Bay Area Surgical Management

Bay Area Surgical Management publishes a Services and Specialties page for its surgery centers. It states: "We offer a full spectrum of surgical services at our centers including musculoskeletal, urology, gynecology, general surgery, podiatry, opthamalogy, plastic and reconstruction, otolaryngology (ENT) and gastroenterology specialties." The same page adds that "National Ambulatory Surgery Center in Los Gatos is also a kidney stone center hosting the latest in lithotripsy equipment and SOAR Surgery Center in Burlingame is a dedicated orthopedic center providing the finest and most innovative orthopedic care." The home page gives a slightly different specialty list: "musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, urology, gynecology, general surgery, podiatry and gastroenterology". These are ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers. The website does not say which individual procedures are performed at any one location, does not name any surgeon or anaesthetist, and does not publish credentials, privileges, accreditation or licensure for any facility. It publishes no prices, cost estimates, rates or fees for any service, and no quote process. Whether a particular procedure can be done at a particular center, and whether a patient is a candidate for it, are questions for the patient's own surgeon. The site gives no clinical guidance on that, and none should be offered on its behalf.

Bay Area Surgical Management publishes a Billing page, but no prices. On the cost of care it says: "The total amount of charges for your Surgical Center care depends upon the following factors: The type of services your doctor orders. How long you stay in the Surgical Center." It continues: "The amount of your Surgical Center bill depends on the how much the insurance company pays. The Surgical Center will bill your insurance company (primary and supplemental). You will be responsible for any deductibles, insurance co-pays, or balance on your account that your insurance does not pay." The page also warns that bills arrive separately: "Depending on the services you received, you may receive several different bills. BASM Surgical Centers will send you a bill for Surgical Center services. You may receive a separate bill for professional interpretation pathologist, or another physician. If you require anesthesia, you will receive a separate bill for that service." For billing questions it says: "If you have questions concerning your Surgical Center charges, you may call the surgical center during normal business hours, Monday through Friday." No price list, cost estimate, quote, rates or fee schedule appears anywhere on the site, and no list of accepted insurance plans or in-network status is published. What a given patient will owe is not stated by the site.

To contact Bay Area Surgical Management, the site publishes a Contact Us page carrying a form headed "Contact BASM" with fields for name, email, phone and message. No general company phone number or email address appears on that page. Phone and fax numbers are published on individual facility pages instead: O'Connor Building Surgery Center in San Jose lists P: 408-287-7905 and F: 408-287-7935 at 125 Ciro Ave. Ste. 10, San Jose, CA 95128. A Scheduling page hosts a patient form headed "Forest Scheduling - Patient Form", introduced by the line "Fill out and fax to scheduler with any Physician's 'Pre-Surgical Orders'". It collects date and time of procedure, patient and surgeon details, insurance information and a "Previous Forest Patient?" checkbox. A separate Documents Upload page lets a surgeon's office upload a cover letter and documents. A procedure is booked through the patient's physician's office, not through the website; no appointment slots, opening hours or availability are published. The site publishes no emergency or after-hours phone line and no emergency instructions. Its post-surgery page says only: "If you have a question or concern, first refer to the printed Postoperative Instructions sheet given to you at discharge from the Surgical Center." Its pre-surgery page says that if a pre-operative phone call has not arrived within 24 hours of a procedure, "please call the surgery center from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m." Those are the site's own words. All clinical instructions must come from the patient's surgeon.

The website basurgical.com is published by Bay Area Surgical Management (BASM), which describes itself as "one of the largest and fastest-growing providers of ambulatory surgery centers and business management services in the San Francisco Bay Area." The name "Forest Surgery Center" does not appear anywhere on this website. The only place the word "Forest" occurs is on the scheduling page, where the patient form carries the heading "Forest Scheduling - Patient Form" and includes a checkbox labelled "Previous Forest Patient?". No page, address, phone number, hours, services list or description for a facility named Forest Surgery Center is published on the site, and Forest is not listed among the surgery centers BASM names on its facilities page. Anyone asking about Forest Surgery Center specifically should be told this plainly: the site does not publish it, and the relationship between that name and BASM cannot be confirmed from the site itself. What the website does publish is information about BASM and the surgery centers it names, covering services, locations, address and phone contact details, billing, and patient scheduling paperwork. The site publishes no pricing, no cost or fee schedule, no rates, and no quote or estimate process. It also publishes no accreditation or licensure statement for any facility.