Academy Voices Concerns With Popular Rating on ASCs

The Academy is concerned that a recent report on ambulatory surgery centers in U.S. News & World Report could be misinterpreted by the public and media.

The company's inaugural edition of Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers includes ratings for 1,979 ASCs performing ophthalmology procedures. Ophthalmologists associated with these ASCs are listed below their ratings.   

The Academy has several concerns with the methodology used in the evaluation:  

• The quality measures for the ophthalmology ASCs include three outcomes identified in Medicare Fee-For-Service claims dated within 30 days after the procedure: emergency department visit rate, mortality rate, and total allowed payment attributable to complications.  
• It is unclear how complications were attributed to the ophthalmic surgeries.   
• These outcomes do not capture the quality of ophthalmic surgeons or the patients’ visual and quality-of-life outcomes.  

Patients and the public may think these ratings reflect the quality of the ophthalmic surgery, rather than the quality of the ASC facility and its personnel, including anesthesiologists nursing and support staff, or other outcomes unrelated to ophthalmologists' performance.   

The Academy has contacted U.S. News & World Report to communicate our concerns and offered assistance in addressing these issues in future reports. We encourage interested Academy members to provide feedback on the ratings reports to ASCmethodology@usnews.com.