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forward /beckerspodcast.
Hello, everybody. This is Gracelyn Keller with Becker's
Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning in
to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. In In
this two part series, we're going to talk
about innovating for impact, information to consider for
the next era of ASCs.
Joining me for today's discussion is Claude Royster,
who serves as the vice president and general
manager of health and wellness at CareCredit, and
Cathy McDowell, who is the president and CEO
of Karen Zip Co and Associates. Claude and
Cathy, thank you for being here today.
Thank you for having us. Thank you for
having us. So let's kick us off by
sharing a little bit more about yourselves and
your work in the ASC space.
Thank you. I'll I'll kick us off.
Again, Claude Royster. I bring over thirty years
of sales account management and operational experience to
my role as senior vice president and general
manager of wellness business within Synchrony.
In this role, I am responsible for leading
the wellness sales team with a focus on
driving company strategy growth
through its health and wellness financial solutions, including
CareCredit and Allegro Credit.
Little bit about Synchrony. Synchrony is a Fortune
200 company with ninety years of experience in
consumer lending,
offering unique perspective and understanding of the issues
people face when seeking to pay for care.
CareCredit has helped over helped providers for over
thirty five years by offering a payment solution
to help patients manage costs.
The CareCredit credit card offers zero interest if
paid in full within the promotional period on
qualifying purchases, and we are integrated in 90%
of the health and wellness practice management softwares.
We offer a simple convenient solution that helps
drive practice growth and improve the patient experience.
CareCredit is honored to have more than 12,000,000
cardholders and acceptance at 285,000
plus health care provider and retail locations across
The United States.
With over 157,000,000,000
finance since inception,
we have over 2,400,000
new accounts opened since 2024
and an 83%
satisfaction rate of cardholder survey.
These figures demonstrate the trust our cardholders have
within, the CareCredit and Synchrony family.
I'll turn it over to Kathy.
Thanks, Claude. I'm Kathy McDowell. I have over
twenty nine years of health care experience starting
as a registered nurse and transitioning
to various administrative roles, for sixteen years in
hospital administration
and service line leadership. I held the market
VP role for twelve of those years with
oversight of orthopedic spine and cardiovascular services.
I'm also a published author and presenter at
national and international and regional conferences in orthopedics,
practice management, and service line operations.
Wonderful. Well, thank you both for joining me.
And let's start our conversation talking about the
ASC market. In The US, this is projected
to reach $60,800,000,000
by 2030,
and it continues to experience strong year over
year growth. So from your perspective, what are
the most significant trends in Market Forces driving
this expansion,
and how should ASC leaders be preparing today?
Absolutely. I'll I'll I'll start us off on
this question here.
The driving force behind ASC market growth has
to do with the continuing shift of patients'
desires for more personalized
and cost effective care as well as the
industry's progression with technology.
According to a 2024
Forbes article, the consumer revolution in medicine is
finally here. What comes next? In the past
three years, we've seen a shift in how
consumers value convenience for the for their care,
valuing options like telehealth,
online scheduling,
and direct digital communication with providers.
As we continue to live in an increasing
increasingly digital age, it may be no surprise
to our listeners that this trend in consumer
preferences is not limited to how they access
the care they care for, and want, but
expands to how they want to navigate their
payment options.
And in another, article, 2023,
the digital platform promise, how patients want to
streamline health care payments,
report from payments, and links highlights that nearly
48% of respondents with a digital portal believe
that use of online channels improves the health
care payment or billing management experience.
Lastly,
potential area for growth for ASCs is is
implementing technology
to stay current with shifting markets. I'll let
Kathy talk a little bit more about,
what to expect for, what these ASCs would
expect to really be able to, grow their
markets.
Sure. ASE leaders can take the next step
in staying well equipped for industry growth by
evaluating their current practice operations and identifying the
answer to four key questions.
First being, could my current processes like in
house financing models cause additional stress or work
for my staff?
Is my practice strategically evaluating impact of offering
payment solutions and supporting practice success?
Are the current payment options offered at my
practice meeting patients where they are in their
care journey? And lastly,
how is my practice utilizing technology for practice
operations, improving patient experience, and streamlining administrative tasks
for my staff.
And, Claude, I have a direct question for
you.
From your experience as a leader, how can
financing
resources and tools support the preparedness
of ASC leaders and their staff?
Well, patients may look to their provider for
guidance on health care costs and tools to
help pay for their care. But for more
than half of the survey providers, 56%
from a Synchrony twenty twenty three health journey
research consumer and provider study, They say that
they do not have the staff or resources
to support patients in finding alternative payment options.
To support in bridging this gap, Synchrony recently
launched the fair financing principles, a web page
that provides interactive tools and information on key
things consumers should know before choosing to finance
with a CareCredit credit card. One of the
tools on the web page is our new
procedure calculator.
This can be a great tool for the,
to help patients plan ahead. The calculator estimates
the cost of over 1,000 common procedures
and treatments with average cost compiled from all
50 states.
And from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced
electronic health record systems,
technology can be a make or break factor
and a critical driver of ASC operations at
scale. So how do you both see deeper
tech integration shaping the way ASCs deliver care
and manage their businesses over the next few
years? Sure. I'll start, then I'll pass it
to, Cathy here.
The influence of consumer trends in health care
make it more important than ever for ASCs
to meet patients through digital integration to provide
financial information throughout their health care journey to
stay competitive in the in the industry.
Synchrony's health journey research consumer and providers,
survey shows that more than half of the
survey providers believe,
that there aren't enough health care financial solutions
available to patients, with 59% of the respondents
reporting that offering alternative payments are critical for
their patients.
However,
this can be difficult as burnout continues to
be a consistent concern among health care workers,
and practices may not be able to dedicate
the additional resources to meet the demands on
top of their current,
administrative task.
We briefly discussed how
over half, 56%
of providers responded in Synchrony's health care journey
research consumer and providers survey.
They reported that they do not have a
time or staff available to support patients in
finding alternative payment methods. And this is most
notable when 70%
are currently offering some kind of variety of
payment plan or financial options for their patients.
Kathy? Sure. I'll add to that. In the
future, what I'm seeing is the adoption of
digital solutions
like those offered by independent software vendors
who specialize in creating software products and digital
solutions that function on one or more computer
hardware or operating systems.
I think
these systems
could play a vital role in how ASC's
practice leaders could work towards streamlining the financial
aspects of care, including payment processes
for their staff and patients, and ultimately help
improve patient satisfaction
and practice efficiencies.
Well, thank you both, Claude and Kathy, for
your time and insights today. And I also
wanna thank our podcast sponsor, CareCredit. You can
tune into part two of this episode to
hear more insights from our wonderful speakers on
what to consider for the next era of
ASCs.