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Tim Burney - Understanding & Negotiating Implant Costs
138 Plays2 years ago
Tim Burney is the Founder & CEO of Advantien, and he's here to talk to us about how ASCs can better understand and negotiate fair implant costs. Implants are typically one of the top three drivers of cost for an ASC, so Tim has some great tips for how you can reduce overall costs and how you can get the best price.
In our news recap, we'll do a deep dive into the CMS 2023 final payment rule, talk about an uptick in plastic surgery cases, share a much-needed update from YouTube Health, and share the story of two police officers who saved the life of a 1-month-old baby.
Articles Mentioned:
Key Takeaways from the CMS 2023 Final Payment Rule
The Plastic Surgery Boom Drives Growth in Outpatient Surgeries
YouTube will now let medical professionals apply for additional verification
2 heroic officers save 1-month-old baby with RSV who stopped breathing
Brought to you by HST Pathways.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction & Guest Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to This Week in Surgery Centers. If you're in the ASC industry, then you're in the right place. Every week, we'll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with our featured guests, and then we'll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers. We're excited to share with you what we have, so let's get started and see what the industry's been up to.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Here's what you can expect on today's episode. We are excited to have Tim Berni as our guest today. Tim is the founder and CEO of Advantian, and he's here to talk to us about how ASCs can better understand and negotiate fair implant costs. Implants are typically one of the top three drivers of cost for an ASC, so Tim has great tips for how you can reduce overall costs and how you can get the best price.
ASC Industry Insights with Tim Berni
00:00:54
Speaker
We'll close the episode with a few new stories. We'll start with a deep dive into CMS's 2023 Final Payment Rule, talk about an uptick in plastic surgery cases, share a much needed update from YouTube Health, and of course, end the new segment with a positive story about two police officers who saved the life of a one month old baby. Hope everyone enjoys the episode and here's what's going on this week in Surgery Centers.
00:01:26
Speaker
Tim, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks. It's good to be here. I appreciate it. Excited to have you here, Tim, to talk a little bit about implants. And before we jump right in, can you tell us a little bit about your background, especially as it relates to the ASC industry? Yeah, you bet. I grew up really interested in somehow being in the medical business. I was a little kid. I was drunk about being a doctor and that sort of thing. And life happens, and that plan got derailed.
00:01:55
Speaker
I was in the clinical space in the military. I was a trained combat medic and surgical assistant. And then at some point, after I got out of the military, I ended up going into the device business and work for some of the, you know, the larger device companies in spine and mostly. And so I got my knowledge on the implant side of the business in the spine industry, mostly, as I said, working for Medtronic, Globus, a few other companies.
00:02:23
Speaker
And then started working in that space with ASCs in the mid 2005 or so when the ASCs were in their infancy, where they required a lot of support, didn't have a whole lot of
00:02:36
Speaker
internal people that knew the business very well, the business meeting, the implant business. And they've certainly gotten a lot better at that, but there's still a lot of room for better understanding in that space. So in 2011, 2012, I started a business to address some of those issues to help support ASCs and better understanding the implant side of the business.
Implant Costs & Sales Rep Dynamics
00:02:58
Speaker
Great, and I'm excited to dig in with you on the implant side in particular. As we all know, if you look at the expenses and the top expense drivers for an ASC up there in the top two or three is always implants. And so one of the things we want to talk about and kind of share some wisdom and get some tips and tricks for you is how can ASCs reduce the cost of their implant spend overall? And what is this relationship
00:03:26
Speaker
typically look like in terms of implant vendors in the ASC business side. Yeah, that's a good question, Nick. The implant sales reps are a valuable resource for hospitals and ASCs, especially ASCs. They do so much to support individual procedures, certainly bring in the sets that have the implants in them and then support the nurses and the surgeons during cases and after. And so they're a valuable resource for the facilities
00:03:56
Speaker
for technical as well as logistical sort of support. From a standpoint, and they also, by the way, have very strong relationships with those facilities because they're intimately involved with them. And one of those relationships that's really important is the surgeon rep relationship because they have a lot of impact with the surgeons. And oftentimes that relationship can actually be exploited to maintain higher prices. ASC people in general, the administrators, et cetera,
00:04:23
Speaker
respect that relationship and certainly don't want to upset that. So sometimes that can work in a negative sense from the standpoint of price and implants.
