All facets of physician services will experience modifications and changes once the healthcare reform is put in to effect.

“Some hospital executives in the past had viewed ASCs as patient care facilities that took surgeries away from hospital operating rooms; the new economics of bundled payments is about moving patients to the most effective market, whether it be an ASC or a hospital” as reported in “Becker’s ASC Review.”

Overall, with regards to physician-hospital alignment, there are three key elements that will be impacted by the healthcare reform: clinical activity alignment (how the hospital and staff practice medicine), economic alignment (correlation of physician and hospital financial returns), and alignment of purpose (engaging/inspiring hospital employees).

“Historically, hospitals have focused on ambulatory surgery centers to provide the economic alignment for physicians,” said Kurt Peterson, national director of Kurt Salmon Associates. “New regulations, bundled payments and accountable care organizations have changed that dynamic.

“What really changed was not so much the economics of this, but the dialogue about the continuum of care and looking at the whole person. The focus suddenly shifted to the ASC to play a different role; yes, it’s about volume and economic alignment, but more it’s about being aligned to the hospital.”