From the CEO

Nueterra Healthcare Adds Value Every Day

Many investors in surgery centers and physician-owned hospitals that do not have a corporate partner think they can develop and run a profitable center on their own. But the fact is that about two-thirds of facilities without a corporate partner are not profitable.

How does a corporate partner add value and increase a surgical facility's profitability? Here's a look at some of the value-added services that Nueterra provided to its facilities during 2009.

Driving Growth
Nueterra's Growth Initiatives team, launched in 2008, expanded its role last year to help facilities offer more service lines and better manage sales activity. In addition, quarterly health awareness clinics were developed for use at all Nueterra facilities. Additional service lines will be implemented this year, and facilities will be provided with financial, clinical, operational and sales/marketing strategies for increasing business within each product line.

Health Care Reform
Nueterra is actively engaged, and provides opportunities for investors to be engaged, in the legislative process at the federal and state level. Through its participation in the ASC Association and the newly formed ASC Advocacy Committee, Nueterra is working to keep ASCs from being impacted by the significant cuts planned for Medicare and reduce the impact of health reform provisions on the productivity adjustment and cost reports for ASCs.
In terms of physician-owned hospitals, Nueterra has been aggressively working to defeat, or postpone, the planned restrictions on the growth of physician-owned hospitals.

Increasing Reimbursement
One of the most critical services Nueterra provides is ongoing reimbursement support. Nueterra has developed a proprietary system of contract analysis, which allows for better modeling and projections of the impact of contracting efforts. In 2009, Nueterra's Reimbursement team negotiated dozens of contracts that generated significant additional annual net revenue compared to 2008. The Reimbursement team also evaluated and retained out-of-network status for facilities where accepting managed care contracts, which resulted in significant savings.

Clinical Services
Clinical services support was especially important in 2009 because of the major regulatory changes that occurred. Nueterra's clinical services team served on a special AORN task force to review changes related to survey and infection control guidelines, and develop recommendations to CMS for implementation. The Operations Design team, which includes clinical services, completed a thorough review of current Nueterra facility practice and policy to ensure compliance with the extensive changes.
Supply Chain

In 2009, the Nueterra Supply Chain team developed, implemented and monitored a formalized Supply Value Analysis initiative. The initiative uses facility-specific SVA teams that review supplies used at their facility and then look for savings opportunities through product standardization, utilization reduction or lower priced alternatives.

For more information, visit the Nueterra public affairs website at www.nueterrahealthcare.com/pa