At the 20th Annual Spine, Orthopedic + Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the biggest threats facing ASCs tomorrow and how to win anyway.
The session was moderated by Brian Zimmerman, Assistant Vice President, Client Content and Strategy, Becker's Healthcare.
Panelists included Andrew H. Lovewell, MHA, MSHI, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer, Columbia Orthopaedic Group; Tung M. Ha, DO, Medical Director, Cascade Outpatient Spine Center; Dutch Rojas, Senior Vice President, Sano by Nomi Health; and Kerry Harrington, RN, MSN, CASC, Director, UC Health Steadman-Hawkins Orthopedic and Spine Surgery Center.
These experts discussed strategies for ASCs to stay ahead of the curve and protect their organizations from the biggest threats looming on the horizon.
Key Takeaways:
- Payment reform for ASCs is unlikely, so they must get creative with getting paid and are seeing more self-pay patients due to lower prices than hospitals.
- Threats to ASCs include supply of neurosurgeons transitioning into employment models, staffing issues, rising cost of supplies, certificate-of-need laws, aging physician population, and competition from technology companies. Solutions include optimizing contracts and values, insourcing services, providing a better working environment, and using solutions like Nomen.
- ASCs can win in the face of challenges by increasing volume and contracts, creating the best patient care environment and outcomes, measuring and documenting outcomes, marketing advantages, focusing on supporting mission procedures, reducing clinical variation, renegotiating contracts, and proving outcomes.
- Partnerships can provide capital, technology, resources, and expertise that ASCs may not have access to on their own and can help create better patient experiences and more transparency around pricing and outcomes. ASCs can benefit from partnering with vendors and other entities to help with marketing, contracting negotiation, HR, and sterile processing.