This Week in Surgery Centers

Scott Allen is the SVP of Managed Care at nimble, and he’s on today’s show to help us wrap up our Payor Contract series. We have already covered 6 Tips for Effective Management and Leveraging Data for Negotiations, and we’ll finish up the series by doing a deep dive into Chargemaster Essentials. Scott walks us through common issues, making sure your chargemaster is up to date, and how to maintain...

This week marks our 100th episode of This Week in Surgery Centers! We are beyond grateful to everyone who has tuned in and to our 80+ guests who have come on the show over the last two years. Our episodes have accumulated tens of thousands of listens, and it has been our privilege to share such important information and expert advice with the industry. Now, let’s celebrate! At the end of every dis...

Rita Reyes-Williamson is the Senior Director of Managed Care at Surgery Partners, and she joins us today for part 2 of our payor contract series to talk about Leveraging Data for Negotiations. Rita has great tips and ideas for what data you should bring to your payor negotiations, such as physician case volume data, case migration from inpatient to outpatient, how you’ll improve access to care for...

We’re starting 2025 with an exciting three-part series on Payor Contracts! In this episode, Kristin Pegram, Contracts and Compliance Manager at Mann Eye Institute shares six essential tips for effective contract management. Kristin brings invaluable firsthand experience to help you navigate contract challenges. In our news recap, we’ll cover why ASCs closed in 2024, projected headwinds and tailwin...

We had the chance to sit down with Kara Newbury, ASCA’s Chief Advocacy Officer, to discuss what ASCs can expect in 2025. CMS officially published its 2025 Final Payment Rule, so we covered Medicare reimbursement rates, changes to the ASC Covered Procedure List, updates to the ASC Quality Reporting Program, and some other topics that every ASC should be aware of. After my conversation with Kara, we...

Mel Gunawardena is the Co-founder and Managing partner at SYNERGEN Health, and he is here to share with us a few things that every RCM expert needs to know. In this episode, Mel shares essential insights every RCM expert needs to know, including best practices for ASCs, how technology is revolutionizing the process, and the key considerations for keeping RCM in-house versus outsourcing. In our new...

This week, our host, Nick Latz, sits down with Joan Dentler, Founder of Avanza Healthcare Strategies, to explore the insights from their 6th Annual Hospital Leadership ASC Survey. Together, they break down the survey results, uncovering key trends in ASC ownership, the growing interest from hospitals and health systems, the equity dynamics, and the role of third-party management companies. And the...

We’ve explored many topics related to opening an ASC, but today’s episode dives into something very specific and exciting. Three experts from Align Health join us to discuss what it takes to open an ASC with a cardiovascular focus. Cardiovascular is one of the hottest specialties right now, with reimbursement per case ranking second only to orthopedics. But with great opportunity comes unique chal...

Matt Lau, Senior Vice President of Client Accounting & Financial Services at MedHQ, has been helping ASCs manage their financials for over 20 years. With more than 400 budgets under his belt, Matt has developed a simple, no-nonsense, 4-step process for creating budgets that actually work. In today’s episode, we’ll break down those four steps and hear some great stories and insights from Matt a...

We're excited to kick off a brand-new series all about Annual Budget Planning. This is something that every surgery center needs to do to some degree to make sure the following year is successful, and everyone's on the same page. But here's the interesting part: in the conversations I've had while prepping for this series, it's clear that no two ASCs handle budget planning the same way. The proces...

Welcome to the third and final episode of our series on Improving Patient Collections! Over the past two episodes, we’ve explored mastering eligibility and shared valuable tips for post-date of service collections. Today, we’re excited to bring you insights from Marie Yarborough, the administrator at Sequoia Surgical Pavilion in Walnut Creek, California. With over 15 years of experience in healthc...

Welcome back to our three-part series on Improving Patient Collections! In our last episode, we were joined by Sayword Hill from Constitution, who shared expert insights on mastering eligibility. This week, while we had originally planned to bring you another guest to dive into post-date of service (DOS) collections, plans shifted due to Hurricane Milton. So, it's just me, Erica Palmer, taking the...

