While many states bounced back from pandemic-related unemployment claims, some ASCs are still struggling with patients unable to afford surgeries in their centers.
Four ASC leaders spoke with Becker's ASC Review on how unemployed patients, or patients unable to afford time off, are affecting their caseload.
"Unemployment often means losing health insurance or only offers catastrophic health insurance with ultra-high deductibles," Kristie Sudderth, the administrator of Spokane, Wash.-based Columbia Surgery Center, said. "Our county has a very high unemployment rate, and elective surgery cases are down about 30 percent."
Other centers have experienced unemployment-related high deductibles affecting their caseloads.
"Many patients I see in the office want to wait on surgery because they are unemployed and don't have the deductible," said Jack Jensen, MD, the medical director of Houston-based Athletic Orthopedics and Knee Center. "Also, some employed patients don't want to take off for surgery because they might get laid off or fired if they are gone from work."
Dr. Jensen's center isn't the only center with patients worried about taking time off from work.
Celia Smith, BSN, RN, is the administrator at Houston Premier Surgery Center in The Villages. She is seeing patients who are employed having trouble securing time off or the appropriate funds needed to recover.
"Many patients have been off work for an extended period during the height of COVID-19," she said. "They don't have enough paid-time-off or funds to cover being off to recover for surgery."
Despite these setbacks, some are hopeful that this disparity will wear off once people are able to return to work. Catherine Retzbach, the administrator for Memorial Ambulatory Surgery Center in Mount Holly, N.J., has seen patients unable to pay, but is optimistic about the future.
"Unemployment has affected volume because of lack of health insurance. Patients cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket for surgery," she said. "I think when people are able to return to work and return to having health insurance, we will see an increase in surgery."