Editorials & Publications

If your ASC can pay its bills on time, make regular distributions to its owners, and afford the occasional capital investment that helps drive growth, congratulations! Many ASCs struggle to accomplish one or more of these indicators of ...

If you have worked in an ASC over the past several years, one trend that has been hard to miss is the shift of financial responsibility from payers to patients. Depending upon the procedure, patients may now be expected to cover hundreds to ...

As we approach the end of the year, ASCs should already be working on their budget for 2019 or at least planning to begin soon. A good starting point when designing a budget is to evaluate the current year's budget. Determine where ...

For the last several years, ASCs — like nearly all healthcare providers — have witnessed firsthand a growing shift in the responsibility for payment of services from payers to consumers. This has created numerous obstacles for ...

Looking to give your ASC's bottom line a jolt? An evaluation of any of your center's revenue cycle functions could provide valuable insight into opportunities to make positive changes. Acting upon deficiencies will help achieve ...

It's never been easy to be a surgical patient. First, there's the anxiety related to undergoing a procedure. Even for routine, outpatient surgical care, there are always safety risks. Then, there are all the other stressful — ...

Denials and poor follow-up processes. Charge entry errors. Accounts receivable (A/R) days well above industry standards. High self-pay balances. Failure to negotiate or load payor contracts. Incomplete operative notes. What do these issues ...

Patient financial responsibility has surged in recent years. As a recent TransUnion Healthcare analysis notes, patients in 2017 were responsible for 12.2% of their total healthcare bill in the first quarter of 2017. This compares with just ...

A coding audit is critical to helping ensure ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) receive appropriate payment for services provided to patients. This process, which is a review of codes submitted to payers and the comparison of those codes ...

It wasn't long ago when patient collections were viewed as a minor concern in ASCs. After all, reimbursement was strong, and what patients owed for their care was relatively low. No one wanted to leave a $50 co-pay and $250 deductible ...