As outpatient care continues to shift toward ASCs, leaders must rethink how to deliver financially sustainable, patient-centered care.
Joe Peluso, administrator at Aestique Surgical Center in Greensburg, Pa., joined Becker’s to discuss how ASCs can navigate financial headwinds, while leveraging high-margin specialties.
Joe Peluso: As healthcare delivery models continue to evolve to outpatient ASCs, so too must the systems and processes that support efficient scheduling procedures, operational and financial performance, and sustainability. Providing the right type of outpatient care at the right time, at the right place and ensuring providers are prepared and equipped to meet patient needs.
Financial stressors in this transformation to ASCs include lower reimbursements (vs. hospital outpatient departments), inflation and rising overhead costs that impact ASCs who remain dedicated to creating an environment where both physicians and patients thrive. ASCs need to promote a future where outcomes depend on the strength of leaders committed to principles which include wisdom, agility, focus and cooperation that can align and engage people to bring success to physicians, the care team and patients in a high-quality financially sustainable healthcare system.
Revenue potential is a key factor to consider when prioritizing specialty procedure block time scheduling in an ASC. Some specialties, through their sheer volume of cases, accomplish steady margins, while others that offer higher per case returns require more investment in equipment and supplies. ASCs need to evaluate revenue per case and overall contribution margin by specialty.
From a revenue per case perspective, established specialties (ophthalmology, plastics, pain management, GI, podiatry) continue to be reliable, consistent, and valuable for maintaining overall financial stability delivering steady revenue growth through high-volume, lower-margin case returns, when compared to emerging specialties (orthopedics, neurosurgery and cardiac catheterization) offering higher per-case returns and lower volumes with significantly higher margins.
Among the emerging specialties, total joints represent the highest revenue margin of any current specialty and offset their comparatively lower-case volume offering with high yield revenue growth potential for ASCs.
For physicians this trend represents a new frontier in high-quality, safe, efficient and patient-centered care in an ASC. For management, it signals a need to rethink infrastructure and operational strategies. For the entire care team, it’s a call to align outcomes and innovation in a setting that’s redefining outpatient procedural care.
ASCs need to focus around the overall cost, efficiency and value of the care delivered. ASCs face financial challenges with expenses going up and revenues primarily stagnant due to the discrepancy in payments vs HOPDs. ASCs need to fund prudent investments in service lines to enhance their market position. ASCs need to provide “better, cheaper and more patient friendly” outpatient alternatives for care.
ASCs need to address the following questions as part of their overall strategic thinking:
1. What is the healthcare that communities want in our market?
2. Which of these community needs can we meet, and which can’t we meet?
The answers will need to be customized to each individual market.
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