Political Quotes

“I rise today, once again, to advocate for patients and their access to more choice and competition in providing good quality health care by introducing The Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act of 2011 with my colleague, Senator Crapo. Advocates for health care reform and a healthier nation continue to emphasize the importance of keeping patients ``out of the hospital.'' ASCs can help do that by providing cost-effective services in an outpatient setting. There are more than 5,200 Medicare-certified ASCs across all 50 States, with 83 in Oregon alone. These facilities, that employ the equivalent of 117,700 full-time workers nationwide, ensure that patients from Portland to Hermiston, from Klamath Falls to Coos Bay, have access to safe, effective, and quality surgical care. But ASCs can do more than provide the same services found in a Hospital Outpatient Department; they can do it at lower cost. Medicare saves an estimated $3 billion each year when surgical procedures are performed in ASCs rather than hospitals due to ASC reimbursement equaling 56 percent of what a hospital receives. Currently, Medicare uses two different factors to update reimbursement: one for ASCs and a different one for hospitals. ASC payments are updated based on the consumer price index, while hospital rates are updated using the hospital market basket, which specifically measures changes in the costs of providing health care.…”