Four ASC leaders joined Becker's to discuss the biggest opportunities for growth in the ASC industry.
Editor's note: These answers were edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
1. COVID-19
Earl Andersen. CEO of Tennessee Orthopaedic Clinics (Knoxville): COVID-19 has forced many specialties to find alternative sites of service to the hospital setting, especially for surgical procedures. This, along with value-based care incentives, has created an enormous opportunity for ASCs to immediately see a sharp growth in volume as cases continue to shift from the hospital setting. I think this shift will be permanent. However, it will be important for physicians and ASCs to ensure that clinically appropriate cases are being shifted over to these centers. Thus, clinical pathways and standards will be important in this process.
2. Insurance expansion
Amar Setty, MD. CEO of Patient Premier (Baltimore): Expansion of public health insurance coverage under the American Rescue Plan combined with greater employment increases the pool of people who can have elective procedures and also increases demand for ASC procedures. Vaccinations and greater testing availability are increasing elective surgical volume rather than focus of resources on COVID-19-related illness. ASCs are perceived as "safer" than hospitals since they do not also have patients acutely ill with COVID-related illness. Supply and labor shortages generally have a disproportionate impact on hospitals than ASCs, which drives up costs more. The relative “value” will drive even more volume to ASCs. Consolidation and scale will allow for larger buying pools to reduce costs.
3. Outpatient migration
Todd Lininger, MD. Neuro Pain Consultants (Bloomfield Township, Mich.): I think the biggest opportunity for 2022 and beyond is going to be the movement away from hospital care to specialized outpatient centers such as ASCs. In light of the severe impact of the pandemic on inpatient care and the increasing reluctance of patients to have care in the hospital setting, alternatives will continue to flourish. In addition, new product service lines, such as outpatient cardiac services, will create more and more demand for ASC care. ASCs that are able to offer complicated, yet integrated services in a single outpatient setting should perform particularly well.
4. CMS moves
Peter Young. President of HealthCare Strategic Issues (Fort Myers, Fla.): The two most significant opportunities in the ASC sector fall into two different arenas — operational structure and technology or artificial intelligence/smart tools. The first, less recognized, is the CMS approval of the value-based enterprises, allowing for broader business relationships between physicians, vendor enablers and continuum vendors. CMS also relaxed Stark Laws, and this contributes additional flexibility to value-based enterprises and physician relationships in general. New opportunities in entity structure are now possible.
5. Technological development
Peter Young: The continuing integration of evolving AI/smart tools, starting with advanced procedure navigation to actual procedure, will also contribute to the pace of migration to ASCs.