This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
Adam Hornback, administrator of North Texas Teen Care
Surgery Center. Adam, it's a pleasure to have
you on the podcast today. Thank you for
having me. Now I'm looking forward to our
conversation. I think there's so much happening in
the ASC space and really some exciting trends,
upcoming in terms of, you know, growth and
development.
So I'm excited to get into this discussion.
But before we do, can you please take
a minute to introduce yourself and talk a
little bit about your work in the industry?
Yeah. Absolutely. So,
I am an RN,
administrator at a
physician owned fully independent, multi specialty surgery center
in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
We do everything but eyes, essentially. We do
spine, ortho, and the whole deal. We are
different in that we are one of the
few surgery centers that publish our prices online,
cash prices.
So we try to
be a little bit more transparent and, go
that route.
In addition to that, we created a company,
a patient navigation company. In addition to that,
doing transparent
bundle pricing in our facility as well as
other facilities throughout Texas, and we're actually going
national soon.
Well, it's amazing to hear. You know? And,
certainly, a lot of hunger it seems like
for that kind of
services, figuring out how to do your prices
transparently and then, sharing that with patients because
so many, you know, have a variety of
different situations with insurance and payment options. So,
that's really great to hear. And I know
ASC volume across the country is expected to
increase now by around 16%
through 2032.
So with this in mind, in just that
high growth mode that you were talking about
at your own surgery center, what are some
of the most pressing challenges to maintaining that
positive patient experience?
Yeah. One of the things that I think
that surgery centers need to focus on as
we get more and more busy is concentrating
on that patient
centric
care.
You know, we're all about safety. We're all
about, you know,
efficiency, but making sure I'm looking at it
from a patient perspective, making sure that their
experience is positive.
We want to make sure that one of
the things that people go to a surgery
center for is that 1 on 1 personalization
that they get from a surgery center. And
so concentrating on that, making sure that staff,
you know, has the right customer
service in addition to, you know, the safety
and efficiency that we're looking to maintain.
Absolutely. You know? And and that's a really,
really great point in terms of making sure
that staff is able to approach things in
the right way. It's not always an easy
conversation to talk about,
payment or or going through some of the
financial responsibility on patients. So what have you
done to make sure that, you know, the
staff is ready for those conversations and doing
them in a way that's thoughtful for the
patients?
Yeah. That's one of the things that, as,
again, as we as a surgery center decided
to put our crisis out there, be transparent,
there's no surprises,
with our patients that come in like that.
We make sure that the patient has understanding
of the bundle,
that it includes the surgeon facility, anesthesia. You
know, you won't get a pry a a
bill later.
And so trying to
strategize with patients what the best way is
for them to pay,
and just be transparent in the way that
we deal with our patients.
That that's really helpful to know and understand.
Now what other strategies have worked for you
and your organization to tackle the other challenges,
really that we talked about in the industry?
Any recommendations that you have for health care
leaders to stay ahead?
Yeah. One of the things, I am currently,
the vice president of our,
state association,
and
something to that I would like to say
to leaders is get involved with your state
leadership, your the national, you know, ASCA.
Be involved. I cannot tell you how important
our state association was this last session in
killing
just ridiculous bills that would essentially put the
anastase the ambulatory surgery centers out of business.
There are button you know, there are, bills
that were up that were going to kill
facility fees.
That's how we get paid. You know, you
kill that and you kill the the ASC
industry. There were multiple bills about transparency, which
is
our industry is very much in in
inclusive of. We like that. The problem is
is they wanted to do it in the
way that the hospitals do it, you know,
machine readable files and this
onerous
taxing things that, you know, some places don't
even have a website and, you know, it
it's just too much for some for our
industry to take on that.
So get involved with your state industry
to make sure that any bills that come
up, you're aware. We can fight them. We
can tell the the, representatives
what we need, you know, because they're open.
They're listening to it. So that's what I
would say. Get involved with your state and
national associations.
That's fascinating to hear, you know, and certainly,
just really interesting to see how some of
the different legislation that's coming up at the
state level even, can have a really big
difference. You know, there's some of the traditional
legislation that will come up from time to
time, but then to know now, you know,
a bill killing facility fees would be, you
know, devastating in in some of the other
ways that Absolutely. And multiple states are doing
this. This isn't one state, so it's something
to look out for. Yeah. Absolutely. Good call.
Good call.
Given just, you know, some of these, the
situation we're in today,
how can leaders ensure that their staff is
well prepared to help patients navigate
this financial situation?
How does that benefit the patient provider relationship?
I think anytime that you provide transparency to
the patient, it,
creates trust.
You know, you're you're not,
trying to slip one in. You're not trying
to trick the patient.
So I advise, you know, every time, you
know, I'm sure that most of us do.
All of the surgery center has the same
ideas in mind. You know, we want to
take care of the patient in a safe,
efficient way, but we're we're thinking of cost
all all the time. We're always thinking of
that. So, you know, options are out there
financing.
I think most of us use that.
Again, having cash prices available, you know, even
if you don't post them right now,
one of the transparency
bills that is going to come up is,
you know, posting your prices online. So everybody
needs to get on board whether they want
to or not.
So transparency,
just creating that trust with your patient. Patients
are getting smarter and smarter.
They are getting down to where they shop.
They don't just go where their surgeon tells
them. Patients are getting, you know, more knowledge
about it, and they can go out and
shop. They'll they'll go to Oklahoma
to get a surgery done because they find
it cheaper.
So it is absolutely something that, you know,
everybody needs to be conscious of and, be
ready to provide.
Absolutely. I I think, you know, like you
said, it's so important to have those,
skills that that talking points and then to
just the ability to relate to patients, build
that trust, to keep the business model going.
Before we wrap up here, is there anything
else that we haven't talked about yet that
you'd like to add or, you know, something
top of mind that's important for ASC leaders
who are listening to this podcast to know?
Not so much. I I I would again
say that, you know,
our leaders, our state associations, our national associations,
Beckers.
These these entities are here to advocate for
ambulatory surgery centers. So, you know, we need
to to
provide
support
to these organizations,
to because they help all the industry. You
know, you guys every year put on this
and it it is so impactful, so helpful.
The associations,
and leaders,
continue to utilize these,
and, we'll we'll keep moving forward with the
industry.
Well, thank you, Adam. It's been a pleasure
speaking with you today. I appreciate your time,
and, I look forward to connecting with you
again soon. Thank you.