Advancing Surgical Care Podcast Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA)

In this episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, hear Dr. Abbey Vandersall, vice president for Quality and Clinical Services for ASC management company AMSURG, talk with ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice about the life-saving importance of colonoscopy screenings for the early detection of colorectal cancer. Their discussion also focuses on compliance with the new recommendation for testing to begin at age 45 and the critical role surgery centers have played in expanding access to colonoscopies, as well as lowering their cost for both patients and payers alike.

In this episode of ASCA’s Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, listen to oral surgeon Dayne Jensen, MD, explain why he believes an ASC offers the safest, most convenient setting for his patients. Then, find out how he turned his vision into reality—even for Medicaid patients in his community. In conversation with ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice, Dr. Jensen talks about ways to facilitate patient referrals, the unexpected benefits his surgery center offers his community and his experience treating Medicaid beneficiaries.

In this episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice talks with ASCA Regulatory Counsel and Director of Government Affairs Kara Newbury about the 2024 outpatient payment and quality reporting rule the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released on November 2, 2023. A highlight of the conversation is their discussion of ASCA’s successful efforts to add several dozen new codes to the ASC Covered Procedures List (ASC-CPL). These include total shoulder arthroplasty, a procedure ASCA has long encouraged Medicare to allow its beneficiaries to access in orthopedic surgery centers. Prentice and Newbury also discuss a payment update that rises above the amount projected in the proposed rule, prospective changes to the ASC Quality Reporting Program and more.

In this episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice and ASCA Director of Education & Clinical Affairs Gina Throneberry discuss the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey, a postoperative patient survey developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Beginning in January 2025, OAS CAHPS will become a mandatory part of Medicare’s Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program, and ASCs will be required to use a CMS-approved, third-party vendor to administer the survey to their patients. In this short, but highly informative program, Prentice and Throneberry discuss the origins of the OAS CAHPS Survey, its content, threshold requirements and the importance of hiring a vendor and implementing the survey well in advance of January 2025.

In this episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice talks with Deb Yoder, RN, CASC, vice president of clinical operations for Surgical Management Professionals, about the critical steps and considerations involved in constructing and opening a new ASC. Yoder is an accomplished nurse with frontline experience in operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs, intensive care and surgery centers. In her current position, she is responsible for overseeing the design and construction of new ASCs and has assisted in developing and equipping 13 new facilities. This highly informative discussion covers architectural and regulatory pre- and post-planning, construction management and how to prepare a new facility for a successful opening.

In this episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice talks with orthopedic surgeon and ASCA Board member David Weinstein, MD, about performing outpatient total shoulder surgeries in both hospitals and ASCs.

Tens of thousands of patients with commercial insurance undergo safe, effective total shoulder surgeries in ASCs each year, saving themselves and their insurers millions of dollars. Yet the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has refused to extend its insurance coverage to ASCs—the less costly site of care and the one that most patients prefer. Dr. Weinstein discusses several clinical studies that include findings that support making this change, as well as his own experience performing thousands of shoulder surgeries, in this compelling case for finally allowing Medicare patients the same choice that private pay patients enjoy today.

Dr. Weinstein is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he completed his residency in orthopedic surgery, as well as an associate clinical professor at the University of Colorado Department of Orthopedics in Denver.