More than half of procedures performed in the U.S. are done in an outpatient setting, and competition between hospitals and ASCs may affect the price of care, according to research published in Medical Care.
Researchers examined claims data from the Health Care Cost institute from 2008 to 2012 and constructed county-level price indices for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments. Estimations of the association between prices and the availability of ASCs and outpatient/inpatient hospital competition and the integration of hospital market characteristics were studied.
Here are the key insights to know:
1. ASC availability was associated with lower outpatient procedure prices due to reductions in HOPD payments.
2. Competition between hospitals also lowered outpatient procedure costs.
3. However, competition among ASCs reduced prices paid to other ASCs.
4. "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," the researchers concluded.