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August 4, 2015
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Headlines
ASCA Highlights
Industry News
ASCA Highlights
Register for ASCA's Fall Seminar in October
Support clinical and operational excellence in your ASC by attending ASCA’s 2015 Fall Seminar, October 8–10, in Louisville, Kentucky. Friday’s concurrent sessions will cover finance and accounting, physician credentialing, ICD-10, pharmacy management, QAPI, staff evaluations and new employee orientation. Thursday and Saturday’s breakout sessions will cover quality reporting, human resources, the Life Safety Code and an AAMI update. The CASC exam will be offered on Saturday, October 10. MORE
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Collect more from patients and payers.
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Learn what quality reporting CMS requires and get key definitions and answers to frequently asked questions about the measures your ASC needs to report during ASCA's upcoming webinar on Tuesday, August 18, at 1:00 pm ET. Topics will include a quality reporting program update, the history of quality measure development and ways to collect and report the data for the required quality measures. MORE
ASCA is conducting a brief survey to determine which procedures should be added to the list of ASC payable procedures for 2016. This information will help ASCA advocate for the expansion of the list of procedures that CMS considers clinically appropriate for ASCs to provide to Medicare beneficiaries. MORE
The ASCA Capitol Fly-In, September 29-30, is less than two months away. This important event brings together ASC industry leaders, trains them on how to best advocate for ASCs, and then sends them to Capitol Hill to ask their members of Congress to support legislation that would benefit ASCs nationwide. It is one of the most effective ways to ensure that ASCs remain a viable healthcare option. Register today. MORE
On May 10, 2015, the ASC community lost Nap Gary, immediate past president of ASCA's Board of Directors and the ASCA Foundation, and the chief operating officer at Regent Surgical Health. Tom Mallon, cofounder and chief executive officer of Regent, shares thoughts about Nap and the legacy he leaves behind. MORE
As ICD-10 implementation draws near, ASC billing departments are advised to perform a deep dive into their knowledge of ICD-10 claims reporting. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Medicare Learning Network SE1408 (Revised) offers details for all providers billing claims that span the ICD-10 implementation date of October 1, 2015. Go to ASCA’s ICD-10 Resource Center to access that information
CMS has developed a new webpage that provides multiple Status Listing Lookup Tools. On this site, an ASC can look up its CCN (needed to report ASC-8), check to see if it has completed the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) enrollment and submission of data for ASC-8, and more. MORE
Industry News
2014-2024 Projections of National Health Expenditures Data Released
CMS Press Release (07/28/15)
Total health care spending growth is expected to average 5.8 percent in aggregate over 2014-2024, according to a report published today in Health Affairs authored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Office of the Actuary (OACT). The authors noted that this rate of growth is still substantially lower than the 9 percent average rate seen in the three decades before 2008.
Colorectal Cancer Patients Diagnosed During Screening Colonoscopy Survive Longer
News-Medical.net (07/14/2015)
Patients whose colorectal cancer (CRC) is detected during a screening colonoscopy are likely to survive longer than those who wait until they have symptoms before having the test, according to a study in the July issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). The study, "Survival in patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed by screening colonoscopy," looked at 312 patients in 10 gastroenterology practices in Germany, all aged 55 or older, who were diagnosed with CRC in 2003-2005.
Bigger May Be Better for Health Insurers, But Doubts Remain for Consumers
New York Times (08/03/15) Abelson, Reed
Deals among the nation's largest health insurers in recent weeks have been almost head-spinning. But whatever the details, if the combinations are finalized, the result will be an industry dominated by three colossal insurers.
GI Societies Fight CMS on Colonoscopy Pay Cuts
American Gastroenterological Association (07/30/15)
During a July 21 meeting with officials at CMS, leaders from AGA, ACG and ASGE argued that proposed colonoscopy reimbursement cuts were made on flawed data. The agency showed interest in taking another look at the data, and we are pushing for a meeting in late August.
Citing Hacking Risk, FDA Says Hospira Pump Shouldn't Be Used
Associated Press (08/03/15)
The federal government says health care facilities should stop using Hospira's Symbiq medication infusion pump because of its vulnerability to hacking. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it's the first time it has warned caregivers to stop using a product because of a cybersecurity risk.
EKGs, X-rays and Heart Procedures--the Role of Non-Physicians Grows
USA Today (07/27/15) Ungar, Laura; Hoyer, Meghan
Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are a fast-growing part of the medical marketplace, getting paid more often for procedures people generally associate with doctors, such as electrocardiograms, pelvic exams and even helping with heart bypasses, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. Medicare billing records show 15 percent more nurse practitioners and 11 percent more physician assistants received payments in 2013 than in 2012 for all types of care.
Cutting Junior Doctors' Hours May Not Lower Risk of Surgical Deaths
Reuters (07/30/15) Rapaport, Lisa
Restrictions on U.S. medical residents' hours implemented in 2011 don't appear to have significantly lowered the risk of death or serious injury from surgery, a recent study suggests. Researchers compared data on surgical outcomes one year before the duty hour reforms and two years afterwards for five specialties: neurosurgery, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics, urology and vascular surgery.
Certificate of Need Law: Reforms Would Lower Health Costs Through Competition
Raleigh News & Observer (NC) (07/21/15) Bruch, Richard
One important element of the budget recently passed by the N.C. Senate would lower health care costs by reforming North Carolina's Certificate of Need law and increasing the number of same-day surgery centers across the state. Currently, North Carolina has one of the most restrictive CON laws in the nation.
Harvard Professor Has a Big Idea for the Future of Health Care Shopping
Boston Business Journal (07/19/15) Bartlett, Jessica
A Harvard professor is looking to create a health care price shopping and rating tool that could help people better shop for health care services and insurance. In a patent application published in early June, Regina Herzlinger, a noted business administration professor at Harvard Business School, filed the latest details behind her vision for a health care website, that would offer a marked departure in how consumers currently shop for health care.
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