00:04:33
Speaker
Sure, that makes sense. The strategy from the rep perspective or from the vendor perspective of maybe segmenting out the purchase decision can be beneficial from a purchasing power standpoint. If the goal is to understand implant costs, if the goal of an ASC is, hey, we want to understand our implant costs better,
00:05:00
Speaker
How can ASCs approach that in terms of the understanding? Yeah, it's a good question. They need to dig into the data, right? Most ASCs have really good raw data in their systems. But the important step is actually analyzing that data, right? So in particular, summarizing the raw data, you know, in a way that shows you, you know, where your most of your money is going on the implant side, where the spend is specific to what types of implants are being are the are the cost drivers.
00:05:27
Speaker
breaking it down by implant, by procedure, and just understanding that really well. But the next important part of that is, you know, not just digging into the data, but really analyzing that, understanding what that data is telling you. And that's really an important step. So data is an important, really foundational step, and it'll lead you to the answers.
00:05:49
Speaker
Yep. And I imagine oftentimes that data is in the practice management system, right? What have you found are the best ways to get in there and manipulate it? Is this out of box reporting? Yes. HST, NV systems, most ASCs that I work with have HST or NV. They're off paper now. They're recording their purchases using those systems. But recording them is not the same as understanding costs, right? It's where
00:06:16
Speaker
Understanding the cost is where the opportunities are. Understanding where you're spending your money is where the opportunities are. So as I said previously, converting that raw data to some meaningful summary with actionable reports is really the key. So the data is there. It's really analyzing that data and putting it into a useful sort of format, which would be reports and actionable reports. Benchmarking services and other, they've got, you know, there's a service called ECRI that does benchmarking and they do it by,
00:06:44
Speaker
individual implants, and you certainly can use that.
Data & Benchmarking in Cost Management
00:06:47
Speaker
It'll give you a national average. It's better probably for hospitals. It's more of a valuable tool for hospitals. Oftentimes, ASCs will have more specific implants. You can find them on ECRI. But again, they're average. They're average benchmarking. And really, what's important is not only to look at the implant itself, but also oftentimes there's associated disposables that are part of that.
00:07:12
Speaker
It's kind of an overall global picture of what the spend is, right? And you want to also understand your savings potential specific to the ASC. What are the specific opportunities based on the products they use? Again, surgery is done in hospitals. Oftentimes they're different. There's some similarity, certainly. For example, you do spine procedures in a surgery center, you'll do them in the hospital, but the complexities are often different. Therefore, the instruments or the implants might be slightly different.
00:07:41
Speaker
there's not always a one-to-one comparison. So it's really important that ASCs look specifically at what they're using, particularly the high volume items, and look at the national benchmarking, sure, as a starting point. But it's just a starting point.
00:07:56
Speaker
Sure. And I'm curious on your perspective, Tim, when, when ASCs are making the implant purchase decision, right? Whether it's at the position level or the administrator level, do you think the industry overall has a good feel for how these specific implant costs are impacting their overall case profitability? You know, I don't, I think there's definitely a disconnect. Again, the reps provide a valuable service, but it's very specific to the cases, right? And, and, um,
00:08:26
Speaker
The reps generally don't have visibility to those, to the sort of variables that would help them understand case costs and that sort of thing. And quite frankly, I mean, the whole system is set up where, you know, reps are paid on a commission and, you know,
00:08:42
Speaker
They're definitely good partners, but it's not their primary focus, right? And they just don't have enough information to really help a facility make good decisions. The facility really needs to drive that process. They really need to be the ones that go to the reps and go to the device companies and using that data that I mentioned before to
00:09:01
Speaker
to drive that. I would not count on the rep to understand what their business looks like and what the opportunities are to drive savings. That's probably not, I'd say it's definitely not the best place to start.
