Competition among ASCs lowers prices for consumers, according to research published in Medical Care.
Researchers examined claims from the Health Care Cost Institute from 2008 through 2012 to estimate the connection between ASC availability and prices, competition between outpatient and inpatient hospitals and other hospital market characteristics.
The key details to know:
1. Greater availability of ASCs was associated with lower outpatient procedure prices due to reductions in prices paid to hospital outpatient departments.
2. Hospital competition also resulted in lower outpatient procedure prices, and it had a greater effect on prices than ASC availability did.
3. ASC competition was associated with reduced prices paid to other ASCs.
4. Researchers concluded, "Our results suggest that competition from ASCs benefits consumers through lower prices for outpatient procedures. Any conclusions about the broader welfare implications of the rise in ASCs, however, must balance the price reductions that we found with the volume increases found in previous work, particularly the volume increases at physician-owned ASCs."