The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will delay implementation of the new quality reporting measure ASC-11, Cataracts: Improvement in Patient’s Visual Function within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery, until January 1, 2015. CMS intends to issue proposals regarding data collection for this measure in the upcoming 2015 proposed…

Less than 2 years after the New England Baptist Outpatient Care Center was imagined, its doors opened in September 2013. The sparkling new ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in the Boston suburb of Dedham, Massachusetts, isn’t far from the country’s oldest timber-framed house, the Fairbanks House, built in 1637—long before building…

With fewer new ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) forming each year and more merging back into hospitals, it has become popular to describe the industry as “mature.” It’s not yet time for an obituary, however. Improved technology, bolstered by healthcare reform, is driving a transition to outpatient treatment, and, when it…

The primary function of an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is simple and easily described: to perform surgery for which patients can be discharged within 24 hours, to do this efficiently, safely, and cost effectively, and to collect adequate, timely payment. The path to achieving these results is not so simple.…

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is affecting every part of the healthcare system, including ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). Whether it will help or hinder ASCs, however, will depend on how adept they are at managing changes in the way they are paid and how they interact with…

Innovations in surgical techniques, anesthesia, and equipment, along with the drive to decrease healthcare costs, are increasing the number of patients and procedures deemed suitable for outpatient surgery. Among the elective procedures now being performed at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are total joint replacements. The buzz at recent conferences has…

Nearly a month past the statutory November 1, 2013 deadline, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final 2014 hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment rule, CMS-1601-FC. CMS published the rule in the December 10, 2013 Federal Register. The deadline for comments is January 27,…

Group purchasing has long been a tradition for hospitals. Now ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are beginning to adopt the practice, and the reason is simple: Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are noticing their needs and recruiting them as members. “We are evolving services,” explains Randy Piper, vice president of nonacute contracting…

Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider the next round of quality measures contained in the Calendar Year 2014 Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Proposed Rule and to revisit the payment update formula.   Quality Collaboration: Revise measures In a memorandum to…

A new publication by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) zeros in on the role of outpatient care facilities in responding to disasters—specifically, how they can prevent infection in their patients, staff, and the community at large. The guide, “Infection Prevention for Ambulatory Care Centers During…