Two pieces of news impacting New Jersey ambulatory surgical centers: Lawmakers voted Monday night to rewrite the regulations governing the state's single-room surgical facilities and to rescind its 6% tax on cosmetic surgery procedures.
Single-OR, office-based surgical facilities, previously overseen by New Jersey's Board of Medical Examiners, will now be licensed by and operate under the authority of the Department of Health, which regulates the state's hospitals and ASCs. A similar bill won approval from the state Senate in June.
The legislation followed a 2011 study from the non-profit New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute which found critical lapses in many single-room surgery centers' practices, and shared the support of the New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers, New Jersey Hospital Association and Medical Society of New Jersey. "It creates a level playing field with a universal and uniform set of standards," says Larry Trenk, NJAASC president. "Everyone will be subject to licensure, so there will be consistent standards and quality assurance goals."
The Assembly also unanimously voted to phase out a 6% state tax on cosmetic procedures by the middle of next year, with the rate decreasing to 4% this spring, to 2% on July 1, and eliminated after July 1, 2013. The Senate had agreed to a similar plan in September.
The 8-year old tax nets the state $10.8 million in revenues per year, but its critics argued that it inequitably burdened patients undergoing surgery, the medical practices that had to collect the extra fees, and the state revenue officials charged with enforcing the tax.
David Bernard
