The Health Care Facilities Code identifies provisions for maintaining building systems
BY JONATHAN R. HART | APRIL 2017
Health care facilities, including ASCs, contain many building systems and equipment that are unique compared to other occupancies. Those systems play a vital role in providing care to patients and are a key component in patient outcomes. Even those systems that are not unique to health care can have more importance in facilities that are occupied by the sick, weak or otherwise compromised (i.e., individuals who are sedated or under anesthesia). The continual upkeep of these systems and equipment is essential to providing safe patient care.
Read More >
Learn how to implement the revised reporting requirements
BY GINA THRONEBERRY | JUNE-JULY 2018
In 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a proposed rule to improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses through the electronic collection of establishment-specific injury and illness data. After receiving comments on the proposal, OSHA issued the final rule that became effective January 1, 2017 (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 29 CFR Part 1904).
Read More >
Learn how to implement the revised reporting requirements
BY GINA THRONEBERRY | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017
In 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a proposed rule to improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses through the electronic collection of establishment-specific injury and illness data. After receiving comments on the proposal, OSHA issued the final rule that became effective January 1, 2017 (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 29 CFR Part 1904). For more information on the final rule, click here. Although ASCs are partially exempt from some of the requirements in that rule, they are subject to a requirement that prohibits employers from discouraging workers from reporting an injury or illness.
Read More >
Use technology to make patient engagement a priority
BY ARNOLD G. LEVY, MD | MARCH 2019
The overarching goals of population health are to improve the overall well-being of a designated population while lowering costs. "Burden and Costs of Gastrointestinal Disease in the U.S.,” an October 2018 column in NEJM Journal Watch, estimates direct and indirect spending on GI diseases in the US to be $136 billion per year, with many procedures and surgeries costing patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Read More >
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.
Read More >
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 House that could have impacted the ability to strike such a deal.
Read More >
The role of ASCs and EHRs
BY MAURA DENT CASH, RN, CASC | FEBRUARY 2019
Emergency rooms (ER)—where a 2016 New York Times report says up to 75 percent of visits are for pain—can be a starting point for addiction. Many patients’ initial exposure to opioids, however, is immediately following outpatient surgery.
Read More >
Your employees are the most important tool to success
BY JHO OUTLAW | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017
We all know every penny counts, but the rapidly changing rules surrounding ASC reimbursement can make revenue cycle management difficult. We can be ready for whatever changes come our way if we have the right tools, anticipate and adapt. When we think “tools,” we generally think software, hardware and medical equipment, but the most important tool for an ASC’s success is something else that is sometimes forgotten. More on that later. Below are a few tips to manage your revenue cycle successfully.
Read More >
ASCA 2019 will offer guidance for avoiding common pitfalls
BY KARA NEWBURY | MARCH 2019
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted 1,185 health surveys and 819 life safety surveys at 5,772 CMS-certified facilities in 2018. A look at the top citations CMS issued during those surveys can help provide insight into what surveyors focused on and identify areas where facilities failed to comply.
Read More >
Show your support for CRC screening during National Advocacy Day
BY JEFF EVANS | MARCH 2019
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third-most diagnosed and second-most deadly cancer in America. In 2017, approximately 135,000 people were diagnosed with CRC. And while death rates associated with CRC have declined for several decades, roughly 50,000 people succumb to the disease each year. CDC estimates that if all precancerous polyps were identified and removed before becoming cancerous, the number of new CRC cases could be reduced by 76 to 90 percent.
Read More >