Shifting routine outpatient procedures to ASCs can save commercially insured patients $684 on average per procedure, according to a Sept. 8 report from UnitedHealth Group.
Four things to know:
1. On average, shifting common outpatient procedures for commercially insured individuals to ASCs reduces the cost of procedures by 59 percent.
2. In 2019, the average price of common procedures performed in a hospital outpatient department was 144 percent more than the price of the same procedures in ASCs.
3. Fifty-six percent of procedures performed in HOPDs are for noncomplex patients with access to ASCs.
4. Thirty-five percent of the more than 6 million routine hospital outpatient procedures are for patients who do not have an ASC near their homes.