00:09:14
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. The facility is the only one with the 360 view of, hey, what's our revenue per case as well as what's the other inputs and costs. Nick, one more thing I'll throw in, Nick, sorry to interrupt you, but is the reimbursement side. I mean, there's two sides of this, right? There's the cost side and the reimbursement side. When you think about that, that's an area where oftentimes even ASC struggle to understand. That's a pretty complex side of the business.
00:09:41
Speaker
to expect the reps of the device companies to understand that side, to have that visibility, number one, and to understand it is probably a bridge too far for that. Sure. And on that reimbursement side, how much variability is there across payors and reimbursement rates? Yeah, so there's two basic types of payers in the marketplace. There's many different payers, many different insurance companies. When I say insurance companies, those are the payers.
00:10:09
Speaker
There's the global side. The global side is like Medicare, right? Where implants are not reimbursed on an individual basis. So implant charges are not submitted to global payers like Medicare.
00:10:22
Speaker
Medicare pays a capitated or a separate for a particular procedure. And in that procedure, the facilities expected to cover all of their costs, I say all their costs, there's, there's some things that slide out of that. But basically, for sure, the, the implant costs are included in that. So it's not some separate charge for the implants.
00:10:40
Speaker
The other side is where they reimburse for implants, cost or cost plus. Cost or cost plus meaning that they'll reimburse the facility. The facility turns in an invoice for the implants, whatever charge they paid for them, and the facility will be reimbursed by those payers based on that charge. So let's just say, for example, an implant costs $1,000. On a cost reimbursement, they get $1,000 back. On a cost plus, oftentimes a payer will build in a five or 10 or whatever percent
00:11:10
Speaker
additional, so on $1,000, maybe they get an extra $50 or $100, which helps a little bit adjudicate that cost and to collect that money. So there's two types, the global and the cost plus. That's important, number one. And as far as variability, it varies across the country and it varies from state to state, from region to region, from payer to payer. When you look at
00:11:35
Speaker
Medicare, which is global, that usually will take up obviously a portion, maybe as much as 50% of a surgery center's, you know, parent network. So they're not being reimbursed for implants. So that's important, right? Because then the most important aspect of that
00:11:51
Speaker
That implant is how low can you get the price cuz you're not gonna be in reverse so you want to build that margin to be profitable right as a facility but the other side is that cost plus you can have a blue cross that is typically a cost plus in a given state or whatever but it may.
00:12:07
Speaker
Typically go global it just varies a lot what i see a mostly is probably about a fifty fifty mix and again there's variability there's some facilities that are seventy percent cost plus and some there twenty or whatever it really depends on on the area but if to say that there's a fifty fifty on average mix between those two types of pairs is probably a reasonable option.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds like a good rule of thumb. And on the cost plus side of the equation, how much room is there for device specific or implant specific negotiations?
Surgeon Involvement in Cost Strategies
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, well, first of all, the negotiations are not separated by the payers, right? So from a standpoint, the goal is always to drive down the cost to the lowest, you know, the lowest cost you can get. I mean, on the cost plus side, it's kind of counterintuitive, right? I mean,
00:13:03
Speaker
If your implant is $1,000 or your implant is $500, you're going to get reimbursed. You can make a case that it really doesn't matter. As I said just a moment ago, there's going to be a mix. There's going to be a mix of global and there's going to be a mix of cost plus payers. To make sure that you are doing the best you can on the global side, again, depending upon the mix.
00:13:24
Speaker
you're gonna wanna drive that regardless of what payers they are because the payers, it's not one price for one payer, one price for another. The cost of that implant that I sort of made up earlier of $1,000 is still $1,000 regardless of what the payer is. So generally speaking, you'll see that surgery centers, hospitals for that matter too, but surgery centers specifically want to drive down to the lowest cost they can regardless of the payers.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yep. And how often do you see that happen? Do you think the ASC market is up to date overall on kind of the latest insights, tips and tricks, and has the benchmarking data readily available that you mentioned to kind of credibly and effectively negotiate those rates? You know, I'd say that most centers proactively negotiate.
