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ASCs in the news: Vermont's first ASC opens after lengthy approval process

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, May 20, 2008

Vermont's first ASC, The Eye Surgery Center, will open in South Burlington, VT in June, according to a May 8 article in the Burlington Free Press.

Approvals for the project took three years, according to the article. Rand Larson, LASIK marketing consultant for the center, worked to obtain a state Certificate of Need (CON) for the project. The CON review sets forth standards for new healthcare services.

The Free Press story reports that Paulette Thabault, commissioner of Vermont’s Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, approved the ASC’s application last year. The approval included conditions limiting the number of ophthalmologists at the center, the number of procedures it may perform, and requiring the ASC to offer charitable services.

The story reports that three area hospitals opposed the CON application for the new ASC; and following the application's approval, the Vermont Association of Health and Hospital Systems introduced legislation to place a five-year moratorium on new ASC construction in Vermont. The proposal failed, but according to the story, changes to the CON law resulted.

"I don't believe the opposition to us was because we'll have any real financial [impact],” the article quotes Larson as saying. “It was because we changed the paradigm." He adds that in the 49 other states with ASCs, not one hospital has gone out of business as a result of ASC openings.

To read the Burlington Free Press article, click here.

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