CMS expands social determinants of health screening to outpatient settings
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is expanding its social determinants of health (SDoH) initiatives to include outpatient settings, starting with voluntary reporting in 2025 and moving to mandatory reporting in 2026, MedLearn Publishing August 26 reports. This expansion aims to address gaps in care by…
Anesthesia workforce challenges taking center stage
Every year, OR Manager shines a light on staffing issues via the Salary/Career Survey. In this issue, two articles take a careful look at the career and profile of the perioperative leader in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Next month, two more articles will do the same with salary trends…
Unpacking the impact of private investment on innovation, ASCs
One privilege of living at this time in history is the availability of choice, especially for health and surgical needs. Those who make healthcare their business understand this as well. According to Tanna et al, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are spreading to rural areas, hospitals are creating hybrid outpatient surgery…
ASC management is a skill: A day in the administrator role
The administrator of an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) wears many hats, doing every odd job in the book to keep their free-standing center safe, compliant, and operational. But what does “wearing many hats” mean exactly? OR Manager spoke with Nyleen Flores, CPMSM, CPCS, CPCO, CASC, chief administrative officer at Lake…
The US News journey to introduce a new ‘best’ ASCs ranking
Some 800,000 knee replacements and 550,000 hip replacements are performed in the US each year. Factoring in the ever-expanding aging population, projections show the figure for knee replacements alone will explode to 3.5 million procedures being done annually by 2030—and that is just one type of procedure within a single…
HCA reports strong Q2 performance, sees decline in labor costs
Editor's Note HCA Healthcare reported nearly $1.5 billion in net income for the second quarter (Q2), exceeding expectations, Modern Healthcare July 23 reports. The Nashville-based system attributed part of this success to a significant reduction in contract labor costs, which dropped by more than 25% compared to Q2 2023. This…
CMS releases proposed Medicare payment rates for outpatient, ASC services
Editor's Note On July 10, CMS proposed Medicare payment rates for hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) services for 2025. Published annually, the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and ASC Payment System Proposed Rule will have a 60-day comment period, which this year ends September 9 prior to…
UnitedHealth has ‘quietly’ bought several outpatient surgery centers
Editor's Note UnitedHealth Group acquired dozens of outpatient facilities, particularly surgery centers, in 2023, often without public announcements, STAT March 11 reports. This builds on their network of about 90,000 physicians. Many new centers are in areas where UnitedHealth dominates the Medicare Advantage market. A major acquisition was National Cardiovascular…
Ambulatory endoscopy management strategies keep patients, finances healthy
Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is one of the most common procedures in the US. Performed more than 17.1 million times per year in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings as well as ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), GI procedures account for 68% of all endoscopies, according to a May 2022 article in Digestive…
Rural hospitals contend with challenging opportunities
Rural hospitals in the US have been facing a prolonged, multifaceted crisis. The literature presents several reasons for why healthcare facilities in rural areas struggle, including shrinking budgets, rising chronic illness and public health issues like addiction and obesity, poor telehealth and broadband access, aging populations, deteriorating mental health, and…
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- Spatial computing trial shows promise for enhancing OR efficiency, reducing strain on surgeons
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