Galen Medical Group: Information About Plaza Surgery Center

Your Rights as a Plaza Center Patient

Recent Medicare changes have impacted all Ambulatory Surgery Centers and I would like to outline those changes for you, your physicians, and patients. We value your business and support of the Plaza Center and want to make these changes as simple as possible to implement.

First, these changes apply to ALL patients scheduled in the Center regardless of the type of insurance coverage. These policies are required for the Plaza Center to maintain their license and continue to provide services. These changes apply to ALL Ambulatory Surgery Centers in the nation and these changes are effective on MAY 18, 2009.

The changes require that some information be given to the patient PRIOR to the day of surgery and be documented in the patient medical record. The specific items required are:

Patient rights
Information on physician financial interest in Plaza Center
Advance Directive information

We have compiled these items into a two-page form for the patient to sign when you are scheduling their procedure. We will supply these to your office and continue to supply as requested. We would ask that you do the following:

Note on the form if the physician is an investor in Plaza Center- the check box is on page two (2) of the form
Have the form signed by the patient at time of scheduling
Fax a copy of the form to the Plaza with the scheduling sheet
Give the patient the original form and request them to bring to Plaza on the day of their procedure

Click HERE to download the form.

This new ruling will effectively eliminate our ability to schedule “day of” or “add on” procedures in the ASC. We will be able to schedule for the next day provided the patient information is signed by the patient and returned when the case is scheduled. We regret the loss of any patient procedure here and hope that renewed lobbying efforts will reverse this ruling in the future.

Please contact us if you have questions or encounter any problems during this implementation. We will be available to work with you to make this process as smooth as possible. Again, we sincerely appreciate your continued support and business.