Digital Debut
New Study Reveals ASCs Save Medicare Billions Every Year
KNG Health releases new analysis
BY ALEX TAIRA | MAY 1, 2026
On April 27, ASCA published a new analysis by KNG Health Consulting that provides details on the enormous fiscal benefit that surgery centers provide for the Medicare program. According to the analysis, ASCs saved Medicare $4.46 billion in 2019 alone. Despite a dip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, savings volume growth quickly resumed and went up to $5.1 billion in 2024, which is the most recent year of claims data available.
In addition, using estimates of the Medicare population, outpatient surgery volume and the ASC share of outpatient surgeries, KNG Health further projected that savings generated by surgery centers will continue to grow substantially over the next decade. Annual savings will reach $12.5 billion by 2034 and total $84.8 billion from 2025 to 2034 from procedures performed in surgery centers instead of hospitals.
The Medicare program saves money any time a procedure is performed in an ASC because Medicare pays surgery centers, on average, roughly half of the amount that it pays hospitals for the same procedures.
A previous analysis of Medicare claims by KNG Health quantified and projected Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) savings generated by surgery centers and found that those savings rose from $3.1 billion in 2011 to $4.2 billion in 2018, with a total savings of $28.7 billion over the eight-year period.
Since that 2020 analysis, the surgery center community has added to its procedures list thanks to regulatory changes and advancements in surgical techniques. For example, KNG Health’s 2020 analysis did not incorporate real Medicare claims data for total knee arthroplasty, which was first approved for ASC performance in 2020. The new analysis reveals important figures about key procedure groups such as orthopedic, cardiovascular and spine surgeries, specialties that have had major procedures added to Medicare’s ASC Covered Procedures List in recent years.
The new study projects musculoskeletal surgeries to overtake digestive system surgeries and become the second largest specialty by Medicare savings, generating $13.5 billion in Medicare FFS savings over the next decade. It also projects that cardiovascular surgeries will be the specialty to experience the highest growth in savings generated over the next decade, rising by more than 300 percent.
For more information, visit ASCA’s Medicare Savings from Use of Ambulatory Surgery Centers webpage.
Write Alex Taira at ataira@ascassociation.org with any questions.