Hospitals continue to look to ASCs as outpatient surgery becomes more popular and the need to cut costs grows.
Jim Freund, managing partner for Physician Transaction Advisors, joined Becker's to discuss three trends on the horizon for the ASC industry.
More procedures
There will be continued migration of procedures from the inpatient to the outpatient setting, Mr. Freund said.
This is largely because cost savings at ASCs are "really significant," he said. Medical procedures can cost as much as 58% more at hospital outpatient departments when compared to a physician office or ASC, according to an analysis by Blue Health Intelligence, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association's data analytics company.
Additionally, ASCs are often a more preferable setting for patients and physicians. Outside of cost savings, patients flock to ASCs for the convenience and physicians enjoy the autonomy and financial gain that they can offer.
"There's no question there's going to be more and more cases and procedures done in outpatient settings," he said, adding that in the current healthcare landscape, there's a "greater acceptance and movement of procedures to the ASC space."
More hospital partnerships
As outpatient migration continues, hospitals have been "forced to embrace it," so Mr. Freund predicts an uptick in hospital partnerships and ASC ventures.
A January survey of health system executives by VMG Health found that 60% of leaders were considering pursuing outpatient surgery joint ventures in 2024, the highest area of interest of any potential specialty partnerships. In 2023, Becker's reported on 55 hospitals and health systems opening ASCs.
"They're either going to be part of that or they're going to lose in that race," he said. "So you see all the big consolidators out there, and even the smaller ones, are creating partnerships with healthcare systems, whether it's an independent or a joint venture group."
While there are challenges with hospitals trying to "implement their systems into the surgery center space," Mr. Freund said, "that just doesn't work," and hospitals need to allow physicians the autonomy that drew them to ASCs.
More consolidation
Although the ASC industry remains fragmented, with 68% of ASCs being independently owned, Mr. Freund expects consolidation to tick up.
Larger groups that have scale can bring to independent physicians, he said, and this is necessary as healthcare as a whole becomes increasingly consolidated.
It's "very challenging from a cost perspective, from a technology perspective and from a staff perspective" to remain independent.