NYOBS

A class action lawsuit has been filed against UnitedHealthcare for non-payment of OBS “facility fees”. It is scheduled to go to trial in the fall of this year. More…

An article in The New York Times about colonoscopies fails to explain that the reason for a switch to ASCs from office based locations is because most insurance companies don’t pay for office based surgery facility fees any more.

We have recently incorporated The Society of New York Office Based Surgery Facilities as a not for profit 501(c)(6) corporation to advocate for accredited office based surgery facilities in New York State.

Drs. Tichenor and Antell with our lobbyist Diane Frazier at a fundraiser for Governor Cuomo

 

We believe that office based surgery is the preferred place to perform many surgical and endoscopic procedures, in terms of cost, convenience and safety. All members of the society are accredited by one of three approved organizations and have satisfied the highest standards which have allowed the accreditation.

NYOBS will seek to ensure that the importance of office based surgery is universally recognized. To that end, our first goal will be to ensure that all accredited office based surgery facilities are recognized by governmental and institutional entities as equivalent to other venues where similar surgeries are performed.

We believe that all accredited ambulatory surgery facilities should be compensated by patients and insurance companies in a fair manner. There have been many attempts to circumvent usual, customary, and reasonable fees for office based surgery. To date we have been successful in many cases in our efforts to obtain fair reimbursement for our facilities.

We anticipate that with the backing of the almost 1000 office based surgery facilities in New York State with help from the medical societies, our organization will be successful in reaching the goals which we have set:

• Fair reimbursement of all accredited OBS facilities based on standard accurate UCR fees.
• Direct payment to all accredited OBS facilities by all insurance companies.
• Recognition of OBS facilities by governmental programs.
• Recognition of OBS facilities as being separate from a physician’s office.

OBS facilities must recognize that if they are to accomplish these goals, there must be strong representation both in Albany as well as in Washington. As a result we have a lobbyist, Diane Frazier, to represent us in Albany. We are both optimistic that with their help, we will be able to achieve our goals.

We hope that you will join us by filling out our application along with your payment of the first years’ dues of $1,000. (Please see the application for individuals who are not affiliated with an accredited facility.)

We are working to create pilot reimbursement programs for obs facilities. The sooner you join, the more likely you are to be included, so please join ASAP.

but in order to accomplish what we wish, we need to significantly increase our membership now so that we have 25% of the office based facilities in New York, which would be a total of  about 250 facilities.

The AAAASF has sent a letter to the OBS facilities which it has accredited informing them of our organization. You may download a copy. We have also been featured in the MSSNY weekly email. Scroll down almost to the bottom of the page in the archives on the MSSNY website. The Queens County Medical Society has also mentioned us in their newsletter.

As a result of our efforts, the Senate passed our Bill both in 2011 and a similar bill in 2012 which included provisions for out of network providers (enter S4597A into the search box to see the bill), but there was not enough time to pass it in the Assembly.   We intend to keep pressing because we have been told that the Governor’s office and the regulators believe that insurance companies should pay for an OBS facility and they have the regulatory authority to do so.  In addition, Governor Cuomo included provisions in his Budget Bill in 2014 regarding office based surgery.

We will continue to work with the regulators in Albany as well as the insurance companies.  Some insurance companies are reimbursing for the costs of office based surgery.  For more information about that, please go to the insurance page

We welcome any suggestions which you may have regarding the development of our programs as we grow.

We also have a Political Action Committee (PAC), NYOBSPAC.   It is critically important for us to support those politicians who share our views, especially now that a bill has been introduced.  You can make a contribution to our PAC, which will be used in turn to make contributions to political candidates. Please send your check to:

NYOBS-PAC
c/o The Elk Street Group, LLC
21 Elk Street
Albany, NY 12207

You may also pay by credit card.

For more information, you may email our Executive Director

or contact him at:

Executive Director
NYOBS
c/o The Elk Street Group, LLC
21 Elk Street
Albany, NY 12207
518 813 4383

We hope to hear from you soon.