Special coding considerations apply
BY CRISTINA BENTIN | MAY 2017
With prescription opioid addiction surpassing epidemic proportions, any effective non-opioid pain management tool that might prevent further opioid misuse is certainly one to be embraced. According to a 2017 study by the National Safety Council, in the US, the odds of death by an opioid overdose (1:96) is more likely than death by a motor vehicle accident (1:103).
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Learn how to implement the revised reporting requirements
BY GINA THRONEBERRY | JUNE-JULY 2018
In 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a proposed rule to improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses through the electronic collection of establishment-specific injury and illness data. After receiving comments on the proposal, OSHA issued the final rule that became effective January 1, 2017 (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 29 CFR Part 1904).
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July to December 2018
BY ALEX TAIRA | APRIL 2019
Since ASCA’s last update in July 2018, health care organizations across the country posted 163 breaches of protected health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more individuals.
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Careful planning, patient selection and billing are key
BY NADER SAMII | MAY 2019
“You have to change your thinking if you desire to have a future different from your present.”
—Germany Kent, print and television journalist, author, actor
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Risks that are uninsurable or prohibitively expensive to insure might call for alternative risk transfer
BY BENJAMIN S. TERNER | SEPTEMBER 2016
In an ever-changing world, it is no secret that risks associated with ASCs also are evolving. Trends in medical risk transfer, however, are generally not related to ordinary risks but rather nontraditional—low frequency/high severity—risks. If these risks occur, they have the ability to bring a practice to a screeching halt. Examples of such risks include: loss or suspension of professional license, legislative and regulatory changes, cyber risk (breach of customer data and detrimental code) and related Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) violations.
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Congress passes site-neutral payment legislation
BY KRISTIN MURPHY | JUNE-JULY 2016
On November 2, 2015, congressional leaders and the Obama administration announced a bipartisan budget agreement that would fund the federal government for two years, raise the nation’s debt ceiling and stave off Medicare premium increases for beneficiaries. The final legislation, called the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, responded to a number approaching fiscal deadlines and leadership changes in the House that could have impacted the ability to strike such a deal.
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The role of ASCs and EHRs
BY MAURA DENT CASH, RN, CASC | FEBRUARY 2019
Emergency rooms (ER)—where a 2016 New York Times report says up to 75 percent of visits are for pain—can be a starting point for addiction. Many patients’ initial exposure to opioids, however, is immediately following outpatient surgery.
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Your employees are the most important tool to success
BY JHO OUTLAW | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017
We all know every penny counts, but the rapidly changing rules surrounding ASC reimbursement can make revenue cycle management difficult. We can be ready for whatever changes come our way if we have the right tools, anticipate and adapt. When we think “tools,” we generally think software, hardware and medical equipment, but the most important tool for an ASC’s success is something else that is sometimes forgotten. More on that later. Below are a few tips to manage your revenue cycle successfully.
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ASCA continues to advocate for expanded coverage
BY KARA NEWBURY | MAY 2019
While advances in medical technology and changes in Medicare payment policy over the past four decades have expanded the list of procedures for which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburse ASCs, Medicare policies have not kept pace with innovation.
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To bring the change that will help your ASC
BY DANIELLE KASTER | MAY 2019
What is advocacy? Does it even matter?
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