Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1496781
8 ASC MANAGEMENT The ASC trend that defined 2022 By Patsy Newitt H igh-acuity procedures shiing to the ASC setting continued in 2022, according to VMG Health's "ASCs in 2022: A Year in Review" report released Jan. 26. According to the report, cardiology, orthopedics and higher-acuity spine procedures moved to ASCs in 2022, with orthopedics being the more common specialty served by ASCs in 2022. ese high-acuity cases give ASCs the opportunity to make more money per case, and ASC chains are taking advantage of the opportunities. By the end of the third quarter, orthopedic and spine procedures made up 20 percent of ASC chain United Surgical Partners International's volume. In an Oct. 20 earnings call, Saum Sutaria, MD, CEO of Tenet Healthcare, USPI's parent company, said the chain is doubling down on its high-acuity growth strategy. He cited growth at an ASC in Tennessee, where the center boosted revenue by 46 percent by replacing high-volume, low-acuity procedures with high-acuity orthopedic cases. UnitedHealth Group's Optum, the parent company of Deerfield, Ill.- based ASC chain SCA Health, is also looking to higher-acuity surgical procedures to lead growth, CFO John Rex said in an Oct. 14 earnings call. Smaller ASCs are also seeing the benefit as CMS adds procedures to the ASC-approved list. "As CMS allows more procedures to be performed in centers, it gives centers the option to be open for more procedures," Catherine Retzbach, BSN, RN, director of ASC operations at Marlton, N.J.- based Virtua Health, told Becker's in October. "Cardiology and spine procedures offer patients more options to have procedures be performed in a high-quality, low-cost environment." But amid skyrocketing operating costs and tightening margins, ASCs need to be strategic. Adding service lines in an unstable economy is not always the best option, and ASC leaders need to weigh the costs before committing to the investment, Ms. Retzbach said. n Physician falls to 6th on list of best healthcare jobs By Patsy Newitt P hysician dropped to the sixth-best healthcare job, with a median salary of $208,000 and 19,400 projected jobs between 2021 and 2031, according to a U.S. News & World Report list. The role was ranked fourth by U.S. News & World Report in 2022. For its analysis, U.S. News staff identified jobs with the largest number and percentage of projected openings from 2021 to 2031, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then, each career was assigned a weighted average score out of 10 based on the following component factors: median salary, unemployment rate, 10-year growth volume, 10-year growth percentage, future job prospects, stress level and work-life balance. U.S. News also released a list of the 100 best jobs for 2023. Here are the 11 healthcare jobs that made the top 25, accompanied by their rank: 2. Nurse practitioner 3. Medical and health services manager 4. Physician assistant 6. Physical therapist 10. Dentist 13. Physician 14. Orthodontist 17. Registered nurse 19. Occupational therapy assistant 24. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon 25. Nurse anesthetist n UnitedHealthcare's 2023 outpatient procedure code changes By Laura Dyrda UnitedHealthcare made changes to its outpatient procedure group mapping that went into effect Jan. 1. 1. Thirty-two outpatient procedure grouper 0-10 codes expired and were deleted from the UnitedHealthcare Outpatient Procedure Grouper Exhibit. 2. Two outpatient procedure grouper unlisted codes were also deleted after expiring at the end of last year. 3. UnitedHealthcare added 31 outpatient procedure grouper 0-10 codes for 2023 and 79 outpatient procedure grouper unlisted codes. 4. None of the other grouper levels had changes to existing codes. n