Ambulatory Surgery Center Accreditation is required for most of our 50 States here in the USA.  The type of accreditation is dependent usually upon the amount of Anesthesia Services you wish to be able to offer your patients.  There are two types of surgical  facilities that can become accredited:  Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) & Office Based Surgical Suites (OBS).  The difference in these two types of organizations is the type of specialties the surgeons practice.  If you have a single office with four or less surgeons performing Plastic Surgery, the Office Based Surgery (OBS) is all you would need to meet the regulatory bodies definition.  However, if you plan on offering orthopedics, Endoscopies, Pain Management, or any other specialty that is more than only one, then you would need full surgery center accreditation (ASC).

 More so, dependent upon the state your business resides, State Licensing (Department of Health and Human Services) may or may not be required in conjunction with your Accreditation.  Also, please note that it is very important to know your payer mix for your patients.  If you are a physician that has any patient payer mix of Medicare Insured patients, then Medicare Certification of your surgical space will also be required.  It is also important to know that you cannot get Office Based Surgery Facilities Medicare Certified.  Medicare will only deem those ASCs (Ambulatory Surgery Centers) that meet the CFP (Conditions for Participation) to be certifiable.  {For the most current State listing of States requiring Accreditation, see this list complimentary of AAAHC, Inc. or you can access this complimentary list via the Joint Commission Website for more details and specific regulations for the State and the multitude of types of organizations that the Joint Commission accredits.}

Those who wish to begin an Accredited, Licensed  Ambulatory Surgery Center,  The Compliance Doctor has the most highly recognized experts in this field to assist you in this complicated and delicate process.  

The Compliance Doctor has helped hundreds of health care facilities attain accreditation, which is symbolic to the level of quality in patient care that the surgery center provides.  Most private insurance carriers today require accreditation in order to reimburse the surgery center for the fees associated with the surgery. Fees like the "facility fees", which are the combination of surgery operating room time fees, recovery room time fees,  supplies, and medications.  The three major accrediting organizations that we deal with for our clients are:  AAAHC, Inc., AAAASF, Inc., and Joint Commission.  

*The Compliance Doctor believes in the standards of these organizations and requires that you openly advocate these into the culture of your business.  There are no short cuts in quality, the outcomes are dependent upon the investment initially made.  Therefore, we can only work with physicians that will implement the required standards and then advocate them well beyond the accreditation readiness phase of project.