“This is our best year ever — and our goal is to continue making improvements,” Michael Romansky, JD, told the audience at the Perspective 2024 luncheon hosted by the Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society (OOSS) on Sunday. The program was held in conjunction with the ASCRS annual meeting in Boston and attracted an audience of ASC owners, many of whom were cataract and refractive surgeons.
Romansky highlighted several of OOSS’s successes over the past year, and discussed areas where the organization plans to focus its advocacy efforts in 2024. These include convincing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to permanently reimburse ASCs based on the hospital market basket; eliminate the budget neutrality rescaler; expand payments for drugs administered during surgery that can reduce the need for postoperative drugs; improve facility payments for minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) as well as the insertion procedure for Dextenza (Ocular Therapeutix); and increase the payment for new technology IOLs.
OOSS’s Executive Director Diane Blanck thanked outgoing president of the executive committee, David George, MD, for his work over the past year. She welcomed the new president, William Wiley, MD, and highlighted several changes to the OOSS executive board. Mr. Romansky, who has served as OOSS’s corporate counsel in Washington, D.C., for more than 40 years, received the organization’s Commitment and Service Award. Robert B. Nelson, PA-C, a longtime OOSS director who is transitioning to emeritus status, received an award named in honor of Jerome H. Levy, MD, FACS, a former president of the organization, who was in the audience to congratulate him.
The OOSS meeting included a pair of panel presentations. The first, “Bringing Innovation to Market,” featured Ben Seals, CEO of Thomas Vision Group in Georgia, moderating a discussion of ASC experiences with the Light Adjustable Lens (RxSight). The panel featured Ralph Chu, MD, and Carrie Jacobs, COE, CPSS, OCS, of the Chu Vision Center in Minneapolis; and Nikki Hurley, RN, MBA, director of surgical services at Key-Whitman Surgery Center in Dallas.
This was followed by a discussion of “Innovations in Glaucoma,” which focused on two products: the Elios excimer laser, which has been approved for use in Europe and is currently undergoing investigational trials in the US, and the Glaukos iDose TR intracameral insert, which was approved by the FDA in December 2023. Moderated by Bill Rabourn of Medical Consulting Group, this panel included glaucoma specialist Nathan Radcliffe, MD, of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; cataract and refractive surgeon Cathleen McCabe, MD, chief medical officer at Eye Health America and medical director at The Eye Associates, both in Sarasota, Fla.; Frank Shields, president of Elios Vision Americas; and Cody McKenzie, Glaukos Corporation’s vice president for glaucoma.
The program concluded with an overview of Medicare reimbursement for MIGS presented by Kevin J. Corcoran, COE, CPC, CPMA, FNAO, principal of Corcoran and Corcoran.