Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/381883
14 Executive Briefing: Smart Moves for ASC Physician Owners • Should you joint venture with a hospital? • Can you raise the awareness in the community, highlighting your surgery center as a lower cost alternative to other surgical venues? State: • Are payers consolidating? Are new payers coming in to the marketplace? • Are hospitals consolidating? • Is there pending legislation that will affect your ASC? Does it need your support, or your dissent? • Which state senators and legislators are ASC friendly? How can you better support them? Contact them regularly. Nationally: • Are OIG decisions putting any of your surgery center activities under poten- tial scrutiny? • How are Medicare payments chang- ing for the specialties in you center, and how will that impact your reve- nue and profit? Model the proposed changes so that you can know ahead of time, and can come up with a miti- gation plan if necessary. • What are the issues that ASCA is fighting or supporting? How can you be involved? Explore New Service Offerings and Partnerships The changing reimbursement patterns of CMS and the insurance companies open and close doors for service offerings within a surgery center. Many procedures can now be done in a surgery center that seemed impossible five years ago. Be nimble enough to add new service lines, like neuro and spine cases, and total knees, hips and shoulders. Be prepared to demonstrate cost savings to the insurance companies to negotiate better rates. Consider how a joint venture with a hospi- tal would position you in the marketplace. Analyze whether merging with other ASCs in the area would make financial sense. Always Be Recruiting One of the most important things that you can do to build a surgery center that can withstand the challenges of today's market is to always be recruiting. Case volume is eroding from most centers today as hospitals employ surgeons, part- ners retire, patients delay surgery due to higher out-of-pocket expenses, and a vari- ety of other reasons. Here are several recruiting strategies: • Maintain a list of every physician that could do in your center. Update the list as information changes. Track the following information: — Where they currently do cases — Case volume — Ownership interest in other centers — Employment status • Invite new doctors in the community to tour your facility, and invite them to become credentialed. • Hold open houses and invite primary care doctors to come tour the center. Show them how great an experience it will be for their patients to come to the center. • Open your mouth. Talk to the other doctors in the hospital waiting room, at the gym, or on the golf course. Tell them why you like your center, and invite them to come experience it for themselves. • Listen. If a doctor is complaining about how long it takes to get through his sur- gical schedule each week at his current OR, talk to him about your center. • Talk to your vendors. Ask them if they know of anyone that is looking for a change of venue, or to join a surgery center. Be Active in Local and National Surgery Center Associations and Read Industry Periodicals and Newsletters Activity in local and national associations provides networking opportunities and awareness of issues that may have an ef- fect on your ASC. Sign up for newsletters and publications from surgery center organizations. Take the time to read the articles that are per- tinent to you. Network with Other Surgeons and Surgery Center Experts at National Meetings One of the great things about our indus- try is that people are very willing to share advice and gotchas they have confronted. National meetings and industry conferenc- es, like the Becker's ASC Meetings, offer a unique opportunity to meet and dialogue with people from all over the country. The en- vironment is collaborative at these meetings. There are always presentations that are rel- evant to your individual circumstances, and most presenters at the conferences I've at- tended are more than willing to talk after the presentation to answer questions that are more specific to your individual challenges. Get to these meetings and participate. At- tend the sessions and introduce yourself to the people around you. Share your chal- lenges, and weigh in on the challenges of others. Meet the speakers and get their contact information so that you can reach out to them later if the need arises. This networking is frequently an untapped resource that can help you raise your sur- gery center to new heights. Outsource if Someone Else Does it Better, OR if You Don't Have the Time to Do it Yourself I do not have any doubt that you, as a phy- sician, can manage the surgery center on your own. I'm sure you can handle the con- tract negotiations with the multiple payers in your market. I know you can keep cur- rent on all of the compliance issues and can deal with HR problems. The question is, why do you want to do those things? Understand the value of time and money. If you can bring in a person or company that has a proven track record of success in an area of need, hire them. Utilize your time to do what is important to you. Grow your prac- tice, see more patients, spend more time with your family, go play 18 holes of golf. Repeat the Above Steps Regularly. Our industry is constantly changing. Each of these exercises must be repeated regu- larly in order for them to be effective. Conclusion Paragliders take advantage of good air to feel the thrill of flying and to remain safe. When the conditions make it tough to fly, and they start to sink out, they turn to proven principles that were taught to them in their training program. These principles help them find the good air to continue their flight. Smart ASC physician owners are con- stantly looking for ways to stay in the "good air." When they do start to sink out, they look to implement proven principles to take them back in to safety and stability. The principles discussed in this article are simple, but can have a dramatic effect on the stability and strength of a surgery cen- ter if they are implemented and revisited on a regular basis. n Today's reality demands that hospitals and health systems deliver lower cost care while maintaining focus on patient outcomes and growing market share. ASCOA helps physicians and hospitals partner together to develop surgery centers and, with 25 years of surgery center management experience in over 65 ASCs, provides invaluable benefits for physicians and hospitals alike.