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forward /beckerspodcast.

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Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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My name is Chanel Bunger and I'm recording

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live at the thirty first annual Business and

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Operations of ASC Conference in Chicago

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and sitting down with Sean Gibson, the CEO

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at Remedy Surgery Centers. Sean, thank you so

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much for joining me today. Good afternoon. Thank

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you for having me. Perfect. Well, to kick

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us off, can you share a bit about

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yourself and your work in the ASC space?

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Sure. I am a

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a a CEO for Remedy Surgery Centers. I,

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all in all, have 14

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surgery centers,

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throughout the state of Texas.

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I've lived in both the ASC world as

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well as corporate

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America in the hospital setting. So ASCs have

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taught me

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much more than the hospital system has in

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a very short period of time. It's it's

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been a good run.

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Perfect. Thank you so much for that introduction.

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And now the ASC market in The US

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is projected to reach almost $61,000,000,000

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by 2030 and continues to experience strong year

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over year growth. From your perspective, I'm wondering

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what are you thinking,

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are the most significant trends in market forces

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driving the this expansion? And how should ASC

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leaders be preparing today?

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It's no surprise.

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I think the market is being driven by,

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our payers,

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but also

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with, the Internet and people having the ability

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to search things much easier today, I think

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it has,

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is now being driven by the consumer as

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well. So

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we've got kind of a twofold

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scenario where our patients

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are looking for care and,

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through data that we share on the Internet,

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with pricing and so forth and so on.

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They're they're making the conclusions and coming to

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the ASC market, and it's just driving it

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very quickly.

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Got it. And now moving forward,

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from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced EHR

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systems, technology remains both a make or break

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factor and a critical driver of ASC operations

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at scale.

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How do you see deeper tech integration shaping

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the way ASCs deliver care and manage their

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businesses over the next few years?

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So,

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actually, technology is what really started me coming

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to these meetings.

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It was AI was

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everybody heard of it, but I didn't really

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understand what it was and more so how

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much did it cost and what was I

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gonna get out of it. So

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I think,

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technology

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obviously

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is if if you're not educated on it

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now, you're way behind. And the

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abilities for us to mine our data and

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come to the negotiating table with the payers

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using

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AI driven data,

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and having the ability to

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source that information and know what your competitors

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are doing.

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It

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you would be a fool not to to

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have that information in, and it's allowed me

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the ability to

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go to the payers and negotiate better contracts

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with the data that

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we already all know that they have on

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us before they even get there. Got it.

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And is there a specific technology or innovation

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that stands out to you as especially transformative?

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You know, billing,

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the billing software,

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the ability to

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our commercial payers have been using AI,

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to shoot claims back and

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pull data on

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slowing our claim payments down. And

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we now have the ability,

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through that software

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and reduce price to

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do the same thing. So we're able to

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use AI to

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push those those

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commonly

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denied claims back. We can look at,

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different,

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procedures that are slow pays versus

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no pays from the insurance industry. It's it's

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been very useful.

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So I I think that the

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the ability

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to mine your billing data and use the

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AI to,

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I guess, help you without adding extra FTEs

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is makes our world a lot easier.

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Of course. And now switching gears a bit

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here, with 60% of health systems considering ASC

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joint ventures and many ASCs already partnering partnering

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with systems in their communities,

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what opportunities do you see for collaboration,

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whether with other providers or vendors, to strengthen

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patient care and operational efficiency?

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I think that, hospitals overall,

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being a

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a past hospital leader, we deal with population

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issues, volume issues coming through the hospitals. And

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ASCs give

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the ability for us to take care of

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not as sick patients, less critically ill patients,

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to manage surgical procedures

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very quickly and easily,

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reducing the volume that actually goes to the

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hospitals. The the other side of that is

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it reduces reimbursement going to those hospitals as

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well. So we have to

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find an an easy

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midway

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space that

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the hospital doesn't feel like you're taking their

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business, and

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you you are still able to

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share information with them, share page your patient

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population,

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with them, and ultimately

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do good patient care safely

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and get reimbursed for it. Absolutely. Well, Sean,

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I I wanna thank you for your time

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today. But before I let you go, is

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there anything else that we didn't touch on

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or any final thoughts you'd

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like to share? I think, from the ASC

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markets generally,

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I think this have been a big,

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big talk here this session.

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We as ASC leaders really need to

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bond really bond together and

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let our legislative folks know,

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that, you know, we're not gonna put up

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with

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less pay payment opportunities, you know, be able

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to compete on a market doing the same

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cases with the same

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equipments.

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I think the word is really starting to

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get out there, and that might be your

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competitor across town, but that that person also

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is your partner in helping getting that information

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out to congress. And and there's there's members

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that

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are here today

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that are very involved as as congress members.

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So it's very interesting seeing that come about.

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That's amazing to hear. Well, Sean, I wanna

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thank you once again for your time today

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and for sharing your insights on the Becker's

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healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.