As ASC administrators seek to make up ground lost to the COVID-19 shutdown, it’s critical to take full advantage of every opportunity to stretch marketing dollars and maximize conversion of prospective clients that walk through the door. While the short-term boom of procedures delayed during the COVID hiatus will help, administrators need to be thinking beyond the next 90 days. Now more than ever it is critical to minimize the number of the number of ineligible patients (and procedures) that are walking back out the door, particularly those that can be managed in ways that don’t negatively impact your business model.

A major area of ineligibility that can be successfully addressed along these lines is obesity and related comorbidities. With the most recent National Center for Health Statistics data (February 2020 data brief found here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db360-h.pdf) showing ~45% of Americans over 40 years of age are obese (BMI 30+) and 12% are severely obese (BMI 40+), there is little doubt the obesity epidemic is negatively affecting your ASC bottom line. If you extrapolate these statistics from the general population to the demographics of the most common ASC procedures the relevance is clear, add in common comorbidities like hypertension and type 2 diabetes and the likelihood grows even higher. So, how does a savvy ASC administrator overcome this challenge? By implementing strategies that turn ineligible patients into eligible patients (and procedures). An effective overall strategy to do just that focuses on three main steps:

1. Identify an external partner with a clearly demonstrable track record of improving BMI (at a minimum, additional improvements in related comorbidities is even better) in the patient population that best represents your patient audience- usually 40+ years of age with relevant comorbidities. Be sure to find a partner that does not add additional workload to your staff or that has participants that are outside your desired demographics. Programs that have overwhelmingly under 40 year old female participation are not going to give you the results you need. Trust, but verify. Ask for data representing the potential partners experience in your demographic and look for peer-reviewed publication, presentation at major medical conferences, and/or third party validation of that data.
2. Get buy-in from the staff. Brochures for partners that sit on a table in the waiting area will not result in any change to your bottom line. Arrange a short seminar or teleconference session where the partner outlines the benefits clearly and succinctly so the staff can understand how it helps their patients and the ASC. Include active introduction of the partnered program by staff to those who are told they are ineligible due to BMI. Studies show a higher percentage of patients follow through with specific recommendations from a healthcare provider versus being told to ‘lose weight’. Just a minute or two sharing why the provider is recommending the program will make a huge difference in a patient following through.
3. Set up a pilot program, 6-9 months long, to evaluate first hand the ability of the partner to deliver on results that raise the level of eligibility in a defined timeframe, ideally less than 3 months. Ask for periodic updates and reports on the number of patients that had a consultation, percentage of those who participated (and reason given by those who did not participate), the completion rate of those who began a program, and average change in metrics of interest (BMI, % of body weight, body fat %, etc.) at the start and end of program.

Ineligibility due to weight and comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes are impacting your ASC business. Maximizing conversion of your prospective patients has wide ranging positive effects… decreasing cost of customer acquisition, filling schedules and ORs faster, and improving cash flows with higher numbers of procedures. A commitment to referring ineligible patients, including those deemed ineligible in the past 12-18 months, to a solid external partner will provide a return on the investment of time and effort. Setting up your facility to successfully manage obesity and related eligibility issues as prevalence in our society edges up is a win-win in the short and long term!

For more information, please visit 20lighter.com/asc.