Cardiology procedures are increasingly moving to the outpatient setting, but state certificate-of-need laws could be preventing cardiologists from opening ASCs.
Krishna Jain, MD, is the CEO of National Surgical Ventures and Limb Preservation Centers of America. He joined "Becker's Ambulatory Surgery Centers Podcast" to talk about the movement of heart procedures to the outpatient setting.
This is an excerpt. Download the full episode here.
Question: How do you see cardiology evolving in the outpatient space within the next five years?
Dr. Krishna Jain: The momentum of cardiologists moving to ASCs is building, but one of the things that holds people back — which most of the states in this country have — is the need for a certificate of need. That is at the state level, not at the federal level. And because of powerful hospital systems and payers lobbyists, the certificate-of-need system will not go away, even though it needs to.
That's the only way you can open more ASCs and provide better care to the patients at a much more reasonable price. Some of the states where a certificate of need is not required, such as Texas, have more ASCs compared to some of the states where the CON is required, such as New York or Michigan, where growth of these ASCs is much more restricted. However, cardiologists do not need a CON when they're working in the office space level. Because of this, we've seen many more office-based labs opening around the country than ASCs.