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Stephen V. Stephenson, MD
Bryan-College Station Ambulatory Surgical Center Bryan, Tex

JAMA. 1985;253(3):342-343.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Today everyone is interested in containing the high price of medical care. Many innovative approaches have been initiated by health care professionals to help reduce medical costs. One of these approaches has been the development of ambulatory surgical centers across the United States. It has been well documented that ambulatory surgical center charges can save as much as 30% to 50% on the cost when compared with charges incurred when surgery is performed on an outpatient basis in a hospital setting. A substantial portion of all these surgical procedures are performed on elderly patients (aged 65 years or older, or recipients of Medicare).

If a cataract extraction is performed at an ambulatory surgical center, the federal government has dictated that a maximum reimbursement of $329 be made. This outpatient fee is all-inclusive. If this same procedure is performed on an outpatient basis at a hospital, the charges . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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