In this episode, we’re kicking off a three-part series on Improving Patient Collections with Sayword Hill, SVP of Revenue Cycle at Constitution. Sayword shares valuable insights on mastering patient eligibility, ensuring you're not performing procedures on uninsured patients, and helping prevent claim denials. In our news recap, we’ll cover the opening of a new cardiovascular ASC, the impact of Hu...

On September 25th, HST Pathways released the 2024 edition of our annual State of the Industry Report. If you're unfamiliar, we launched the report last year to provide best practices, key process steps, and key performance indicators for every stage of the patient journey and the most common administrative tasks in ASCs. What makes this report unique is that it’s built using real data from 590 ASC...

Mike Ferguson, President of Horizon Solutions, joins us to conclude our three-part series on Evaluating Ownership Options for ASCs. As an expert in working with ASCs and OBLs, Mike sheds light on one of the more complex ownership models—when physician owners, a third-party management group, and hospital partners are all involved. In this episode, Mike shares practical strategies for navigating the...

In today's episode, we bring you part 2 of our 3-part series on Evaluating Ownership Options . Last week, we explored working with a Management Services Organization (MSO), and today, we're diving into the benefits of selling a minority share. Jeff Peo from Lifeline joins host Nick Latz to break down the typical ownership split, how it impacts physician autonomy, the financial advantages, and more...

James Calligan, President of Phoenix Gynecology Consultants, will kick off our new three-part series about Evaluating Ownership Options today. James runs a Management Services Organization, better known as an MSO, which provides all types of support to its ASC clients. We’re always talking about ASCs that are either independently owned or owned by a management company, but this third option might...

Today is the third and final part of our three-part series on how you can optimize the physician experience. Dr. Justo covered the importance of encouraging your doctors to learn new procedures, Lindsay Schulte covered how to ensure you're fully aligned with your doctor's preferences, and Janet Carlson joined us on this episode to discuss improving communication and collaboration. Janet is the Exe...

Last week, we kicked off our “Optimizing the Physician Experience” series with Dr. Justo, who covered the importance of encouraging your docs to learn new procedures. Today, for part 2 of the series, we are joined by Lindsay Schulte, the Division Vice President of ASCs at EyeCare Partners. EyeCare Partners has over 300 doctors across their 31 ASCs, so Lindsay knows a thing or two about managing th...

Today kicks off a new, three-part series on the podcast about Optimizing the Physician Experience. We spend most of our time talking about the patient experience and patient satisfaction, and rightly so, but keeping your docs happy is incredibly important, too. So, for our first discussion, I am joined by Dr. Emilio Justo. Dr. Justo is currently the Medical Director at the Arizona Eye Institute &a...

Today is the third and final part of our three-episode series on Expanding Your ASC. We’ve covered how to bring on new physicians, add new specialties, and add a new operating room. I had the opportunity to sit down with Greg DeConciliis to talk about the expansion project he’s working on. Greg’s team realized a few years ago that they had outgrown their current 3-OR facility, so they are building...

Today is part two of a three-part podcast series on Expanding Your ASC. As we learned in the last episode, expansion will look different for every surgery center. However, whether adding physicians, introducing a new specialty, opening another OR, or growing your team, having a growth mindset is essential for your surgery center's longevity. So today, we are sitting down with Bruce Johnstone, a Pr...

We have officially wrapped up our "Capitalizing on the Cardiology Boom" series and are starting a new series on "Expanding Your ASC." Today, I am very excited to have on returning guest, Michael McClain, to discuss how you can successfully bring on new surgeons and add new specialties to your existing facility. Michael is currently the Founder and Managing Member at LeftCoast Healthcare Advisors,...

At the end of every podcast episode, we always ask our guests, “What is one thing our listeners can do this week to improve their surgery centers?” We took eleven of the most recent answers and turned them into this week’s recap episode. The advice they share covers everything from sterilization to board communication, staff appreciation, patient satisfaction survey results, block time, benchmarki...

Today kicks off the third and final part of our “capitalizing on the cardiology boom” series. Dr. Joseph Puma is the founder of Sorin Medical and the founder and president of the New York Ambulatory Cardiovascular Society. New York does not currently allow CV procedures to take place in an ambulatory setting, so Dr. Puma is working with many organizations to change this. I had the chance to ask Dr...