HAP Says Growth of ASCs Increase Costs, Pressures Acute Care Hospitals

The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) released a statement claiming that the growth of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in Pennsylvania is hurting the acute care hospitals’ business.

The group references the data in the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council’s (PHC4) Financial Analysis 2006: “An Annual Report on the Financial Health of Pennsylvania’s Non-GAC Facilities,” that says that the number of ASCs in the state (232), far exceeds the number of general acute care hospitals (174).

“This report should draw the attention of legislators and regulators as they examine the extent to which ASCs — which now outnumber general acute care hospitals — are driving the increase in healthcare costs,” says HAP president and CEO Carolyn F. Scanlan. “No patient should have to question whether his or her physician is acting in the best clinical interest of the patient versus responding to financial investment decisions.”

According to the PHC4 report, ASCs have nearly quintupled in number over 10 years, and they enjoy profit margins (total and operating) of 21 percent.

“Such facilities remove profitable services from community hospitals and treat healthier — and usually insured — patients,” Scanlan said. “Data indicates that these facilities typically do not take those patients who cannot pay, treat far fewer Medicaid patients than do acute care hospitals, and do not treat patients with complex conditions. The result is that our community hospitals take in and treat the sickest and most needy patients.”

“There must be equitable requirements for licensed health care facilities, regardless of ownership or setting,” Scanlan said. “Facilities that are providing the same or similar services should adhere to the same or similar standards of licensure, public reporting, reimbursement, and provision of care to the uninsured, Medicaid, and other publicly-supported patients. Policymakers need to modernize our state’s licensure act and look at the role physician self-referral plays in health care utilization, quality, and cost.”

“Pennsylvania’s hospitals and health systems seek to provide coordinate, high-quality, cost-effective, and compassionate health care in communities across the state,” Scanlan said. “To support this mission, fair and appropriate regulations and financing of care must exist.”

Source: Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP)

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