A Q&A with Bill Prentice
OCTOBER 2018
On July 25, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2019 proposed payment rule for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments (HOPD). ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice talks about the policy changes proposed and the implications of those changes for ASCs.
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Barriers to moving complex procedures from HOPDs to your ASC
BY CRISTINA BENTIN | APRIL 2021
CY 2021 brought policy and reimbursement changes that would seem to position ASCs favorably for an obvious migration of cases from the hospital outpatient department (HOPD) to the ASC.
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Use correct modifiers
BY STEPHANIE ELLIS, RN | APRIL 2021
In the coding world, modifiers are two-digit symbols added to CPT procedure codes to signify the procedure has been altered in some way.
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Protocols, respirator tests and documentation required
BY LISA BERUS | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2020
Surgery centers never had to have a full respiratory protection program before now, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent use of respirators, they might soon have to write and implement one.
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July to December 2018
BY ALEX TAIRA | APRIL 2019
Since ASCA’s last update in July 2018, healthcare organizations across the country posted 163 breaches of protected health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more individuals.
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Review state laws and AHRQ materials before creating your policy
BY NESKO RADOVIC AND SANDRA JONES, CASC | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019
In rare situations, the duration of the informed consent could present an issue. Some state laws presume that a written authorization signed by the patient is valid. Some states might specify the time frame in which consent remains valid; others require that consent be obtained no more than 30 days from the procedure. Therefore, checking state regulations is essential.
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Foster relationships by eliminating the guesswork
BY ROBIN NTOH | OCTOBER 2019
Relying on word-of-mouth to cultivate awareness is not enough to establish and build reputation among potential patients in today’s competitive healthcare marketplace. Patients are using various means to shop for and select their care providers, and it is helpful to have a marketing program that connects with people as they consider options.
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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 US House that could have impacted the ability to strike such a deal.
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New systems benefit patients and staff
BY RICHARD W. SCHULE | JUNE-JULY 2019
Joseph Juran, a leading expert in the quality industry and author of Juran’s Quality Handbook—The Complete Guide to Performance Excellence, defines “quality management” as all activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities and implement them by such means as quality planning, quality control and quality improvement within the quality system.
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