart & Vascular Clinic (Glendale, Ariz.): Every major healthcare specialty from ortho [to] cardiac to urology and GI will impact how consumers choose care and how negative the impact will be to hospitals … I mean in a very big way! David Scozzafava. Carillon Surgery Center (St. Petersburg, Fla.): We are seeing more complicated procedures moving toward the ASCs because they are more efficient and much less costly than in a hospital setting. Andrew Lovewell. e Surgical Center at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group: In 2019, 17.7 percent of the GDP was spent on healthcare. Of that spend, a large portion is attributed to surgical care. In a traditional sense, ASCs receive a smaller reimbursement for the same service that can be performed at an HOPD. However, the site of service dif- ferential is narrowing greatly. With a proposal to eliminate the inpatient-only list and allow more procedures to become available for ASCs to perform them, I foresee a bright future in the ASC space. I'd fully expect for the continuing trend of acquisitions and mergers to continue. Higher-complexity cases such as total joints, cardiac and bariatric are three service lines that I fully expect to grow exponentially in the ASC world. ASCs today provide a tremendous upside to both patients and physicians. With a low cost [and] convenient healthcare setting, the value delivered to patients is incredible. Ultimately, I believe we will continue to see a migration of cases into the ASC arena. Angela Laux. Advanced Spine Center of Wisconsin (Neenah): One word I would use to describe the ASC industry right now is "opportunity." I say this due to the fact that patients and insurance companies are increas- ingly seeing the value in ASCs related to cost savings, quality, customer satisfaction and accessibility. e addition of multiple spine codes by CMS to the allowed list also gives us the opportunity to expand our services. Alfonso Del Granado. Covenant High Plains Surgery Center (Lubbock, Texas): We're feeling bullish because, first, the same factors that were driving cases from the hospital to the ASC before COVID are still present, and second, because COVID itself served to highlight the value of ASCs as a safe alterna- tive treatment facility for nonemergency cases. Once testing kits and [personal protective equipment] became widely available, we were able to perform necessary procedures that could not be done at the hospital because of their need to reserve space for potential surges in COVID infections. We worked hand in hand with our hospital partner to ensure that patient needs were safely met without impact- ing capacity. e lessons from this crisis have been noted by many of the physicians in our community, and we have seen an increase in members and utilization rates. As their prac- tice volumes return to normal, we are seeing more and more cases coming our way. Cherilyn Smith. St. Johns Surgery Center (Fort Myers, Fla.): The ASC realm has undergone rapid changes, continuously shifting strategies as a chameleon changes colors to remain relevant in an often volatile industry. The true value of the outpatient setting is quickly being realized not only by providers, but by patients and insurance carriers as well, and management models in all forms seem to be taking notice. There continues to be a strong growth in the direction of shared and corporate owner- ship while solo physician-owned centers are sadly becoming more like the endangered species of the surgical kingdom. The latest opportunists that seem to be sinking their grip into these mergers and acquisitions are the private equity groups, who often have more cash for capital than common sense when it comes to providing good- quality patient care. It's interesting to see the transformation of patient-centered care and physician ownership as surgeons have historically broken from their hospital-only strongholds to fund their own centers and are now rejoining the shared management model, including, yet again, the hospitals. When the focus is taken off of the patient and placed on the dollar, the foundations will certainly fracture. Most surgeons, while they may relish a handsome profit, do tend to take greater heart in devoting themselves to superior post-operative outcomes and "The true value of the outpatient setting is quickly being realized not only by providers, but by patients and insurance carriers as well." Cherilyn Smith. St. Johns Surgery Center (Fort Myers, Fla.)

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