00:14:20
Speaker
Again, I think that the information is there. The benchmarking, again, is usually an average benchmarking. It's important to engage professionals that understand that market, that
00:14:36
Speaker
that have a better benchmarking tools. And what I mean by that is, as I said earlier, when you're talking about a GPO, that's usually an average price. It's an average price across the country. It's better than, we'll call it list price, which by the way is meaningless, but it's better than list price, but it's kind of an average price. You'll find across the country. What I've seen is that's the way it is with GPOs.
00:14:58
Speaker
It's better always to negotiate on a local level, you know, the fact is that You know if you say to the reps I need to get a better price They'll say things like you're getting the best price in the country or the best price I can give you might be true It might not be but what you need to do is to understand. What does that mean? And that's a challenge right? I mean it really is a challenge because I
00:15:19
Speaker
Whether you look at every which is an average price gives you an average price gives you some highs and lows as well but again there's very ability from from region to region if there's a way to and there are ways to access databases that have the locally negotiated competitive pricing that's really the key so you take your raw data turn those into actionable sort of
00:15:41
Speaker
comparative reports to understand what you're paying, and then access through different avenues, companies that provide this sort of information. There are a few that can provide the information on a local level to say, hey, this is the best price. I know what it says over here, but really, you should be able to compare to our database, which shows a very competitive, locally negotiated sort of environment
00:16:09
Speaker
this is where you need to get to. So comparative what your raw data is, compare to a really good benchmark, employ someone that can help you understand what that should be, and then negotiate off of that. Yeah, that's good insight. And how readily available are those local databases that include that pricing information? Yeah, there are a few companies that have them.
00:16:39
Speaker
The GPO's and the ECRI's and things like that are available. Unfortunately, as I said, it's not necessarily the best pricing because again, it's a national pricing setup and it doesn't always give you ... I don't know if this is a good analogy or not, but I think about when you go shopping, if you go to your local grocery, you go to whoever,
00:17:01
Speaker
you go to a tailor, you go before you buy your suits or dresses or whatever, you know, you know someone, you can stand there face to face and have a good negotiation with them and probably do better than you might do if you went somewhere where you didn't know the person. I think it's a similar setup, right? The other thing is, you know, the surgeons are the key in this whole process, quite frankly. I mean,
00:17:20
Speaker
So, so from an administrative standpoint, and I know you asked me how readily available is it, it's available, right? But you have to look for it. There are companies that do it. But at the end of the day, it's really a matter of getting this information and going to the surgeons.
00:17:35
Speaker
and making a case to the surgeons why it's important and let them be the sort of the impetus to drive the results. Cause they're ultimately the ones that they use what they, you know, they, they're trained on what they're comfortable with. So it has to stay within those parameters and help let the surgeons help drive the results as well.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, I like that because that kind of speaks to the change management component of it, right? I think for administrators or others that work in the facility, if they're suggesting a change based on cost or otherwise, and there's surgeons that are used to doing procedures a different way with different materials, there's gonna have to be a kind of a change management conversation or at least kind of an understanding of the why, I'm sure. And what have you seen as your experience is the best way to do that with surgeons in particular?
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, well, again, we'll start with data. They need to sound like a broken record, but they need to do their homework. The ASC needs to do their homework, and they know that. They would say, we know that. It's to take that raw data, analyze it, do the comparative analysis, and then sit down with the surgeons. Keep in mind, the surgeons in a surgery center setting, and this is really important, and it's obvious, but it's really important is that they're equity owners. Most of them, almost all of them are equity owners in that facility, right?
00:18:52
Speaker
where you go into a hospital and they're basically renting space if you will and that's not even a hundred percent accurate but you get the idea is that they're not vested owners in the hospital so you know they want to use what they want to use and it's up the hospitals to negotiate you don't have a leverage of the surgeon but in the AC where i mentioned earlier about that surgeon rep relationship and how important that is and it is it's a very important relationship for many reasons.
