Almost every other industry has price transparency, and it is time for healthcare to catch up, said Stephen Blake, JD, CEO of Arlington, Texas-based Central Park ENT & Surgery Center.
"We need to bend the cost curve. Price transparency should be our culture. Every other industry has the capability. We shouldn't be the only industry that doesn't," Mr. Blake said during a panel discussion at the Becker's ASC 25th Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs Oct. 18 in Chicago.
Two other experts — Amit Patel, MD, interventional pain physician at metro-Atlanta-based Georgia Pain & Wellness Center and Craig Moriarty, vice president of business development and corporate strategy for clinical productivity software developer Provation — joined Mr. Blake on the panel for a discussion about the key issues facing ASCs. The panel experts also offered solutions.
Beyond the key issue of a lack of price transparency, here's what the experts had to say:
1. Consolidation. Mr. Blake, whose organization remains independent, said "consolidation has presented some threats. On the negative side it makes it tougher to recruit new physicians because alliances are forming. We are also seeing narrow, exclusive networks forming, which has presented some issues for us as independent."
The ASC market is getting more complex as more stakeholders enter the market because they see its potential, explained Mr. Moriarty. "We are seeing more hospital, ASC joint ventures and more deals with management companies … which is changing the market dynamics, but it may also present opportunities as ASCs may have more resources available to them," he said.
2. Reimbursement rates. Historically, ASC reimbursements have lagged well behind hospitals and hospital outpatient departments. However, ASCs can remain competitive in this environment for several reasons.
The first is the push to consumerism, which can favor ASCs if they invest in price transparency, Mr. Blake said. ASCs often have a lower procedural cost, which could be beneficial for ASCs if consumers shop around for care.
Dr. Patel added that ASCs can remain competitive because they can provide more efficiency.
"In HOPDs, it often takes forever to get an appointment, the preop time is long. For us, a lot of times the same procedure takes less time … so from an efficiency standpoint, patients are in and out faster. At ASCs we deliver lower cost, higher quality," Dr. Patel said.
3. Proper data collection to inform decisions. It has been difficult to capture utilization, capacity and generate other reports from data to inform efficiency decisions in ASCs. This is especially true because many ASCs are new to EMR systems as they weren't pushed as hard as hospitals were with incentives to implement them. However, there are vendors out there with solutions, Mr. Moriarty said.
"Certain technologies are creating solutions economical for ASCs… one of the most important things these solutions can do is drive better data collection, so ASCs can better inform decisions to reach peak-productivity," Mr. Moriarty said.
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