Ambulatory Surgery Centers NAICS 621493

Sep 4, 2025 - More Centers Become Medicare-certified

• More ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are becoming Medicare-certified, including 155 new ASCs in 2023, according to MedPac. The aging US population will likely use more health care services, including outpatient procedures. All baby boomers — 75 million, or more than 20% of the population — will have reached Medicare eligibility by 2030, according to MedPac. Care continues to shift from higher cost settings toward more efficient care settings, such as ASCs, when clinically appropriate. Employers and consumers are driving care towards ASCs as they seek cost efficiency and convenience. The Medicare program has also moved various surgeries from inpatient to outpatient settings, adding some cardiac procedures as well as ankle and shoulder reconstructions to ASCs in recent years. This provides opportunities for growth.
• A structural reimbursement crisis affecting hospitals would only get worse if more site-neutral payment policies are enacted to allow ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to be paid as much as hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) receive for performing identical procedures, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). Hospitals have a higher cost structure than independent physician offices (IPOs) and ASCs due in part to the costs of standby capability and capacity, according to the AHA. This standby role is built into the cost structure of hospitals and supported by revenue from direct patient care — a situation that does not exist for any other type of provider. HOPDs aren’t simply same-day surgical centers for health systems, according to the AHA. They also provide complex cancer, infectious disease, mental health and other services — and therefore should not be paid the same Medicare rate as standalone physician offices.

• Certificate-of-Need (CON) laws, which restrict construction and/or expansion of healthcare facilities, may have reduced access to medical care, according to the CATO Institute. CON laws, which are in place in 35 states, require hospitals, nursing homes, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), and other healthcare providers to obtain regulatory approval before opening a new practice, expanding, or making certain capital investments. Medical care in those states is higher-cost and lower-quality than in states without CON laws, according to CATO research, but the majority of this research shows correlations but does not show that CON laws cause reduced access, higher expenditures, and lower quality.
• Ambulatory surgery center industry employment decreased slightly and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased moderately during the first five months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Ambulatory surgery centers sales are forecast to grow at a 5.75% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.