Editor's Note Sports medicine surgical procedures for Medicare patients cost significantly less in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) compared with hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs), according to a study published by the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine on August 29. Researchers analyzed Medicare Procedure Price Lookup data for 62 commonly billed outpatient…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery delivers greater weight loss and lower long-term costs than GLP-1 medications, Ambulatory Surgery Center News September 18 reports. A new JAMA Surgery study of more than 30,000 patients found that surgical patients lost nearly three times as much weight as those on medication while generating meaningful…

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Editor's Note Ascension posted a $917.7 million net income for fiscal 2025 and credits ambulatory growth and tighter spending controls, Healthcare Dive September 19 reports. The nonprofit system reversed a $1.07 billion loss from the prior year and said results reflect “operational discipline,” including improved labor productivity and reduced spend…

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Editor's Note Patients with BMI 40 or higher had similar 24-hour and 1–90 day complication rates to lower-BMI patients after primary total joint arthroplasty (TJA) performed at an academic ambulatory surgery center (ASC), an August 25 article from The Journal of Arthroplasty reports. The study retrospectively analyzed 2,367 primary THA…

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Editor's Note Ambulatory care leaders can now sharpen compliance strategies with the release of the 2025 Quality Roadmap from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), published September 22. The annual report distills more than a year of survey findings into practical guidance for addressing the most common accreditation…

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Growth is the goal in any ASC—growth in volume, growth in profits, and often growth to new locations. For DISC Surgery Centers, which just opened its sixth ambulatory surgery center (ASC) through parent company TriasMD, that growth has been the result of many factors. A key driver, according to Frank…

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Editor's Note The plan to eliminate the Medicare Inpatient-Only (IPO) List and expand the Ambulatory Surgery Center Covered Procedures List (ASC-CPL) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has generated widespread reaction, with more than 3,900 comments submitted during the official feedback period, Ambulatory Surgery Center News September…

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Editor's Note Older age alone should not exclude patients from ambulatory general surgery. A retrospective study published in Cureus on August 27 found that patients over 75 undergoing short-stay general surgical procedures experienced complication and reintervention rates comparable to younger peers, despite higher comorbidity and anesthetic risk scores. The analysis…

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Editor's Note Artificial disc replacement (ADR) no longer requires a hospital stay. In one of the largest analyses to date, a California surgical team reviewed 1,043 outpatient ADR cases over 6 years and found zero immediate hospital transfers, zero transfusions, and every patient discharged home in under 24 hours, LA…

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Editor's Note Pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) are rare after same-day surgeries, but when they occur, they carry high risks of death and readmission. According to Anesthesiology News May 12, a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center analysis of more than 1.1 million outpatient procedures found an…

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