Robert S. Bray, Jr., MD, is a neurological spine surgeon and founder of Newport Beach, Calif.-based DISC Sports & Spine Center.
Dr. Bray will serve on the panels "How to Make Bundled Payments, Risk-Based Pay a Win in Orthopedics" and "The Next 5 Years of Spine and ASCs" 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.
To learn more and register, click here.
Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?
Dr. Robert S. Bray, Jr.: Well, I still practice. The focus in our ASC outpatient structure has been developing practices for the physicians, and we very much believe that the future is in our new young partners coming through. They're very bright. They have many creative solutions to bring to the table, but getting them all on the same page is difficult. The facility in Newport Beach performs over a thousand cases this year, and that's exciting for a small office-based structure that just started up. So it's an exhilarating time with a lot of growth, but it takes up a lot of time.
Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?
RB: The biggest challenge in developing this outpatient business structure has been developing the relationship with the payers. We've been developing an excellent relationship with the payers across the board and becoming team members on how to structure ASC contracts for spine procedures, creating a global billing event-of-care structure. But working with them has been a challenge getting in.
Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?
RB: The investment and growth will be a strategic expansion, aligning the incentive with the insurance companies and getting regional contracts. We're expanding our contracting ability over the next three or four months into every major insurer. The goal will be to go outside of our market here.
Q: What are you most excited about right now?
RB: The most exciting thing is our new partnership with Chicago Pacific Founders to expand on DISC's work. They're bringing their business expertise in healthcare and their relationships with the payers. The financial plan to make it go forward is a successful venture. We're fortunate to have hired a new CEO to lead the parent company, Trias Holdings, Jim Becker. Jim brings over 35 years of business leadership experience.
Also, we'll spend a lot of time building our analytic services, which support our goals and our triple aim, including bettering quality outcomes, improving patient satisfaction, and improving cost. Our AI analytic tool shows up to a 50 percent reduction in the cost of the event care yet shows a higher-quality outcome and fewer complications, so improving care and containing costs are all in the same plan. We want to continue to provide our enhanced work for the physicians as they come in and join DISC. And beyond that, we're looking to continue expanding our centers. Our second ASC is under construction and we're looking to have five to six centers operational in Southern California and then going out regionally past that. But we're looking at five to six centers open in the next couple of years.