culoskeletal complaints, there's a very low risk of viruses spreading
from patient to patient. For pediatric and elderly patients, this is a
particularly important consideration.
Securing payment
The clinic negotiates with and accepts most major insurance plans for
this emergency care, plus it offers cash rates. While hospital outpa-
tient reimbursement rates are usually higher than what the clinic gets
for the same procedures, diligent expense management delivers care
at a reduced cost. The more efficiencies you can create in supply —
such as standardizing an inventory of hundreds of options of plates,
screws and other orthopedic hardware to a sole source vendor when
you can — the more cost-effective your cases will be.
The ability to bundle payments for a physician visit, surgery, imag-
ing, rehab, and all other components of care appeals to insurers and
self-insured employers. Patients appreciate that the care is billed as a
specialty office visit, not as a hospital ER trip, so their co-pays are
less, and they're spared the extra fees and extended costs of walk-in
urgent care clinics.
The clinic markets its availability through the physicians' practice
website and social media, but most of its business comes from word
of mouth. It's a simple fact that in order to sustain that source, you've
got to keep patients satisfied. So the quality of the care the clinic
delivers and the sudden needs of its patients are something that it
never takes for granted, and it makes that clear in its treatment of
every single patient.
OSM
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 1
Mr. Bullock (rbullock@tsaog.com) is the director of clinical and ambulatory
services for The San Antonio Orthopedic Group and its Orthopedic Surgery
Center of San Antonio.
