This week’s guest, Melissa Rice, is the administrator at Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Terrace (part of Trinity Health), and the newly elected Illinois Ambulatory Surgery Center Association President. In the first episode of our Case Costing series, Melissa lays out a practical playbook that changes behavior — how to pull the levers that drive profitability (implants, supplies, staffing), why clean data must come first, how subspecialty data can surface margin-wrecking outliers, and the right way to align your staff, surgeons, vendors, and your board using clear numbers and transparent governance.

In our data segment, we spotlight the Days to Bill benchmark — which rose to 4.4 days on average in 2024 from 3.6 in 2023 — and a few specialty-specific improvements. We talk about why this metric matters, what it can indicate, and a few simple ways to accelerate cash while mitigating denial risk.

Resources mentioned:

HST Pathways State of the Industry Report

HST Pathways Spine Specialty Data Report

HST Pathways Cardiovascular Specialty Data Report

HST Pathways Gastroenterology Specialty Data Report

Brought to you by HST Pathways.