A whitepaper from ECG Management Consultants urges health systems to establish ambulatory surgery strategies.
Here's what you should know:
1. Analysts believe health systems should consider an ambulatory surgery model in advance of the push from payers to move cases from inpatient to outpatient settings. While ASCs have existed for more than 40 years, ECG analysts said interest in them is rapidly rising.
2. As more profitable cases are transitioned to the ASC arena, ECG analysts wrote, "We believe that ASCs are at a tipping point in the evolution of healthcare delivery, and hospitals without a comprehensive ambulatory surgery strategy are putting their institutions at great risk."
3. ECG analysts claim five things are driving cases and patients to ASCs:
- Shift to value-based care
- Reimbursement changes for ASCs
- Accelerating transition to outpatient care
- Superior patient experiences
- Superior physician experiences
4. ECG believes health systems have three options available in the landscape:
1. Hunker down. A health system will fight the transition to ASCs by relying on its brand, physician loyalty and potential health plan influence. "Moves by surgeons or other competitors to transfer volumes to ASCs will be met with threats to hire competing physicians or direct referrals from employed physicians elsewhere." ECG said this is a short-term move, at best.
2. Manage the transition, limit the risk. Pursue an investment in ASCs when forced to do so. This is a medium-term strategy that requires hospitals to pursue joint ventures when faced with a potential loss of volume. ECG believes although this is an effective option to optimize returns, it leaves a hospital open to competition.
3. Be a player in outpatient surgery — "disrupt yourself." Aggressively pursue joint ventures. Although a potential short-term financial challenge, if managed correctly, the health system can be positioned for long-term growth, ECG said.
The whole whitepaper is available to download by clicking here.