00:19:15
Speaker
It's a valuable one. You have to be able to go to that doctor and give him a reason why he needs to maybe confront the rep who's such a valuable resource to him, him or her, that they rely on. And why do I need to push this? He's telling me he's giving me the best price. So you need to go to that surgeon who is an equity owner who really cares
00:19:38
Speaker
about the cost structure of the surgery center, right? There are parts of negotiating oftentimes, most times with the bigger equipment, that sort of thing. And given, as you said, when you open the set, the implants or the top one, two, or three, usually the top one or two expenses in a facility, that's an important, obviously, target for everyone, including the surgeon.
00:20:03
Speaker
Get the data get the comparative analysis basically get all your ducks in a row so that when you go to the surgeon and you say look here's where we're spending here are the opportunities what do you think. You feel like we should go after what do you think are the best opportunities here to drive to drive the results and if we do this we're gonna save this or we're gonna do this or whatever the case might be and that's that's really the important part of that.
00:20:25
Speaker
I like that. It's the show them the data and then the ask versus the tell. Like here's the dollars. What lever should we pull? Yeah, it's very simple really in the sense that it seems like the obvious pathway
00:20:42
Speaker
But again, it's a different setup than it is in a hospital. And sometimes you lose sight of that. And sometimes administrators, they want to please the doctors and do what's best. They're also focused on doing what's best in the ASC. But really, their ammunition and to help the doctors with those decisions, to help them achieve the outcomes they want to achieve, which is the highest quality patient care at the best cost and with the least amount of expense.
00:21:11
Speaker
You want to make sure you include the surgeon, obviously. Don't just go to the surgeon and say, hey, we can save 10%. What can we do? Help me understand what you want to do to drive that, right? It makes sense, I think. And it does work. It does work. Sure. And you mentioned the hospitals. And I wanted to touch on hospitals for just a second because I have heard some administrators, some facilities on the ASC side say, hey,
00:21:39
Speaker
We partner with our hospital system or we partner with a local hospital to get their implant rates. The hospital's got a purchasing team, they've got more people on it, and so we feel pretty comfortable if we're working with the hospital, we're going to get the best implant rates possible. Does that hold water based on your experience?
00:22:00
Speaker
yeah well it depends i mean sometimes that's the case but you know the general assumption is that what you just said right that well we've got hospital pricing and that's the best pricing well um i would definitely challenge that okay um there are instances where
00:22:16
Speaker
Potentially if there is let's say a contract with synth ease that is a that is a very aggressive contract I'm not saying you never get the best price but again it there are going to be instances where you know it'll be a good price or to be the best but in most instances you can do better right and that again is where you know you can take that as a benchmark right take the hospital pricing is a benchmark and in those cases where you compare you know the data and you compare
00:22:45
Speaker
you know, the other information that I've spoken about and we've spoken about together, that'll give you an idea. I mean, it'll, it'll lead you down the right path, right? I mean,
00:22:54
Speaker
To have that as part of your data that you're going to do this analysis on, it'll give you an opportunity not only to compare your pricing to what you might be able to negotiate locally, but also against the pricing that is readily available to you from the hospital. But my experience is that with exceptions, you can always do better by negotiating locally with the local reps.
00:23:17
Speaker
Um, especially the reps will go to their companies, but with the local reps, because that's where the relationships are, right? That's where the relationships. And again, that's, this is a setting where the surgeons have the most interest in the outcome of those, of where that pricing is and those negotiations.
00:23:35
Speaker
So they're going to be very aggressive and very supportive of an administrator, of a surgery center, of the staff that has that comparative analysis. Yes, we're getting great pricing here at the hospital, but we can do better in those areas. So that's a long answer. The short answer is there'll be instances where the implants are competitive in price, but many instances where you can do better. Got it. So I like that.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, kind of the theme I hear is use it as a data point. Use it as one of your benchmarks, right? So you use the hospital pricing if you've got it. Use the local databases as you've got it, but also going back to the beginning of the conversation, compare that to the other expenses that are going into the certain procedure types and the revenue associated with those procedure types and then kind of work with the rep.
