Raghu Reddy, chief administrative officer of Cumberland-based SurgCenter of Western Maryland, joined Becker's to discuss the healthcare trends he's eyeing.
Question: What healthcare trends are concerning you right now?
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for brevity and clarity
Raghu Reddy: I'm concerned regarding the increasing costs of doing business, and the reimbursement is not in line to accommodate these costs. CMS will have to address the payment parity between ASCs and hospital outpatient departments.
There will have to be legislative action at the state and federal levels to ensure that ASCs thrive to reduce healthcare costs nationwide. ASCs are a mature market segment; this inequity between the rising costs and shrinking reimbursement may position the ASCs to fail or operate at unsustainable margins. On top of this, staffing shortages and increasing anesthesia subsidies are demoralizing the hard-working ASC physician investors, who invest a great deal of time creating efficiencies and providing the best possible outcomes at a much lower cost than the HOPDs. While the ASC market is poised for growth, the elephant in the room should be addressed relatively quickly.