Dr. Nisreen Mesiwala will present a case from the Cornea Service at the UPMC Eye Center Grand Rounds on October 18, 2013 at 7am in BST 120. Drs. Mesiwala and Dhaliwal will lead a discussion after the case presentation. Please come prepared having read the below journal article:

• Journal Article: Medicare Cost Savings Tied to Ambulatory Surgery Centers 
• Summary: As they work to reduce health care costs and extend the
  solvency of programs like Medicare, policymakers will
  confront tough choices in the months and years ahead.
  Yet, they must also be alert for reforms that cut costs while
  maintaining quality services for beneficiaries. This analysis
  by Professor Brent Fulton and Dr. Sue Kim of the University
  of California at Berkeley explores one possible way for
  policymakers to generate substantial Medicare savings
  without reducing services or quality of care.
  This study examines ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).
  ASCs are technologically advanced medical facilities that
  provide same-day surgical procedures, including important
  diagnostic and preventive services like colonoscopies. Today,
  more than 5,300 Medicare-certified ASCs serve communities
  throughout our nation. These ASCs perform many of the
  same procedures as hospital outpatient departments
  (HOPDs). ASCs, however, are able to provide care much more
  efficiently and without the often costly overhead associated
  with hospitals. According to an industry calculation, the
  Medicare program currently reimburses ASCs at 58 percent of
  the HOPD rate, meaning that Medicare—and the taxpayers
  who fund it—realize savings every time a procedure is
  performed in an ASC instead of an HOPD.
  When one considers the millions of same-day surgical
  procedures performed in ASCs through the Medicare
  program each year, the nationwide savings add up quickly.
  In this study, University of California at Berkeley’s Professor
  Brent Fulton and Dr. Sue Kim analyze the numbers to
  determine how much ASCs save the Medicare program and
  its beneficiaries. They begin by analyzing government data
  to identify how much money ASCs saved Medicare in recent
  years, and then, forecast how much more ASCs will save
  Medicare in the future.