Brian Chapman, managing partner and leader of the medical products and services practice at professional services firm ZS Associates, shared his predictions on the effect ASC growth will have on hospitals in 2020.
1. Hospitals will take a financial hit as their most profitable surgical cases move to the ASC setting. As a result, hospitals will be primarily caring for sicker patients who ASCs won't take, which will affect hospitals' bottom lines.
2. Rural hospitals will be affected the most by outpatient migration, as they lack the resources larger and more urban hospitals have.
3. Adding to the challenges hospitals are facing in light of ASC growth, medical technology companies don't have a grasp on the unique equipment and budgeting needs ASCs have. Surgery centers have different incentives for buying equipment and are more fragmented than the hospitals medtech companies have served in the past.