The following is article is written by Jim Freund, senior vice president for GENASCIS.
In Darwin's words, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." These words are highly relevant in today's business climate. Thriving in today's complex, dynamic and changing ambulatory surgery center marketplace requires adaptive strategies.
For almost two decades the surgery center industry enjoyed year after year growth, outpacing other sectors of the economy and seemingly immune to the challenges that other business faced. Over the past few years we have seen changes that have negatively impacted the ASC community. Reimbursement pressures, declines in patient volume, increased regulation and uncertainties in our healthcare system have all resulted in fewer facilities being developed and an overall decrease in profitability. There is simply no question that this has happened. The question of surgery centers now is:
How will you adapt?
Are you going to be that ASC that embraces change? Can you adapt to current market conditions by improving profitability and quality? Or are you going to be the one that struggles and even potentially fails? The answer lies in your organization's ability to embrace change.
Adaptive and resilient organizations have several characteristics in common:
- A clear, unrelenting focus around purpose and goals.
- Flexibility and openness to new approaches, roles and ways of getting work done.
- A climate of learning, creativity and a proactive approach to finding ways to improve.
- Trust, cooperation and open communication throughout.
By contrast, rigid, bureaucratic organizations often lack the flexibility needed to embrace challenges and the change that ensues. The "we have always done it this way" or "we are going to make some changes" or "we will be fine once the economy turns around" mentality is one that can stop needed responsiveness and change in its tracks.
Fortunately, most physician-owners are entrepreneurial by nature and understand that in order to succeed you have to continually improve your business practices. As with any business, you have to clearly understand how well you are performing, what you can do it improve, and implement a plan that will enable you to achieve your objectives. There is no better time than now to do this.
If you are an ASC owner, you should have a clear understanding of all areas of your business. Here are 15 questions you need to be asking yourself to ensure you are adapting effectively to the changing climate:
1. Do you have the right procedure mix?
2. Are your partners bringing all the cases they should?
3. Are you continually recruiting physicians?
4. Are your cases being performed as profitably as they should be?
5. Is your OR schedule being optimized?
6. Are you coding with a high level of compliance?
7. Are you maximizing reimbursement as a result of correct coding?
8. Do you implement best practices across the entire continuum of billing services?
9. Do you have exceptional purchasing contracts?
10. Are you billing appropriately for implants?
11. Do you have access to benchmarking data to understand how you compare to other ASCs?
12. Is your facility in compliance and are you susceptible to RAC audits?
13. Do you have the ability to spot reimbursement trends before they impact revenues?
14. Do you know the trends that should be impacting your decision making?
15. Is there an effective succession plan in place for your surgeons?
These are just some of questions you should be able to answer and should be addressing on a continual basis — just as any dynamic business would. If you don't have the answers to these questions, you should. Continual improvement is the most essential ingredient in turning your surgery center into an exceptional business.
Jim Freund (jfreund@genascis.com) is senior vice president for GENASCIS, a provider of billing, revenue cycle management services and supporting technologies for more than 750 surgery centers. He has worked with more than 800 surgery centers, along with vendors, consultants and many of the industry’s leading developers, managers and owners of surgery centers, during his over 20 years on the development, operational and business side of the ASC industry.
Read more from GENASCIS:
- 10 Key Surgery Center Managed Care Contract Provisions and Terms to Know
- How to Determine ASC Usual and Customary Rates for Out-of-Network Procedures
- 4 Best Practices to Control Labor and Supplies for Surgery Center Cases