Trends in US outpatient surgery growth

Editor's Note

With the increasing shift from inpatient to outpatient care in the US, one important question is how this shift impacts care access across patient populations from different socioeconomic areas. This is especially true as financial incentives can potentially lead to ASC openings in more affluent areas to increase surgical volume and profitability. Researchers seeking to identify market-level characteristics associated with ASC openings conducted a cross-sectional study of county-level data derived from Medicare fee-for-service data to identify ASCs that received Medicare reimbursement from 2011 to 2021. Their findings were published in the November issue of HealthAffairs Scholar.

Based on their data analysis, the adjusted rate of ASC openings was higher among counties with an existing ASC. The investigators also found that counties from the highest numbers of physicians per capita, and the highest average number of hospital beds were more likely to open an ASC. Overall, they identified that ASC openings were more likely to occur in counties with greater existing healthcare resources and higher socioeconomic advantage. They suggested from these findings that the benefits of ASC growth may not be shared equitably.