Becker's ASC Review

ASC Turnarounds: Ideas to Improve Performance 19 • Want competitive bids? • Want the best price and terms? • Want to partner with a hospital? • Which of the 30 ASC companies is best for you? • Want to sell your ASC real estate? Want to sell your ASC or endoscopy center? ASC Sales Purchases Mergers Acquisitions Valuations Joint Ventures Partnering Consulting Jon Vick, President of ASCs Inc., has facilitated over 250 ASC partnership transactions. He specializes in ASC sales, strategic partnering, and ASC/MOB real estate sales. To find out how we can facilitate the sale of your ASC, contact Jon Vick at JonVick@ASCs-Inc.com or 760-751-0250 Get more information about how ASCs Inc. can find you the best deal, visit www.ASCs-Inc.com today! "One of the most important things about data ana- lytics is that your data is only going to be as good as what is captured in the system," says Kalin Mieras, director of financial planning and analysis at Nuet- erra. "If data is not captured correctly, or not cap- tured at all, the data output will be meaningless." There are numerous major software vendors that deal in business intelligence and analytics tools, including companies like IBM, who Nuet- erra partnered with to create its own cloud-based business intelligence platform called Nueterra In- sight. The company aggregates data from its entire network of facilities for benchmarking. The large data set allows owners and operators to see trends and determine opportunities and shortcomings. "The size of an ASC directly impacts that facility's data collection process," says Mr. Hassan. "The larger the ASC, the more data they'll need to ex- tract, so it will take more time to scrub and process the data for user reporting and dashboard use." Beyond internal improvement, ASCs can use data collection to increase profitability. "Facili- ties should be examining their data to make sure payers are paying according to their existing con- tracts," says Ms. Mieras. "Also, facilities should monitor their own out-of-network payments and look for trends that could be financially detri- mental to the center." Materials management could benefit from addi- tional data collection as well: • Supply cost per case • Supply costs per physician • Just-in-time supply and shipping costs • Freight costs • Unused medical supply disposal "A facility can use [supply cost] data not only to see if they are making money on a specific case, but they can use data to compare supply costs by physicians on similar cases," says Ms. Mieras. "Ex- amining the data the facility collects can also help identify which supplies are highly utilized. This will add some focus in knowing which supplies warrant a hunt for better pricing." Despite how valuable data collection is, many ASCs experience roadblocks. There are costs and resource utilization associated with data collec- tion and analytics reports. Centers must upgrade hardware and software, hire IT personnel and host coaching and training for system implemen- tation. "I don't believe it will get easier in the future, thanks in part to the fact that the government is requiring all healthcare facilities to implement ICD-10, which requires facilities to have a newer model of data servers, along with its hardware and software prior to ICD-10's implementation. In the meantime, just the logistics and cost of get- ting a data analytics system in place are the great- est obstacles." But trends in healthcare are leaving ASCs few op- tions to avoid the big-data boom. Patients with high deductibles are shopping around for their care and self-funded employers want to ensure their employees are getting the best deal possible. Data analytics can help ASC owners and opera- tors understand their business and make better decisions for their patients and themselves — and prove to patients they're the real deal. "Based on the current data analytics trend, we can tell that more and more ASCs will be using and benefiting from various data analytics tools in the near future, and this will be very important because the results yielded from data mining and analysis — the resulting business intelligence — will have a lot to do with how healthcare consum- ers shop all of healthcare," says Mr. Hassan. "With the shift in insurance and healthcare overall, con- sumers are going to be paying for more of their treatment and shopping for the best values and quality. Data analytics and business intelligence will factor into how they do that." n

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