Editor's Note Medicare patients treated in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) present with greater socioeconomic and clinical complexity than peers seen in independent physician offices, including higher prior emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient use. According to an American Hospital Association (AHA) study conducted by KNG Health Consulting and published on…

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Editor's Note A “quiet transformation” in how Medicare pays doctors could reduce payments for specialty care, including rates for billing codes associated with surgery, diagnostic imaging, outpatient care, pain management, and orthopedics, Modern Healthcare July 22 reports. According to the article, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2026…

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Editor's Note Oregon has enacted the nation’s strictest law yet to curb corporate control of physician practices, a move that could indirectly affect office-based surgery (OBS) centers structured as medical clinics. As reported by Modern Healthcare on June 13, the new law reinforces the state’s corporate practice of medicine doctrine…

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Editor's Note In addition to the uptick in acquiring outpatient facilities since 2023, UnitedHealth Group quietly acquired or created more than 250 subsidiaries last year, expanding its already vast network of services comprising a major health insurer, physician practices, a pharmacy benefit manager, and various other healthcare ventures, STAT March…

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Editor's Note Moving radiology services from hospitals to outpatient centers could slash healthcare costs by billions annually while improving patient care, according to a March 3 Radiology Business News report on a study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR). The study found that shifting just 10% of hospital-based…

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Ensuring safe, quality care requires precise alignment among inventory levels, delivery schedules, storage solutions, and every other element of the supply chain. A single missing piece of this puzzle—say, a delayed shipment or a storage issue—can disrupt the entire picture. Making the pieces fit can be difficult for any healthcare…

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Editor's Note According to medical experts, healthcare professionals in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) must be more vigilant in recognizing and managing suicidal ideation among patients, Pain Medicine News January 27 reports. With the increasing shift of surgical procedures from hospitals to ASCs, clinicians are more likely to encounter patients struggling…

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Editor's Note Healthcare construction has been seeing a shift toward outpatient facilities, with medical office buildings (MOBs) and similar structures taking center stage, Building Design + Construction November 1 reports. Citing data from different sources, including the MOB/outpatient facilities 2024 survey, American Society for Health Care Engineering, JLL’s Medical Outpatient…

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For many in the healthcare industry, imagining surgery without onsite sterile processing seems unthinkable. Then again, performing total joints in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) was unthinkable 10 years ago. ASC sterile processing departments (SPDs) are generally not designed to handle the high volumes of instrument trays, vendor trays, and…

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Editor's Note Medicare and patient out-of-pocket costs are rising as vertical integration results in more procedures moving to hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) than to ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), Becker’s ASC Review reported on August 8. The article summarizes a study published July 25 in Science Direct. Described as "physician vertical…

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