Ambulatory Surgery Center Advocacy Committee (ASCAC) Position on Increasing Health Care Transparency and Providing Quality and Cost-effective Patient Care
The ASCAC advocates for increased transparency in health care to ensure that patients and providers have access to important information when making health care decisions and to help create a more efficient and cost-effective structure for delivering patient care. The industry continues to ask the government to create and implement measures that allow for comparison of performance and cost across different types of facilities providing comparable services such as hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and recently testified before Congress in support of “The Patients’ Right to Know Act” (H.R. 4803). The legislation would provide Americans access to important information related to the price and quality of health care services and settings. The ASCAC is working with Members of Congress and other stakeholders to advance this bipartisan legislation that will benefit both the patients and the providers who care for them.
Quality Care. Providing high-quality care to patients in the safest setting remains a significant priority for the industry. ASC quality and safety are regulated by several rigorous, independent processes, including Medicare certification, state licensure and voluntary accreditation. ASC industry leaders have encouraged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement a nationwide quality reporting system for ASCs as permitted by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (PL 109-432). The ASCAC believes such a system would demonstrate the superior quality, patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the ASC setting. In the interim, more than 20 percent of ASCs – approximately 1,200 facilities – are already voluntarily reporting results through the ASC Quality Collaboration (ASCQC) and demonstrating quality of care performed in the outpatient setting.
The ASCQC is an independent ASC industry initiative that has been working since 2006 to develop quality measures appropriate for the industry. To date, six of the measures developed by the ASCQC have been endorsed by the National Quality Forum. The ASCQC also collects quarterly data evaluating the quality of care being delivered in ASCs, and data aggregated from the most recent ASCQC 2009 Fourth Quarter Report shows that ASCs have low rates of medical error and few complications related to common procedures performed in the outpatient setting. Similarly, the ASC Association collected national survey results through its Outcomes Monitoring Project from more than 650 ASCs, which routinely shows that 80 percent of ASCs report fewer than 1.5 post-surgical wound infections per 1,000 patients encountered.
While ASCs as an industry have made great strides in independently reporting quality and outcomes data, currently there is no available mechanism to collect and report data that would allow consumers to compare quality, cost or patient outcomes information across multiple sites of care including ASCs, hospitals, long-term care facilities and primary care settings. It is important for Americans across the country to have access to this information when making decisions about where to receive their care.
Infection Control. Improving infection control practices remains a priority for the ASC industry and a significant matter facing all health care settings. The ASC industry has worked with CMS, accrediting bodies, state ASC associations, medical and nursing professional organizations, and leaders in quality measurement to advance understanding and implementation of CMS’s recently updated infection control standards in order to improve compliance. To further ensure safety and quality at facilities throughout the country, the ASCQC recently launched a series of educational toolkits aimed at helping facilities address and exceed infection control standards.
While ASC must continue to work diligently toward improved practices, data show that the ASC industry overall has low rates of complications and infections and a strong record of outstanding patient outcomes and satisfaction unrivaled by other health care deliver settings.
Cost-Effective Care. ASCs specialize in providing important surgical and preventive services in an outpatient setting, including cataract surgeries to repair eye sight and colorectal cancer screenings. In fact, ASCs perform over 40 percent of all Medicare colonoscopies in the U.S. each year. Despite the important role of ASCs, many Americans are not aware that ASCs provide cost-savings for the entire health care system, including patients, payers and taxpayers. Research supports that Medicare patients can save more than 50 percent on out-of-pocket costs when having a procedure at an ASC, and also save the Medicare program approximately 40 percent annually.
There is significant variation in the price of health care services, and little information is currently available to consumers that allows them to compare the cost of services across available providers in their communities. Further, many outpatient surgeries can be performed in both hospitals and ASCs, so it is important to provide patients with meaningful price comparisons across settings in order to identify the most cost-effective setting for their care. This approach also creates efficiency for the entire health care system.
The ASCAC and other industry leaders remain committed to increasing transparency about cost and quality of care across all health settings to ensure that patients have access to important information when making decisions about their health care.
About ASCs and the ASCAC
The Ambulatory Surgery Center Advocacy Committee (ASCAC) comprised of the national and state ASC associations as well as representatives of all types of ASC operators and physicians is working on behalf of the industry to raise awareness of the important role that ASCs play in the health care system and to ensure that ASCs are able to continue providing high-quality, cost-effective care.
Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) are innovative health care facilities that specialize in providing important surgical and preventive services in an outpatient setting. They are staffed by licensed medical professionals and are equipped with full operating rooms providing patients with a wide array of therapeutic and diagnostic outpatient procedures at a low cost to both the patient and the health care system. ASCs are committed to providing the highest quality care in the safest and most cost-effective setting possible.
For more information about the ASCAC please visit www.advancingsurgicalcare.com.
