The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) has published an analysis of Medicare claims from KNG Health Consulting that projects that ASCs will save Medicare $84.8 billion from 2025 to 2034. Previously, stated ASCA, KNG used Medicare claims to determine that ASCs saved Medicare $43.2 billion between 2015 and 2024, and the new analysis shows that ASCs saved Medicare $5.1 billion in 2024 alone.
“Medicare reimburses ASCs at roughly half the rate that it reimburses hospital outpatient departments for the same procedures,” states ASCA. “This means that every time a procedure for a Medicare beneficiary is performed in an ASC instead of an HOPD, the Medicare program saves money.”
Stated ASCA CEO Bill Prentice, “This new analysis confirms the immense savings potential of surgery centers as more Medicare beneficiaries seek high-quality, cost-effective care in surgery centers.”
The analysis also projects that Medicare’s savings from cardiovascular procedures performed in ASCs will rise from $390 million in 2025 to $1.57 billion in 2034. And then there’s cataracts, long an outpatient stalwart procedure; ASCA states that KNG Health’s analysis shows that savings from cataract surgeries performed in ASCs will rise from $1.5 billion in 2025 to just over $2 billion in 2034, totaling $17.7 billion in savings for Medicare over that period.
ASCA noted that the projections incorporate “assumptions regarding the growth of outpatient surgical volume per enrollee, Medicare Advantage penetration rates and the ASC share of outpatient surgeries,” and that “estimates were calculated for Medicare Fee-for-Service only, and calibrated and adjusted to align with data from the Medicare Trustees.”
Check out the full report from KNG Health Consulting here.
