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forward slash beckers podcast.
Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
My name is Chanel Banger, and I'm recording
live at the thirty first annual business and
operations of ASC conference in Chicago
and currently sitting down with Melissa Rice, an
administrator at Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center, a member
of Trinity Health. Melissa, thank you so much
for joining me today. Thank you so much
for having me. Perfect. Well, to kick us
off, can you share a bit about yourself
and your work in the ASC space? Yes.
As you just said, I am a current
administrator at Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center, which is
a member of Trinity Health. I have been
in the ASC space for fifteen plus years.
Always being an administrator or, also helping out
all of leadership.
And I'm just, you know, very happy to
be here. Perfect. Thank you so much for
that introduction. And now to get into it
a bit, the ASC market in The US
is projected to reach almost $61,000,000,000
by 2030 and continues to experience strong year
over year growth.
I'd like to hear from your perspective, what
are,
the most significant trends and market forces driving
this expansion and how should ASC leaders be
preparing today? Yeah. So as, most people are
aware, you know, Medicare dropped 270
of the inpatient CPT codes, you know, to
move to outpatient. So I think that's one
of the biggest drivers that, is, you know,
proving this growth.
I think also,
a lot of the big payers, specifically the
blues, are looking at site site of care
specifics. So, therefore, they're saying that, you know,
we're not gonna pay for these CPT codes
in a in main, hospital or a HOPD
perspective, and they wanna do it in ASC.
So So I think we're gonna continue to
see that happening as, you know, more of
these cases become ASC specific.
I think what, ASC leadership should be preparing
for today is watch those watch what, you
know, watch what Becker's puts out. Watch what
ASCO puts out and, you know, start to
get ahead of the game. Start looking at
your contracts to see if these specific codes
are something, one, that are covered. Two, can
you get it covered? And three, if there's
implants or anything like that that you can
start negotiating today,
start reaching out to your providers. Whether they're
you work for an employed system like I
do or you do have the capability to
bring in independent providers. Start having that conversation
with them now. Talk about the trends that
are happening. Because once it starts in one
state, we all know it's gonna start coming
to our state.
Absolutely. And now kind of getting into technology
a bit. From AI and robotic surgeries to
advanced EHR,
systems,
technology remains both a make or break factor
and a critical driver of ASC operations at
scale. How do you see deeper tech integration
shaping the way ASCs
deliver care and manage their businesses over the
next few years?
I think AI is, you know, something that
we're still looking at, you know, talking about.
I know there's been some great things that
Becker's has brought to this conference regarding that.
So I'm excited to hear more from my
colleagues.
Robotic surgeries is a hot topic.
One, a lot of the robotics,
do come with a heavy dollar amount
or some locked and contracted rates. So I
think a lot of people are a little
nervous to bring that into their center, especially
if it's not connected to a, a hospital
campus where you can share it.
Advance of EHR systems. I think all the
players out there are really listening to the
leaders of the ASC stuff and kinda looking
at how can we make this easier for
our clinicians to
stop having to do the mundane process of
charting, whether it be paper or an EHR
system, and really making sure that we can
turn our turn our care and looking like
direct patient care. So I think there's a
lot of headwind coming, you know, to chart
by, you know, specialties and, you know, making
sure that we can, you know, have all
the information that we need. Got it. Got
it. And kind of, switching gears a bit
here. With 60% of health systems considering ASC
joint ventures and many ASCs already partnering with
systems in their communities,
what opportunities do you see for collaboration,
whether with providers or vendors, to strengthen patient
care and operational efficiency?
You know, I work for a health care
system. So, you know, I'm already a part
of, you know, that type of situation, but
we do look to have independent providers come
to our center and be a part of
the amazing network that we're in. I think,
you know, what we can do is if
we're partnering with, systems or health care for
other providers is how do we broaden the
access to our community? How do we how
do we have outreach in all the different
locations, whether it be city or urban or
rural? You know, how are we benefiting
the patient, you know, you know, at the
beginning?
Absolutely.
Well, Melissa, I wanna thank you for your
time today. But before I let you go,
is there anything we didn't touch on or
any final thoughts that you'd like to share?
If you're listening to this, make sure that
you do sign up for all the Becker's
newsletters because they give you all of the
information that you need. And also,
deep in the you know, try to touch
base with your state associations. I think they
definitely partner well, for, you know, ASCs and
what's to come. Love the shout out. Well,
Melissa, I wanna thank you once again for
your time today and for sharing your insights
on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Thank you so
much for having me.