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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U LY 2 0 1 5
Shopping Smart for Capital Equipment
Yes, it's possible to upgrade your ORs without breaking the bank.
I
s it time to replace that
worn-out piece of
equipment that biomed
has been patching together
for months? Did your doc-
tors come back from confer-
ences with that gleam of
desire in their eyes for a
new gotta-have-it toy? Here
are some ways to ensure
you get the equipment you need while avoiding big-time costs.
Calculate the return on investment (ROI). Run reports of CPT codes
associated with the use of equipment to see exactly how many
cases surgeons have historically performed. You should also be able
to obtain the average reimbursement per case from your business
office. If you're a new center, ask your physicians to provide CPT
reports, because they've certainly billed professional codes for proce-
dures performed at other facilities.
My surgeons recently requested a holmium laser. During a recent
analysis of kidney stone cases, I included treatment of kidney, ureteral
and bladder stones in the mix, multiplied the total number of cases per-
formed last year by the Medicare maximum reimbursement rate (leav-
ing out commercial payors) and divided it in half to get an expected
(and extremely conservative) ROI. Based on the number of cases per-
formed, the cost for a $50,000 holmium laser was still easily covered
with 1 year of cases. One additional note: Make sure you also calculate
the cost of disposables in your ROI analysis, so there aren't issues with
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B U S I N E S S A D V I S O R
Corrie Massey, MBA
z PRICE CUT There's always room to work a big-ticket contract to your advantage.
