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forward slash beckerspodcast.

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This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast, and we're recording live at the thirty

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first annual business and operations of ASCs.

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I'm currently joined by Tara Goodyoung, who is

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the CEO at PDI Surgery Center. So thanks

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for being here. I'll have you kick us

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off by sharing a little bit more about

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yourself and your work in the ASC space.

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Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Becker's

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is one of my favorite conferences to attend.

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A little about myself. So forty two years

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in health care in the last twenty in

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leadership,

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have run different ambulatory

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surgery center practices

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with

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maxillofacial

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oral surgery,

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plastics,

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and now currently

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in pediatrics for pediatric dental oral reconstruction.

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Wonderful.

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Well, let's start our conversation with the ASC

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market

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Because in The US, this is projected to

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reach $60,800,000,000

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by 2030 and continues to experience strong year

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over year growth. So from your perspective, what

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are the most significant trends in market forces

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driving this expansion, and how should ASC leaders

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be preparing today?

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One of the biggest influences

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I see in our ASC space

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and growth is going to be CMS's

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continued

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expansion of outpatient

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procedures

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being moved from hospital setting to the ASC

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setting. Now with that, there's gonna be the

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expectation

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of downward pressure on pricing.

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Problem with that that we'll need to be

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able to be prepared for is gonna be

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doing a lot of payer negotiations

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and knowing what your margins are and what

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your market is. Just because the shiny new

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thing for you to possibly be able to

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do in the ASC

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doesn't necessarily mean that it'll be profitable.

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If it's already oversaturated

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in

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a shouldering market to you, you may not

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have room for market share, and it may

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quickly be a race to the bottom on

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price

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rather than pivoting to take a look at

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where you can deliver the best value

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customer service for your reputation.

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Absolutely.

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And from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced

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EHR systems,

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technology remains both a make or break factor

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and a critical driver of ASC operations at

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scale. So how do you see deeper tech

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integration shaping the way ASCs deliver care and

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manage their business over the next few years?

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I think you can really start to leverage

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AI

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to do many of the menial and tedious

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repetitive

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tasks,

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whether it's helping with managing

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phone call handling still in a very humanistic

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sense.

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I think you'll have less turnover of staff

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if you have staff that feel like they're

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doing meaningful work, if AI can do the

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basic level

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of receiving and triage of calls than to

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the human that really needs to handle it.

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As well, you can load in a lot

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of your data and have it aggregated

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rather than spending all of this time putting

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it into spreadsheets

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to drill down your own data,

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make your own pivot tables

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that's very time consuming.

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The best thing about what that can bring

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to the table

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is AI is really being directed now to

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integrate with your EHR,

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which then is a lot less click time

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for your staff and for your doctors, which

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has been one of the biggest complaints since

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EMRs

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came out.

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So if you can alleviate

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some of those bureaucratic

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frustrations,

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have people feel like they're doing what they

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want to do, and it makes a difference.

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You're gonna have better satisfaction

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as well. It's gonna free them up to

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have more of that face to face patient

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time, which is where your value of customer

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service and your return

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patient is going to come from. Because whether

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it's the employer, the insurance,

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or the referring provider,

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if that patient has a good experience,

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you're gonna get more referrals versus if they

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express that they had a poor or impersonalized

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service. There's plenty of other ASCs to choose.

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Yes. Absolutely.

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And with 60% of health systems considering ASC

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joint ventures, and many ASCs are already partnering

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with systems in their communities,

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What opportunities do you see for collaboration, whether

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with providers or vendors, to strengthen patient care

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and operational efficiency?

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Collaborating with your vendors is a really great

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way to know what's out there in the

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market.

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They'll hear from others, and they'll have inside

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information,

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not the secret information,

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but you'll have a bigger look on a

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SWOT wider outside your surrounding market

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of maybe who's overwhelmed with services they can't

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deliver, there's a backup,

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or

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where a market's already saturated

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and you may not want to go into

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because, again, we're looking at the race to

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the bottom then on price.

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Your vendors also can collaborate with you to

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deliver procurement platforms so you can really see

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your spend,

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compare your different supply pricing,

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have great and sustainable

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supply chain,

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which we've all discovered during COVID and afterwards

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that just in time ordering is no longer

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just in time, and you always really need

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to have a backup vendor

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for your mission critical items. And your vendors

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can help you

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with negotiating rate

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and having platforms that give you transparency

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to see what other vendors are doing, and

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you can get those vendors to work together

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to give you better pricing and sustainable

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supply.

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And is there anything else that we didn't

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touch on or any final thoughts you'd like

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to share as we wrap up the conversation?

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I think it's really important for us to

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take a look at, as I mentioned before,

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not just chasing the shiny new thing. Sometimes

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it's not always best to be first

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when a lot of new regulations are rolled

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out,

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new procedures are released to outpatient.

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It still can be a gray area of

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how it's billed, how it's gonna be reimbursed,

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how it'll be handled, what's the pre authorization

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pain points going to be, Because you need

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to be prepared for all of that, and

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how will you staff up for

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the new procedures

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or the new equipment that needs to be

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brought on for that and be able to

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take a look at what are your costs

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going to be

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in that front loaded time wherein you are

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training,

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investing

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to be able to finally execute with excellence.

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Absolutely. Well, Tara, thanks so much for joining

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me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,

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we're recording live at the thirty first annual

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business and operations of ASCs.

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Thank you for having me.