ASC management company Regent Surgical Health outlined the year's key trends and forecasted some of next year's.
Three key concepts:
1. Bundled payments. Due to their ability to reduce cost for high-volume procedures and offer savings for health systems and ASCs, bundled payments garnered attention in 2019 and will continue to be an opportunity for cost containment in 2020.
2. Increasing outpatient access. More CEOs said focusing on ambulatory strategies was a priority in 2019. How ASCs adapt to the shift of procedures to the outpatient setting will be a trend to watch in 2020.
3. Outpatient knee replacements. With the CMS decision to pay for outpatient total knee replacement in ASCs in 2020, more ASCs have the opportunity to take on these procedures.