ASC Market Poised for Continuing Boom

Experts predict that the ASC market will continue to boom. They predict that the recent surge of growth within the ASC industry will continue into the near future. According to an IndustryARC report published on May 6, the ASC industry is projected to grow at a compound rate of 5.1-percent per year between 2022 and 2027, reaching a market value of $110.4 billion.

IndustryARC notes some reasons behind this projected growth:

• The ability of ASCs to provide less expensive care in comparison to rising hospital costs
• The convenience of same-day procedures, and the speed of completion
• The increasing age of the American population leading to higher procedure volumes

Physicians themselves are also playing a role in the growth of the market. They are searching for alternatives to  increasingly strict demands and administration of working within a hospital or hospital system.

“For healthcare providers, ASCs are an opportunity to have more control over how things are done,” Alexander Sah, M.D. said in a May 11 interview with HealthLeaders. “In a main hospital, you have many resources at your disposal, but you also have the challenges of emergency cases as well as operating rooms that have a wide scope of procedures that they perform. In an ASC, there is an opportunity to fine-tune skills and develop very specific programs.”

Billionaire CEO and investor Warren Buffett also believes ASCs will continue to see success, stating that he believes the market is in position to continue to grow despite current inflation rates.

With this growth comes difficulties, such as ASCs still battling unfavorable guidelines presented by CMS, which tend to favor hospital and hospital systems, leading to reducing reimbursements. However, despite such challenges the ASC market is trending toward a brighter future.