It’s chicken and egg…they don’t buy the surgery center and then pump extra surgeries through it. They buy the surgery center because they’re surgeons who are already doing lots of surgeries and want to keep more of the profit instead of giving it to someone else.
I recently tore my ACL. My surgeon has a financial interest in both the surgery center and the physical therapy center. As long as the care I get is high-quality, I’m happy for them to keep more of the profit.
My wife’s life was just saved by a brilliant surgeon who removed a large blood clot from her lungs. He correctly diagnosed the problem, got her into surgery and removed it. Had another week gone by, I would have been planning her funeral. The average GP would have recommended blood thinners which would have hastened the clot to move to her heart and killing her. I don’t begrudge these guys anything and if they are highly compensated, so be it. I am afraid it may not be this way in a few years in the interest of cost savings analysis by the bean counters.
A key benefit to owning or even working out of a surgery center instead of a hospital is that everyone has a vested interest in profitability and driving down overhead. ASC get reimbursed very differently (much less) than do hospitals for the very same procedure. The problem in hospitals is that there is a clock-in/clock-out mentality, from circulating nurses to the janitor who turn the rooms over for the next procedure. I have seen it take 2 hours or longer to turn over a room in a public hospital, vs. 20-30 minutes or less in a privately owned surgery center. One of the reasons docs do more cases in ASC is because the centers are way more efficient and throughput is higher, without compromising quality.
CC, to illustrate your point, last year, my wife had to have a big fusion operation on her back. She was on the table 7 1/2 hours. She went in early at 8:00 AM and surgery was over at 3:30PM. The doctor said she would be in recovery for about an hour and then put in a room. By 6:00 I was getting very worried since I didn’t get a call. I, on my own went back to the area where she went in to surgery and asked where my wife was. They checked and she was still in her recovery cubicle because they didn’t have a room for her yet. Needless to say, I was very upset and had a conversation with the Administration. They finally got her into a crappy semi-private with a very ill person. I will never go back to that hospital again. The care she got was substandard at best.
That’s what surgeons do. They generally recommend surgery to fix a problem. Let the GP’s shoot the breeze with a patient on office visits. Surgeons who own facilities also have to pay the bills, payroll etc. Also, good surgeons are in high demand and get a lot of referrals from non-surgeons. I wonder what they will do when Obamacare stops authorizing surgery, particuarly on seniors which need knee and hip replacements.
“Need”. Somehow I think the government’s definition of need and mine will differ. They already confuse rights and privileges. Why would they get my healthcare right?
Do you think there is a chance that Bureaucrats in charge of committees making life and death decisions on healthcare can get it right? You are right that their needs/benefit analysis will differ from yours and your doctor’s. The doctor will recommend treatment/surgery and the bureaucrat will shoot it down and say not authorized. If the patient is over 60, forget it because their useful life is over. Take a pain pill and die. If they can get rid of enough seniors, they think they can reduce costs for Healthcare and Social Security.
Imagine that! Breaking news::: Tire centers that sell tires; sell mre tires. Who thinks up these studies? I’ve got one, More right handed people pick their nose with their right hand than left handed people.
It’s chicken and egg…they don’t buy the surgery center and then pump extra surgeries through it. They buy the surgery center because they’re surgeons who are already doing lots of surgeries and want to keep more of the profit instead of giving it to someone else.
I recently tore my ACL. My surgeon has a financial interest in both the surgery center and the physical therapy center. As long as the care I get is high-quality, I’m happy for them to keep more of the profit.
My wife’s life was just saved by a brilliant surgeon who removed a large blood clot from her lungs. He correctly diagnosed the problem, got her into surgery and removed it. Had another week gone by, I would have been planning her funeral. The average GP would have recommended blood thinners which would have hastened the clot to move to her heart and killing her. I don’t begrudge these guys anything and if they are highly compensated, so be it. I am afraid it may not be this way in a few years in the interest of cost savings analysis by the bean counters.
A key benefit to owning or even working out of a surgery center instead of a hospital is that everyone has a vested interest in profitability and driving down overhead. ASC get reimbursed very differently (much less) than do hospitals for the very same procedure. The problem in hospitals is that there is a clock-in/clock-out mentality, from circulating nurses to the janitor who turn the rooms over for the next procedure. I have seen it take 2 hours or longer to turn over a room in a public hospital, vs. 20-30 minutes or less in a privately owned surgery center. One of the reasons docs do more cases in ASC is because the centers are way more efficient and throughput is higher, without compromising quality.
CC, to illustrate your point, last year, my wife had to have a big fusion operation on her back. She was on the table 7 1/2 hours. She went in early at 8:00 AM and surgery was over at 3:30PM. The doctor said she would be in recovery for about an hour and then put in a room. By 6:00 I was getting very worried since I didn’t get a call. I, on my own went back to the area where she went in to surgery and asked where my wife was. They checked and she was still in her recovery cubicle because they didn’t have a room for her yet. Needless to say, I was very upset and had a conversation with the Administration. They finally got her into a crappy semi-private with a very ill person. I will never go back to that hospital again. The care she got was substandard at best.
Udderly ridiculous. That’s like saying people who own cars are more likely to drive.
That’s what surgeons do. They generally recommend surgery to fix a problem. Let the GP’s shoot the breeze with a patient on office visits. Surgeons who own facilities also have to pay the bills, payroll etc. Also, good surgeons are in high demand and get a lot of referrals from non-surgeons. I wonder what they will do when Obamacare stops authorizing surgery, particuarly on seniors which need knee and hip replacements.
“Need”. Somehow I think the government’s definition of need and mine will differ. They already confuse rights and privileges. Why would they get my healthcare right?
Do you think there is a chance that Bureaucrats in charge of committees making life and death decisions on healthcare can get it right? You are right that their needs/benefit analysis will differ from yours and your doctor’s. The doctor will recommend treatment/surgery and the bureaucrat will shoot it down and say not authorized. If the patient is over 60, forget it because their useful life is over. Take a pain pill and die. If they can get rid of enough seniors, they think they can reduce costs for Healthcare and Social Security.
Imagine that! Breaking news::: Tire centers that sell tires; sell mre tires. Who thinks up these studies? I’ve got one, More right handed people pick their nose with their right hand than left handed people.
Regrets but being right-handed, I am not about to pick the nose of a left-handed person. Unless it were attached to a super model…