ASC compliance, credentialing, QAPI and operations insights.
Practical guidance for ambulatory surgery center leaders managing AAAHC and Joint Commission readiness, CMS updates, HIPAA security, credentialing and privileging, incident reporting, root cause analysis, corrective actions, QAPI, staffing, vendors, contracts, and day-to-day operational risk.
The HIPAA Security Rule Final Rule Runway: Use It
OCR Security Rule overhaul is on the May 2026 finalization agenda. Change Healthcare breach is the largest healthcare notification ever. Time to stop preparing and start shipping.
AAAHC v44: What the First Surveys Are Actually Showing
Three months into AAAHC v44, the pattern is clear: surveyors want outcomes evidence, scope-of-practice alignment, and real patient education, not binders of policies.
Complex Procedures Are Moving to ASCs. Your Operations Have to Move With Them.
Bain estimates ASCs run up to 50% cheaper than hospital outpatient, and 90% of hospital leaders plan to grow ASC portfolios. The operational lift behind that shift is bigger than most centers admit.
CMS CY 2026 ASC Final Rule: 560 New Procedures, IPO Sunset, and a 2.6% Update
The CY 2026 Final Rule reshapes what ASCs can do, what they get paid for, and what they have to measure. The payment update is the easy number. The harder work is preparing privileging, training, and case planning.
AAAHC v44 Lands December 16: A 90-Day Plan for ASCs
Version 44 leans into outcomes measurement, informed decision-making, and scope-of-practice alignment, with a structural cleanup designed to reduce administrative friction. The window between release and effective date is the cheapest time to fix gaps.
The New Joint Commission IC Chapter Is Live: A Reading for ASCs
The new IC chapter is less a tweak and more a restatement of what an infection prevention program is supposed to look like in 2025. Surveillance, surgical site infection prevention, and accountability all get sharper.
The 2024-25 Sterilization Recall Wave: Why Lot Tracking Stopped Being Optional
From custom procedure trays to surgical staplers to convenience kits, the last twelve months produced a steady drumbeat of sterilization recalls. The centers that handled them well could answer the question of which lots were on their shelves in minutes.
Controlled-Substance Telehealth Through 2025: Plan for the Cliff, Not the Extension
Telemedicine prescribing of Schedule II-V substances continues through the end of 2025. The compliance work to do now is the documentation and workflow rebuild that will hold up whether the flexibilities expire, narrow, or finally become permanent.
The HIPAA Security Rule NPRM: What ASCs Should Do Before the Ink Dries
Encryption everywhere, MFA, annual asset inventories, and a 72-hour restoration clock. The proposed Security Rule rewrite is a meaningful lift for ASCs and the work that makes sense to start now is the work you would have to do anyway.
CMS CY 2025 OPPS/ASC Final Rule: A 2.9 Percent Bump, 21 New Procedures, and a Real Change on Non-Opioid Pain
The CY 2025 Final Rule lands a 2.9 percent net payment increase, adds 21 procedures to the ASC Covered Procedures List, and creates separate payment for non-opioid pain treatments. Plan accordingly.
The FTC Noncompete Rule Is Vacated. State Law Is the Story Now.
The FTC noncompete ban was struck down before it took effect. For ASCs, that means physician employment contracts revert to a patchwork of state rules. Centralize before the next round.
Information Blocking Disincentives Take Effect July 31. Here Is the ASC-Specific Read.
The disincentives rule is now final, with an effective date of July 31. Not every ASC physician is in scope, but the documentation expectations apply more broadly than people think.
The New HIPAA Reproductive Health Privacy Rule: What ASCs Have to Operationalize Before December
The Reproductive Health Privacy Rule introduces an attestation requirement for certain PHI disclosures. Most provisions have a December 23 compliance deadline. Plan now.
Three Weeks Into the Change Healthcare Outage, the Vendor-Concentration Lesson Is Unavoidable
The ALPHV ransomware attack on Change Healthcare started February 21. Three weeks in, hospitals report patient care impact and 80 percent of practices have lost revenue. Here is what ASCs should fix.
The Corporate Transparency Act Is Now Live. Your ASC Is Probably a Reporting Company.
The Corporate Transparency Act quietly reshaped entity-level compliance on January 1. If your ASC is an LLC or corporation, you almost certainly owe FinCEN a Beneficial Ownership report this year.
CMS CY 2024 Final Rule: What Actually Changes on January 1
CMS issued the CY 2024 OPPS and ASC Final Rule on November 2. A 3.1 percent payment update, 37 new ASC procedures, 26 dental surgical procedures, and an IOP payment. Here is what changes January 1.
The Staffing Math Is Not Improving. What ASCs Can Control.
100,000 nurses left the profession during the pandemic. Labor expenses are up 20.8 percent since 2019. The structural fix is years out. What ASCs can fix this quarter is documentation.
The No Surprises Act IDR Backlog Is a Documentation Problem
Over 300,000 IDR disputes were initiated in the first year of the No Surprises Act. Providers won roughly 80 percent of 2023 determinations. The deciding factor is documentation.
The PHE Ended Yesterday. Your First 90 Days.
The Public Health Emergency expired yesterday. The next 90 days determine whether your post-PHE posture survives its next survey or generates a corrective action plan.
The PHE Ends May 11. Here is What ASCs Should Be Doing Now.
The Public Health Emergency ends in eight weeks. ASCs that leaned on Section 1135 waivers need to inventory what they relied on, revert policies, and re-anchor credentialing before May 11.