The Health Care Service Corporation, the parent corporation for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans for Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas issued a new draft policy for lumbar spinal fusions.

Our current reimbursement model assumes all physicians perform equal treatment with the same outcomes because payors reimburse at the same level regardless of the quality of care. However, as spine surgeons know, not every surgeon has the same level of experience or delivers the same quality of care.

On March 27, 2012, Linda Peterson, MBA, CEO of Executive Solutions, delivered a webinar titled "Enhancing Revenue for ASCs — Best Practices and Great Ideas." Her presentation focused on how various surgery centers are finding ways to increase revenue and profitability despite declining reimbursement and new government regulations.

This article is written by Patrick Vega, M.S., Principal, Vega Healthcare.

There are four key strategies hospitals and physicians should use to prepare for upcoming reimbursement changes:

This article was written by Barbara Cataletto, MBA, CPC, Chief Executive Office Business Dynamics Limited

It is amazing to me that we still have the propensity to lose earned revenues due to customer failures that are the result of our own business associates. This includes the physician, ancillary support staff, coders and reimbursement teams that are put into place to ensure a collective and successful process. Now before you get into a tiff and think that I am speaking about the other Spine ASC's and practices in your community, you may want to take a closer look at your Quality Assurance programs before dismissing this article.

On Feb. 1, 2012, North American Spine Society sent a letter to House of Representatives member Allyson Schwartz with comments on the Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act.

There are now new codes associated with spine surgery, including posterior interbody fusion, posterolateral interbody fusion and discectomy, according to a report from AAOS Now.

Six spine surgeons discuss the reimbursement environment for spine surgery.

Four spine surgeons discuss the topics weighing most heavily on them and their practices heading into 2012.

Reimbursement trends can impact surgery centers significantly, depending on their specialty mix and their dependence on particular payors. Eric Woollen, vice president of managed care for Practice Partners in Healthcare, discusses 10 trends that may impact payor reimbursement and contracting for surgery centers in 2012.