Are your patients looking for an easy way
to pay for health care? Want to level
up the way you do business? Then the
CareCredit health and wellness card just might be
the answer.
For over 30 years, CareCredit, a Synchrony solution,
has been providing patients with a modern, flexible
way to pay for their health and wellness
expenses.
CareCredit seamlessly integrates with your business, helping minimize
account receivable, all while your patients enjoy budget
friendly financing options.
To learn more about how CareCredit works for
you and your patients,
visit carecredit.comforward/beccherspodcast.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast, and we are live at the business
and operations of ASCs.
I'm currently joined by Ali Masiwala,
who is a neurosurgeon
at DISC Sports and Spine Center. So doctor
Masiwala, thanks so much for joining me today,
and would love to have you start off
by introducing yourself and telling us a little
bit more about your work in the industry.
Great to be here. Ali Masiwala. I'm a
neurosurgeon
in Southern California at DISC Sports and Spine.
I've been doing ASC work since 2006.
And our ASCs are more of a tertiary
care type of setting where we perform
every type of spine procedure you can imagine
from
simple things like microdiscectomies
to more complicated things like spinal cord tumors.
We do our fair share of fusions and
dis replacements. We've now
expanded our service lines. We perform joint surgery
too, so hips and knees.
And so for us, we've gone from one
center to, you know, 5 in Southern in
California,
and then expanding across the US under the
same umbrella.
Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time
to be here. And let's start our conversation
today with ASC volume. So countrywide, this is
expected to increase by 16%
by the year 2032.
With this growth, what is the most pressing
challenge to maintaining a positive patient experience?
So as you increase volume, you don't want
to sacrifice
quality of care or the patient experience. So
for most patients,
especially
those that chose to come to the AC
setting many years ago,
they always had the hospital as their default
choice. But we had to convince them that
the reason to come to the AC setting
was for better patient experience, more efficient care,
safer environment, quality control, things like that. And
certainly during COVID, you know, ASCs were still
open, so a lot of cases could still
be done there when the hospitals are shutting
down for obvious reasons.
As growth expands
and you see it not only within the
specialty, but other specialties, and as more and
more cases are migrating from
the
ASC setting, you have to really be prepared
to maintain that quality of care and patient
experience. So it's not just a question of
can you handle the volume,
but can you deliver the same attention to
detail?
Can you provide cutting edge services and technology?
And this thing is more comfortable, more caring,
and ultimately,
provides a better overall experience and value for
the patient's daughter.
And kind of going along with that, what
strategies have worked for your organization
in tackling these challenges, and what is one
recommendation you have for health care leaders to
stay ahead?
So I think 2 things that are competitive.
1,
technology and the desire to bring the latest
and greatest stuff to the ASC setting. Many
of those things nowadays have to do with
the robotics and AI, and those are expensive
purchases and really not developed and designed for
the ASC setting, but we have them in
hospitals. And so
patients, even, you know, newer doctors who've just
finished their training,
really rely on that technology to provide cutting
edge, billing based care,
and that can be in direct conflict with
the contracts
and payers
that you already have set up. And what
I mean by that is oftentimes new technology
is not covered
within these contracts. So whether they're implants or
whether they're robots,
these are things that you have to build
into your
negotiating and building your contracts so that you
can actually keep up with and anticipate the
changes that are coming
because there's always so much money, you know,
in the health care pot. And it's being
divided in differential ways every year.
And we have the election upcoming next week,
and that may further change
the way that we approach health care. So
it's anticipating
all these things and making sure that no
matter what happens,
you're positioned to take advantage of the situation,
or you can react to changes that are
really out of your control.
And how can leaders ensure their staff are
well equipped to help patients navigate the financial
aspects of care? And how does this benefit
patient provider relationships?
So I think transparency is key. So, you
know, historically,
the finances of health care have been a
black box for most patients.
Now more and more patients are are
getting their EOBs or explanation of benefits from
the hospital, from their insurer, and they can
really go through in in a line item
fashion what money was spent on what part
of their care. And when it comes to
the ASC setting,
for certain insurers, certain policies, patients may have
a substantial out of pocket fee, which they
may not have in a traditional hospital setting.
And so it's understanding,
you know, where their dollar is going and
what they can essentially buy
for their particular,
spend. And so for a lot of our
patients who,
you know, need surgery, they will use up
their deductible earlier in the year, and they
will shift their surgery towards the end of
the year when their deductible has been used
so they don't need to come with out
of pocket expense
to cover their case. The other thing is
that in some cases, they're actually less expensive
to pay cash for certain things than they
have to use your insurance.
And one of those,
examples would be imaging. So particular imaging centers
that you work with
can offer an MRI for a few $100.
If they went through their insurance, it might
be $800. So the system doesn't always make
sense, but I think if you're transparent with
the patient in terms of the true cost
of things and where their money is going,
oftentimes,
it only encourages
them to wanna come to you because it's
a more trusting relationship.
And as we wrap up here, is there
anything else you'd like to share or any
parting words you have for the podcast?
I think that ASC growth is never gonna
cease.
The reality is that patients who are sick
need hospitals. Patients who are otherwise well and
have a specific problem
can easily be treated in that patient setting.
And the challenge is really being able to
provide that care in a way that benefits
the patient, but at the same time, it
doesn't take away
from what the physician is getting out of
it. And, unfortunately, this is still a business,
and so we have to pay our bills.
And so if we can do it in
such a way where the patient is always
getting the best quality of care, but the
physicians are benefiting as well, it's a win
win for both, and that will continue to
encourage patients to leave the hospital setting, come
to the ASCs, and drive that all the
payers as well.
Wonderful. Well, Ali, thanks so much for joining
me today on the Becker's Health Care podcast.
Again, we are live at the operations and
business of ASC's event. Thank you. Thank you.