Alfonso del Granado, administrator and CEO of Lubbock, Texas-based Covenant High Plains Surgery Centers, joined Becker's to discuss what's making him nervous in the healthcare industry currently.
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: What in the healthcare industry is making you nervous right now? Why?
Alfonso del Granado: What’s making me nervous in the healthcare industry right now is Medicare's continuing refusal to operate in a transparent manner regarding the methodology it uses to move cases to the ASC covered procedures list as well as its rationale for the 255 codes that it took back last year and did not bring back this year. As healthcare costs continue to escalate, it is disheartening to see this lack of accountability in an agency that manages nearly a trillion healthcare dollars and seems unwilling to find cost-effective solutions to deliver great care to its population.
Question: What in the healthcare industry is making you hopeful right now? Why?
AG: What makes me hopeful this year is what appears to be a slow but steady normalization in the healthcare labor market, so that we may be able to afford to continue providing quality care at reasonable rates to our patients despite Washington D.C.’s reticenc