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Healthcare data in “ground level” hands can be much more of a game changer than people often realize. Gut feelings have kept individual humans alive since we were enterprising primates first stepping away from the safety of trees. Gut feelings, however, are terrible when it comes to the bigger picture. They’re too susceptible to the...

The model of hospital-centric care is giving way to specialists and ambulatory settings. The US currently has 9200 ambulatory surgery centers, surgical offices, and surgical clinics, with more breaking ground every single week. These facilities, often hospital affiliated, aren’t just ready, they’re custom built to provide surgical care to patients that do not require the full freight of a hospital, doing so with the same record on outcomes in less time at a lower cost. They also free up hospital resources by allowing for more focus on sicker patients.

Veterans of the business, practice, and policy of healthcare will all tell you the same thing. Contrary to the best efforts of the AHA, ambulatory surgery is finally being allowed to meet the needs of a population that is both growing and aging in ways that hospitals, increasingly falling into the category of acute care,...

Healthcare in the United States has been in an ongoing era of consolidation since the late 1970s with the early growth of conglomerated health systems and accelerating in the mid-1990s with the launch of the “payvider” model, where large scale payers began acquiring health systems, creating a closed loop. The trend continued in the early...

High standards for ambulatory surgery, whether in ASCs or the office, remain the linchpin to successfully resolving a constellation of systemic issues in healthcare. Rising costs, stagnant quality, declining access, and discouraged providers; moving the ball on all of the above remains a dedication to pushing the bounds of excellence in ambulatory settings. Within ASC...

After years of hesitation, payers and large health systems have come around to the astonishing clinical and financial benefits of ambulatory surgery centers. As a result, the market is exploding with repeated announcements of new facilities across the US. But in the long term, what does succeeding as an ambulatory surgery center take? What are...

Healthcare is continuing its slow, but inevitable transformation away from the traditional fee-for-service payment models to value-based care. This shift ensures providers focus on improving outcomes and the quality of care a patient receives rather than volume of cases, while also improving access to care across the board. The question is how can this reach...

Payers are actively embrace the office-based setting for surgical procedures, as demonstrated by changes in office and ASC costs. The last few years have seen increased incentives to shift procedures from hospitals or ASCs to the office. New procedures are added to the incentive list regularly, including the most recent additions of cardiovascular stents, urolifts,...

Healthcare in the US is demanding more office-based surgical practices. Let's get into how to start (or grow) one, and who can help.

Payers have started to more actively embrace the office-based setting for surgical procedures.  The last few years have seen increased incentives to shift procedures from hospitals to ASCs and the office, ramping up the need for effective ambulatory anesthesia partners. New procedures are added to the incentive list regularly, including the most recent additions of...

Today's post is part IV of our ongoing series about moving procedures out of the hospital and into ambulatory surgery center and office-based environments. In this final installment, we cover the updated payment rules and how physician reimbursement is making the dream of a sustainable, care-focused practice a reality for doctors like you.

Today's post is part III of our ongoing series about moving procedures out of the hospital and into ambulatory surgery center and office-based environments. Today, we're discussing changing patient demographics and market signals.