Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Helping Hand - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - July 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Non-opioid pain therapies The Trump administra- tion has made dealing with the opioid crisis a priority. ASCA pointed out to the administra- tion that, in terms of Medicare policy, CMS wouldn't reimburse ASCs for using some non-opioid pain thera- pies. They agreed to pay ASCs separately for using some non- opioid pain relief dur- ing a procedure that would reduce the likelihood of having to prescribe opioids after the procedure. Right now, this only applies to one drug — the local anesthetic Exparel (liposomal bupivacaine) — but there are other non-opioid approaches, like pain pumps and other modalities, that have the same positive impact on reducing pain without the use of opioids, for which CMS should also separately reimburse. OSM Mr. Prentice (wprentice@ascassociation.org) is the CEO of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, the national membership association that assists ambulatory surgery centers in delivering safe, high-quality, cost-effective patient care, based in Alexandria, Va. 3 J U L Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 1 • DEVICE-INTENSIVE THRESHOLD Beginning this year, the cost of a device must be 30% or more of the total cost of procedure in the hospital outpatient setting in order for an ambulatory surgery center to get paid separately for the device. This is down from 50% just a few years ago.

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