ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT


ASCA’s Advocacy Successes and Initiatives Looking back at 2018 and forward to this year BY JEFF EVANS


Stakeholders across the country helped make 2018 a productive year for ASC advocacy. In 2019, ASC supporters will have many


more opportunities to help protect and promote patient access to the effi- cient, high-quality and cost-effective care ASCs provide.


State Legislation While ASCs in states across the coun- try confronted multiple legislative and regulatory challenges in 2018, one issue that captured policy mak- ers’ attention in several states was the provider tax. Several states across the country automatically apply a pro- vider tax to all the health care facili- ties in their borders regardless of their size. In 2018, Massachusetts was ready to adopt an 8.75 percent pro- vider tax. Throughout the first half of the year, while the state legisla- ture was in session, ASCA and the Massachusetts Association of Ambu- latory Surgery Centers (MAASC) demonstrated to policymakers the unintended consequences that would follow adoption of the new tax, e.g., small providers could experience serious revenue reductions that could threaten their viability and would not see the same benefits from the tax that larger providers would find. In the end, legislators were unable to agree on the measure, and it was removed from broader health care legislation that was eventually adopted. ASCA and MAASC are diligently monitor- ing this issue, as it could arise again in 2019.


Federal ASC Legislation For several years, ASCA and its members have advocated for four provisions contained in the Ambu-


30 ASC FOCUS JANUARY 2019 | ascfocus.org


latory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act: ■■


Transitioning the ASC inflationary update to an index that accurately reflects rising costs in health care (i.e., the hospital market basket);


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Establishing side-by-side quality comparisons of ASCs and similar sites of service;


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Adding an ASC industry represen- tative to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Advi- sory Panel on Hospital Outpatient Payment; and


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Requiring CMS to disclose the cri- teria and data it uses to determine the ASC payable procedure list. By the time this article reaches


readers, ASCA expects additional decisions to have been made or addi- tional actions taken that would help move each of these proposals for- ward. In 2019, ASCA will continue to work with members of congress, the agencies that provide regulatory oversight of ASCs and state leaders to promote informed policy deci- sions that


high-quality, affordable outpatient surgical care.


GET INVOLVED IN ASC ADVOCACY


ASCA’s regulatory and legislative successes are dependent on the advocacy efforts of ASCA members. Get involved by participating in ASCA’s National Advocacy Day, hosting a facility tour or celebrating National ASC Month in August.


ascassociation.org/ grassroots


Transparency In 2018, the ASC community had an opportunity to discuss the prog- ress being made in this area dur- ing a September 2018 US Senate committee hearing on health care price transparency. Ty Tippets, chief executive officer and administrator for St. George Sur- gical Center in St. George, Utah, rep- resented ASCs as a hearing witness. “If we are to truly empower patients to get the best value for their health care dollars, both price and quality data must be transparent, meaningful and comparable across all settings where care is available,” he said in his testimony.


ASCA is committed to increasing transparency on pricing, outcomes and quality of care across all health care settings, and to that end, will continue to promote the following: ■■


for procedures


Medicare and insurers should pub- licly post information about prices paid or the beneficiaries’ out-of- pocket liability


affect patient access to


across settings, rather than in the traditional silos of facility type;


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Patients should be provided infor- mation on providers in their area, including health outcomes, patient satisfaction, beneficiary cost-sharing and reimbursement to those facilities, in an easy to understand manner;


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Disclosed pricing information must be accurate and present the most meaningful comparison for con- sumer choice. Providers should have the right to appeal and correct any inaccuracies of posted information;


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All health care providers and facil- ities should publicly disclose, in a user-friendly format, all rele- vant information about the relative price, quality, safety and efficiency


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