Becker's ASC Review

14 ASC Turnarounds: Ideas to Improve Performance Employers are not only encouraging but providing their employees with financial incentives to go to lower-cost facilities. As the Los Angeles Times reports, companies like Wal-Mart and Kroger Co. are waiving deductibles, giving substantial bonuses and covering travel and even procedure costs for patients that go to cheaper providers. So if your efforts to lower the cost incurred by patients brings you more cases, the decline in what you earn per case should be offset; your ASC will be rewarded with more cases at a slightly lower rate, which may be better than fewer cases at a slightly higher rate. 3. Provide quality transparency. It's not just enough to know and be able to say your ASC provides high-quality care — patient-consumers need to see the proof to back it up. If you're accredited, this should be prominently displayed on your website, with an explanation of what accreditation means and what it says about the quality of the care you provide. Patient satisfaction ratings and testimonials, outcomes data and your performance on quality measures should also appear on your website and in marketing materials. Transparency in quality and cost isn't just important to patient-consumers and employers. Payors are placing a greater emphasis on it as well, and are contracting for services to help their members make educated health decisions based around these components. For example, in late January, insurer Harvard Pilgrim Health Care contracted with Castlight Health to provide 600,000 Harvard Pilgrim plan participants access to insight into cost and quality information for providers and common procedures. Castlight Health is a company built around providing information about healthcare price and quality. 4. Develop and promote travel program. When a patient-consumer from outside your area comes to you for care, they're not just coming to your facility — they're coming to your city, its airport or train station, a nearby hotel and local restaurants. Planning some of these experiences may add stress while others may make traveling for surgery more appealing. If your ASC develops a travel program, it can help with both. Travel programs are designed to assist patients in making the necessary plans to get to your area, ensure they have the means to get to and from your facility for their care and make the time they spend before and after their procedure as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. Travel programs may provide recommendations and discounts on hotels, car rental agencies and restaurants, as well as information on tourist attractions and events taking place during a patient's visit. The members of your facility assigned to the travel program should help address any questions from a patient about their visit and help to make the necessary arrangements and reservations. Facilities may cover some of the costs of a patient's visit to further entice them to select them as their setting for care. If your ASC develops a travel program, you should provide this information on your website and in marketing materials. Just the appearance of your travel program may provide a patient-consumer with greater confidence in your facility's ability to help take care of them, not only in the OR but during their entire visit to your area. 5. Partner with surgery benefit management programs. There are a number of companies designed to help patient-consumers, employers and payors with shopping for providers. These companies, sometimes referred to as surgery benefit management programs, assemble a network of preferred facilities, usually based upon a detailed set of criteria. One such company — Bridge Health Medical — has criteria that includes accreditation by a national agency and demonstration of outcomes and satisfaction scores in the top 25 percent of facilities in the country. If your ASC meets the criteria of a surgery benefit management program and becomes a part of its network, this may further enhance the likelihood of your becoming a destination setting for new patients. n 10 Top Ambulatory Care Procedures & Unexpected Denial Rates By Laura Miller  H ere are the top 10 procedures performed at ambulatory care facilities by total billed amounts from Nov. 15, 2012 to Feb. 11, 2013, and the denial rates for each procedure based on data collected by RemitDATA, an independent source of comparative analytics for reimbursement, utilization and productivity data. The database houses 25 percent of all national outpatient remits. 1. Proton treatment simple with comp.: 10 percent 2. Proton treatment intermediate: 10 percent 3. Cataract Surgery With IOL 1 Stage: 7 percent 4. Upper GI/Endoscopy Biopsy: 8 percent 5. Provide INR Test Materials/Equipment: 10 percent 6. Stereoscopic X-Ray Guidance: 6 percent 7. Office/Outpatient Visit, Est. (CPT 99214): 9 percent 8. Office/Outpatient Visit, Est. (CT 99213): 7 percent 9. Radiation Tx Delivery Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy: 14 percent 10. Colonoscopy and Biopsy: 9 percent n Interested in Reaching Every ASC in the Country? Becker's ASC Review circulates to every surgery center in the United States. Call (800) 417-2035 to discuss 2013 advertising opportunities and partnerships

• Cover