Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Heavy Duty - October 2016 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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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Will your facility and surgeons be ready when it does? Patients already are. Eighty percent of cataract patients would prefer to have both their eyes done at once, according to a paper presented at a recent ASCRS meeting. But several barriers are blocking same-day bilateral cataracts from becoming commonplace. • Reimbursements. A study conducted by Rush Eye Associates in Amarillo, Texas, compared post-op outcomes and the economics of same-day bilateral cataract surgery and separate-day procedures (osmag.net/RsyCE6). The findings show patients who underwent same-day bilateral cataract surgery spent less time traveling for care, required fewer total care visits and recovered post-op vision faster. Facilities and physicians made less than they would have by operating on separate days, but treating both eyes at the same time saved health- care dollars. Surgeons don't always have to be left holding the short end of the stick, however. Each time a surgeon with the Colorado Permanente Medical Group performs same-day bilateral cataract surgery, he earns more for himself. How? Kaiser Permanente uses capitation payments, which are based on a fixed payment per person, rather than a pay- ment per service. The economics must improve for surgeons in pri- vate practice before same-day bilateral cataract surgery truly catches on, but the success of the Colorado Permanente group backs Medicare's interest in bundled payments and accountable care organi- zations, which are shifting the focus to more efficient and cost-effec- tive care. • Safety. I was the founding president of the International Society of Bilateral Cataract Surgeons (isbcs.org), which was launched in 2008 to let surgeons who perform same-day bilateral cataract surgery share their experiences and best practice ideas, and to provide physicians with 8 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6

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