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43 Key Specialties BECKER'S ASC REVIEW 2015 ANNUAL MEETING MedAssets is proud to support Becker's Healthcare and its important mission. Strengthening Spine in the ASC Industry — Dr. Richard Wohns' Insight By Megan Wood S pine in ASCs continues to grow with the January 2015 addition of nine spine codes to the ASC-payable list. Bolstering spine offerings in outpatient surgery centers could re- sult in profitable businesses. Quality of spine More is riding on spine operations in ASCs than in hospitals. According to Richard N. Wohns, MD, JD, MBA, of NeoSpine in Washington, any problem arising during a spine surgery in the out- patient setting would be disastrous. "ere's no room for error in the outpatient environ- ment," says Dr. Wohns. "You have to have the perfect surgery, everything leading up to it and aer it." In an ASC, the bar is set higher, requiring an ex- perienced surgeon to enter the operating room. Without the cushion of additional hospital staff and equipment, ASC physicians must perform flawlessly. Experienced surgeons are necessary to handle the volume at NeoSpine for example, where specialists perform about 300 to 350 sur- geries annually. NeoSpine's outpatient spine surgery offerings include anterior cervical fusions, artificial disc surgery, posterior cervical nerve root decompres- sion, lumbar microdiscectomy, lumbar laminofo- raminotomy, lumbar laminectomy and minimally invasive fusions and decompressions. With disposables for spine costing $500 and im- plants costing about $5,000, outpatient surgery centers should focus on craing strong contracts. Obstacles posed Currently, some payers prove to be spine's great- est roadblock in ASCs. Solidifying contracts with payers to include more complex spine procedures is sometimes an arduous process. Dr. Wohns finds the system baffling because performing surgeries in ASCs instead of hospitals will save insurance companies money. "Some payers are willing to spend four times as much in the hospital for the same procedure," says Dr. Wohns. "at's one of the biggest frustrations." Instead of working with ASCs to add value to out- comes and cost of patient care, some payers take as long as a couple years negotiating prices and implants before clearing a new procedure and writing codes into contracts. Dr. Richard Wohns