00:24:25
Speaker
work with your implant rep to make a winning procedure that's profitable for everybody. Absolutely. And by the way, I want to make it clear that the implant reps want to keep the business. They do want to be good partners, right? It's just that the incentive to have them be the ones to push that result is not the best strategy, right? But to bring them on board and they too react to data, right? They're going to react to
00:24:50
Speaker
mostly to what the surgeon wants to do. But yeah, you put all that together and I agree. Yeah, that's the best formula. Fantastic. So final question for you here, Tim. And we do this every week with all of our guests. What is one tip our listeners can do this week at their surgery center to improve results?
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, and I've kind of touched on already, but I'm going to drive it home because it's so important, right? And that is, present the surgeons with the data, right? That is probably the most important thing you can do. Obviously, do your homework ahead of time, but put in the time and effort to summarize your raw implant purchase history and to an easy understanding list of comparing apples to apples.
00:25:35
Speaker
the same products that you've got there to the same products that you've benchmarked against, the usage, the CPT codes. By the way, and the reimbursement, which we talked about earlier, put all of that together and talk about how that affects the whole business outcome. But you start with presenting the surgeons with data.
00:25:56
Speaker
start with putting the data together reports but start with sitting down with your surgeons after you've done the homework and talk to them you know they're going to appreciate it as i said their owners in the business they want the best outcomes they're gonna make the best decisions for their patients and for their center but i would do that i would go to the to the data
00:26:14
Speaker
get the data from whatever you've got in your facility, the HSTMV or whatever you're using, and do the other homework, do that, and then go to your surgeons and make a plan with your surgeons and do it as a team. I think that's the best way. One of the things that all surgery centers, if they're not doing it this week, they should plan for it in my opinion. Love it. That's a great insight.
00:26:38
Speaker
Tim, thanks so much for joining us this week. We really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks, Nick. It's been fun talk to you. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.
Healthcare Highlights & Industry Updates
00:26:50
Speaker
As always, it has been a busy week in healthcare, so we will jump in. But first, I wanted to acknowledge that it is perioperative nurses week.
00:26:59
Speaker
So to all the perioperative nurses out there, thank you for your hard work and expertise and making sure patients are safe and well taken care of. Hope you all get a chance to celebrate. All right, first story. As promised last week, we are going to share a bit of a deeper dive into the 2023 final Medicare payment rule. A huge thank you to MauraCash, HST's VP of clinical strategies, and ASCA for helping summarize what's going on here. So let's start with the positive.
00:27:29
Speaker
The final rule, taking into account a 4.1% inflation and a required reduction of 0.3% mandated by the Affordable Care Act, CMS finalized an effective update of 3.8%. While it's not as good as we hoped, it's actually an increase of 1.1% from the proposed rule, so that in and of itself is a win.
00:27:53
Speaker
And then with regards to the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program, CMS finalized its proposal to suspend the mandatory adoption of ASC11, which is cataract's improvement in patient's visual function within 90 days following cataract surgery. So this will remain voluntary in 2023.
00:28:16
Speaker
And then moving on to the not so positive, we mentioned this last week, but unfortunately CMS only added four new procedures to the ASC covered procedures list, even though ASCA advocated for 47. So we'll include the four they added in the episode notes if you wanted to check those out. And lastly, just a really interesting call out in the proposed rule,
00:28:38
Speaker
CMS actually sought comment to explore how ASCs are implementing tools in their facilities towards the goal of interoperability. They're considering the usefulness of electronically submitted quality measures and ASCs to aid in delivering effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely care. A few specific topics they were looking for comment on were any current barriers to interoperability in the ASC setting,
00:29:09
Speaker
the impact of health IT, the ability of ASCs to participate in interoperability or any EHR-based QI activity, and then just general perceived benefits and risks of interoperability in an ASC setting.
00:29:25
Speaker
So in the final rule, they published some of the feedback that they received. And as expected, there was concern around the financial and administrative burden of implementing an EHR and also the lack of federal financial incentive. One commenter suggested that CMS conducts a scan to assess the current adoption of EHRs in the ASC setting, which personally I think is long overdue.
