Outpatient surgery centers have never been more desirable than they are now. With a growing movement toward value-based care, several factors are pushing care to the outpatient arena.
At Becker’s 16th Annual Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 14 to 16 in Chicago, HealthCare Appraisers Director Luis Argueso and Partner Nicholas Janiga shared their thoughts on how surgery centers can capitalize on current marketplace trends.
Mr. Argueso said payers are some of the biggest players in healthcare today.
He said, "The way businesses have to operate and the way physicians have to practice medicine is really changing and being driven by a lot of strong and aggressive moves on the part of the government and private payers. … Insurance companies are really pushing a shift of patients receiving care from inpatient settings to outpatient settings. It's great news for everyone in here, but what's not-so-great news is the extent [to which] payers will influence the way healthcare entities practice medicine and structure their businesses."
Citing Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealthcare's recent decision to end its contract with Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare, Mr. Argueso said, "If [payers aren't] satisfied with how providers are billing for services, they will very aggressively push them in the direction they feel is appropriate.
Mr. Janiga examined the role private equity plays in healthcare. "There has been a lot of PE activity, historically, in healthcare that has really ramped up in the last two years," he said. "There's a lot of money that needs to be placed. Although returns haven't been there for some of the PE groups, everybody is looking for better–than-market returns, and the economy is doing very well right now."
Mr. Janiga touched on another driving market force: consumers. He said, "You're going to have more consumer-driven healthcare, and you're going to have savvy consumers really digging in, trying to understand prices and really wanting price transparency."