Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's
ASC review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Todd
Currier,
CASC,
CPA,
CEO and administrator of Bend Surgery Center. Todd,
thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here
today.
Yeah. Just to start off, could you please
introduce yourself and tell us a little bit
about your background?
Sure.
Again, my name is Todd Currier. I run
Bend Surgery Center in Bend, Oregon. We're a
large
multi specialty center. We
have eight operating rooms and six procedure rooms.
We're,
truly multi specialty, do about 12 different specialties,
and
have
increasing volume,
as we've expanded over the last few years.
Past history, I've been in the industry for
about twenty years now. And,
prior to that, I was a CPA,
and then my largest client was a surgery
center and fell in love with the aspect
of it and,
jumped ship about twenty years ago and,
look forward to the future.
Excellent. Great.
And what are the top three trends that
you're following in health care and the ASC
world today?
I think the top things that I'm following
is this the mergers and acquisitions that are
happening within the ASC market, the hospitals acquiring
ASCs, the management companies acquiring ASCs,
just independents
that are growing and expanding.
It it's
a growth market right now for ASCs. We're
we're in a great trend right now.
So that's one area. I think
another area is just the,
in increase
of case volume and case mix.
And so as we've seen with the proposed
rule for 02/1926,
a large expansion of types of cases that
ASCs are now allowed to do, the expansion
of the,
ASC covered procedure list. And so we're looking
into the,
advanced
orthopedics,
cardiac,
types of procedures,
and and,
probably leads me right into the third third
area of,
that I'm seeing trends in is just the
use of robotics and technology,
looking at the types of cases that can
be done within an ASC setting, you know,
safely done and still, you know, patients be
able to go home, quality outcomes,
and looking into how that's gonna expand over
to the next few years.
Mhmm. Absolutely. I feel like all three things
you mentioned are kind of in your connect
there,
which kind of leads me to my next
question, which is how are you thinking about
growth over the next twelve months,
specifically with regards to everything that you just
mentioned, you know, that,
increasing case volume and mix, the m and
a stuff, and also technology?
I think for us, really looking at, you
know, what is that strategic growth? What areas
do we want to expand in? And
so we're still looking, especially with the proposed
rule so fresh and, you know, it's not
finalized yet. So we're gonna take a look
at that. But what areas do we want
to expand in?
Number one, do we look at our current,
case mix and volume, and how do we
increase that?
Do we look at new technology? Do we
look into robotics
and and start doing robotic cases at at
our center? And what is the the cost
benefit of doing that?
And probably the third
thing on on that area really is
looking at how can we use technology
to
improve our growth,
going into the future. You know, what areas
of technology, whether it's AI, whether it's software
based,
other software based systems that will increase our
efficiencies.
That those are areas that we're really looking
at that will,
assist in our growth.
Absolutely.
And what are you most excited about right
now?
I just have to be honest as I'm
excited about the the ASE industry. I I'm
very excited about the direction and
proposed rules that we were seeing, that,
we've seen some some great leaps and bounds
that, were were being heard by CMS that
is, you know, historically and as we go
into the future, we we are,
a great resource for our communities for the
care that we provide and the safe quality
care that we provide every single day and
that we can continue on into the future.
There's few things within
the proposed role that we we still need
to advocate for that, you know, where we're
we're we're falling short in regards to,
you know, the the secondary weight scaler that
takes effect that
we're really still seeing a disparity
in our reimbursement
stream as far as it's it's a growing
disparity between
ASC reimbursement and the HOPD.
And we we need to
continue to advocate and lobby with
the with CMS and our,
legislators that we we need to get this
corrected.
Mhmm.
Yeah. Absolutely. It sounds like there's there's some
wins in the recent, proposed rules and then
definitely some areas where folks are still kind
of advocating for ASCs and,
particular
particularly around that reimbursement issue.
The that's correct. I I think it's it's
it's imperative for all of us to remain
active and,
continue to advocate for our industry. And so
that, you know,
we we have those wins and losses, but
we we need to mitigate where those losses
are so that,
we can continue to provide the high quality
care we do every single day.
Absolutely.
Anything else that you'd like to add here?
No. I think the the main part, I'm
happy to be part of this podcast. August
is National ASC Month, so I I appreciate
you
having me on and,
look forward to, you know, positive impacts we
have going into the future.
Excellent. Well, that is all I have for
you today, Todd. Thank you so much for
joining us today.
It has been a pleasure speaking with you,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again in the future.
Thank you very much.