Ongoing economic struggles have forced ASCs to update their strategy — or in some cases, face potential closure.
Although strategy changes can help alleviate some of the financial burden, medical supply costs cannot be avoided. And those supplies are getting more expensive.
Here are three figures providing insight into the medical supply market that ASCs should know:
1. Large drugmakers including Pfizer and Takeda Pharmaceuticals raised prices of more than 500 prescription drugs by approximately 5%; experts said this is typical to keep pace with inflation.
2. A recent survey by VMG Health asked healthcare executives to rank the most prominent expected financial challenge in 2024. Twenty-one percent of respondents ranked supply and drug costs and supply chain challenges as one of the most significant challenges they expect to face in 2024.
3. The average ASC spends about 26.3% of its operating budget on drugs and other medical supplies, according to data from VMG Health's Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking study. When broken down by individual cases, drugs and other supplies cost an average of $634 per procedure.