Reducing Medicare Costs by Migrating Volume from Hospital Outpatient Departments to Ambulatory Surgery Centers
From Advancing Surgical Care (Download PDF)
More than 5,800 Medicare-certified ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) provide outpatient services to Medicare beneficiaries. On average, Medicare pays ASCs one-half of hospital outpatient department (HOPD) rates for the same procedures, meaning that every time a procedure for a Medicare beneficiary is performed in an ASC instead of an HOPD, the Medicare program saves money. This report seeks to update estimates of those savings to the Medicare program for the period 2011 to 2018 and project those savings for 2019 through 2028.