00:29:51
Speaker
A few commenters recommended the development and use of health IT expanding past EHRs in order to create a place where digital data can be shared across all patient care experiences to provide access to a complete and comprehensive health care record. There was a bunch more feedback, as you can imagine, and CMS shared that they would take all comments under consideration for future rulemaking.
00:30:16
Speaker
but it's definitely telling and exciting to see EHR so prominently discussed. This, of course, doesn't guarantee anything will happen, but certainly increases the odds. And there's so much more to the ruling, so please check out the episode notes for a link to learn even more details. In a story shared by Outpatient Surgery Magazine,
00:30:41
Speaker
A plastic surgeon in Maryland has experienced an increase in demand for his procedures, and he believes the pandemic strongly influenced this uptick. More patients than ever have been reaching out for breast reconstruction, tummy tucks, and cosmetic plastic surgery of the face and body. And here are three reasons he cited. First, the inability to travel and continued safety concerns with travel.
00:31:09
Speaker
means patients have longer stretches of downtime at home. The second and the beginning of the pandemic, most people were experiencing some extra money associated with PPP loans or stipends being an unusual amount of cashflow was available. And lastly, a renewed interest in mental health and self-care, he believes has led people to not only want to improve what's going on in the inside, but also the outside.
00:31:36
Speaker
Now, this was just one doctor's experience and we love to see anything kind of driving case volume to surgery centers, but four ASCs that specialize in plastics. I'd love your feedback as well. If you've seen an increase in case volume over the last two years, why do you think that is? Do you think it's related to the pandemic or more cultural shifts and acceptance of plastic surgery?
00:32:04
Speaker
for elective reasons or any of the above or something totally different. Definitely let us know in the comments on LinkedIn. This was one doctor and I'm curious to see if others are experiencing the same.
00:32:18
Speaker
Switching gears to our third story, Dr. Garth Graham, the global head of YouTube Health, shared that credible medical professionals are now able to apply for a special verification on YouTube. NBC News shares that this is an effort to combat medical misinformation online and make it easy for viewers to identify reliable sources.
00:32:41
Speaker
Now, as a consumer and a patient, I personally think this is a wonderful new feature. When something's wrong, it's so tempting to go to the internet for information instead of calling your doctor. And we all know that the internet is typically wrong or very doom and gloom about things.
00:33:00
Speaker
As a healthcare professional, I'm sure you have plenty of stories where patients call you and say, my surgical site is red and Google tells me I'm dying. That seems to always be the outcome, whatever you do search for some reason. So this is a great first step to try to weed out YouTube accounts who give medical advice without proper certifications.
00:33:22
Speaker
One other thing for ASCs to consider is bringing more video into the mix in 2023. If your ASC does not provide any videos right now for prospective or current patients, you're missing out on a great way to reach your community and educate patients. You can do facility tours, interviews with physicians, educational videos on the services you provide,
00:33:49
Speaker
you know, kind of what to expect videos and so much more. And now you can be verified on YouTube, which will add even more to your credibility. And you don't need a production company to do this. You know, with the quality of smartphones now, you can record these videos yourself at a very low financial cost. So just something to think about and then even more so that you can kind of be certified on YouTube is a huge win.
Podcast Conclusion & Acknowledgments
00:34:16
Speaker
And to end our new segment on a positive note, two police officers in Kansas City saved a one month old baby who stopped breathing due to RSV. The entire incident is caught on body cam footage and while it is of course intense to watch, it's actually really helpful to see how the officer performs CPR on such a small baby just in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation. The officers were able to get the baby breathing again
00:34:45
Speaker
before transporting her to a local hospital. And I'm happy to share that baby Kamaya is doing just fine. Thanks to Officer Richard Duchain and Officer Charles Owen. We'll include a link to the story in the episode notes, as always, to the Today Show article so you can see the footage of their life-saving efforts.
00:35:06
Speaker
And that news story officially wraps up this week's podcast. Thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us. Make sure to subscribe or leave a review on whichever platform you're listening from. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you again next week.