Becker’s ASC Review
Written by Taryn Tawoda | March 14, 2012
Long-term cost management is among the greatest challenges for out-of-network ASCs. As the administrator of an out-of-network surgery center that performs more than 300 cases per month in a one-room OR, Toni Rambeau, CASC, has developed the necessary cost management strategies her center requires to sustain long-term profitability.
“Cost containment is how we are able to thrive and expand as an out-of-network-only center,” said Ms. Rambeau, administrator of SurgCenter in Glen Burnie, Md. “Orthopedics can be very costly, but we work well together to find what the surgeon needs and also provide a price that makes us profitable at the same time.”
Ms. Rambeau shared five essential strategies for eliminating unnecessary costs, securing reimbursements and educating center staff on the importance of cost containment in an out-of-network center.
…2. Reprocess single use items. By using a consistent medical supply reprocessing company, surgery centers can save around 50 percent per item by sending in single use items and purchasing them back. SurgCenter uses Medisiss for its reprocessing needs, according to Ms. Rambeau.
“Once a procedure is finished, we clean the products and ship out a box of single use items every week to Medisiss,” Ms. Rambeau said. “They run items through a battery of tests and clean and process them before sending them back to us. We purchase the products back from them, paying only half of what they initially cost.”
Some items — including ENT shavers, blades, arthroscopic shavers and trocars for endoscopy — can be used many times over with this process.
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