Matt Lightle serves as the director of business development of the Surgical Center at Columbia Orthopaedic Group.
Mr. Lightle will serve on the panel "Creating an Outpatient Joint Replacement Program with Stay Suites" at Becker's 19th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from June 16-18.
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Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?
Matt Lightle: With third-party payers still slow to increase reimbursement for ASCs despite the push to send more procedures to an outpatient setting, we are continuously looking to contract directly with employers in our catchment area and shore up relations with those who send workers' compensation cases our way. In the wake of that push to outpatient settings, we actively review and update our institutional policies and procedures to anticipate ASCs coming even further under the all-seeing microscope of third-party accreditation firms, increased regulation and governance.
Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?
ML: Staying relevant in today's market as online platforms like Hinge Health, Sword and others continue to gain market share will be paramount. We have to meet our patients where they are, and the marketplace is becoming increasingly more virtual. Our good reputation and exceptional patient outcomes have not yet been communicated to these platforms. So, ensuring that patients have the proper data to make the best decisions possible about their care will become progressively more meaningful.
Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?
ML: Given the coming market growth in total joint replacement and pain management procedures, we are looking to expand these service lines through recruitment and furthering our operational efficiencies within our facility.
Q: What are you most excited about right now?
ML: Changing our mindset on value-based care has me most excited. Value equals the sum of patient access, patient experience and patient outcomes all divided by cost. Therefore, increasing our value proposition is more than just decreasing costs. I think many would choose to focus on this first because it is an easy first step. The hard work comes when choosing to work on items in the numerator. Looking at our business model through this lens points us to some very obvious areas for improvement, and I believe we have already identified some easy wins.