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Imagine this. You're at the Hyatt Regency Chicago

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surrounded by the top minds in the ambulatory

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surgery center industry.

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Welcome to the Becker's 30th annual meeting, the

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business and operations of ASCs from October 30th

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to November 2nd

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2024. Picture the excitement as you collect business

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cards from over a 1000 executive level attendees

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forging priceless connections.

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Feel the buzz of conversations as you participate

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in more than 60 sessions led by over

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225 elite ASC speakers.

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Envision yourself gaining actionable insights on topics like

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private equity strategies,

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ASC business growth, and innovations in spine, orthopedics,

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GI, ophthalmology, and cardiology.

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Now imagine yourself listening to inspiring keynotes from

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Hall of Fame boxing world champion, Lila Ali,

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and professional basketball player, Caitlin Clark. Their stories

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will motivate you to take your business to

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new heights. You'll leave with a wealth of

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knowledge and a network of connections to help

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lead your ASC into the next year. Don't

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miss out. Get registered today. Visit beckershospitalreviewdot

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com and click on the events page to

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find the conference website. That's the beckershospitalreview.com

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events page. See you in Chicago.

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Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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My name is Chanel Bonger. And right now,

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I have the pleasure of speaking with Margaret

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Chappell, the CEO of Center For Advanced Surgery,

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who joins us today to share insights into

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her background,

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ASC trends she's keeping an eye on, and

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a bit more. Margaret, thank you so much

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for joining me today. Could you please take

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a moment to introduce yourself and tell us

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a bit about your background and the Center

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For Advanced Surgery? Absolutely. As you know, my

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name is Margaret Chapel, and I am an

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RN with a master's

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degree in science, specializing in biology

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and also an MBA,

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specializing in health care administration.

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So I've been in the business. I'm dating

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myself here, but

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for 44

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years,

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and,

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mainly in the outpatient

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business for

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the last 40, I would say.

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I'm currently

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the administrator,

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CEO of Center For Advanced Surgery in right

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outside of Charleston,

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South Carolina

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and have had major jobs with the SCOA

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and HCA Healthcare

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in the past,

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and it's really nice,

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this job, because I'm sleeping in my bed

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every night

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and not traveling.

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Love to hear it. And to get us

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started, could could you please tell us about

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the trends that you're watching in either the

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ASC space or just health care overall?

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I believe that our biggest

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challenge right now is in reimbursement.

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Obviously,

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prices for everything,

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every single supply and labor

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benefits,

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everything is increasing,

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and our reimbursements

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are not necessarily

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increasing

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in the same manner

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that the price is for everything. So I

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think we're all economically

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challenged

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in the ASC

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space. Although we have made great strides

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with reimbursement,

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it's still a challenge. So that's

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probably

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the thing that I have my eye on

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at the moment.

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Absolutely.

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Now moving forward, I kinda have a 2

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part question for you.

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In your role, what are you most focused

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on and excited about?

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And, also, what initiative or project from the

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last 6 to 18 months are you the

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most proud of?

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Well, the last 6 to 18 months, we

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have been able to

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keep our staffing costs

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at least flat and not go up by,

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instituting

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some efficiencies

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of scale

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with we do a lot of ophthalmology

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in the center. So

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we've learned to work

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smarter

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and not harder

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by trying to get most of the physicians

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using the same supplies,

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the same preference cards,

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and,

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you know, trying to keep those costs down,

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which makes it more efficient in staffing

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because we're also not

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trying to teach

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a new staff member

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a new way to do something

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every month when a new procedure comes across.

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So

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that is

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something that I'm proud of. I also

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it's been difficult to retain staff,

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but we have less than a 10% turnover

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right now, which is fabulous.

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And we are between 45

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and 50 employees at any given moment. We

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do between

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6,7,000

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cases

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annually,

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and

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it you know, we work hard.

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So

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to keep,

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you know, the supplies to a minimum

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and get the each physician

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on board

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to utilize

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common supplies has really been difficult, but

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we've done it.

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Yeah. Definitely.

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Now with your 44 years of experience in

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health care, you're the perfect person to ask

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this question.

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With that, what advice would you give to

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an evolving leader that wants to lead the

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same type of career that you've led so

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far?

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The first thing I would say is you've

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got to be flexible because everything could change

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in a minute as we all experienced with

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COVID.

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We were performing cases in our surgery center

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on March

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17th

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2020. And on March 18th, we were closed

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for 8 weeks. So

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it was such a challenge to be flexible

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to maintain the staff that we absolutely

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had to maintain

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and to be able to

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know that we would reopen

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and what that was gonna look like.

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So I haven't taken any of that for

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granted.

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I know that that could happen again.

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And, you know, it's more more than likely

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something of that magnitude will happen again. I've

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been in surgery centers with fires and,

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you know, all kinds of natural

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disasters,

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and I can

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advise

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any new leader. You've got to be flexible.

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The second thing is you have got to

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know

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all your options

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before you present those to your physician owners

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or your board

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or your hospital

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overlap

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or whomever you report to. Make sure you've

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done your research.

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There's nothing worse than going into a meeting

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and knowing

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the right thing to do, but not having

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done the background check

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or the background

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research

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to make sure that you know all the

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options and present

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why the option you choose

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is the best.

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So those are my my two things. Always

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have the meeting before the meeting.

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Absolutely.

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So remain flexible

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and get your ducks in a row before

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presenting to your team.

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I truly appreciate that advice, and I truly

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appreciate you for joining me today on the

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Pickers Self Care podcast. It's been a pleasure.

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Thank you so much, Margaret.

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Thank you for

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having me.