Total joints keep moving: Medicare TKA volume in ASCs rose 27.6% in 2024
MedPAC's March report counts 49,258 total knee replacements in ASCs in 2024 — up from roughly 10,800 in 2020, the year Medicare first covered the procedure there.
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Total joint replacement is still the fastest-moving procedure line in ambulatory surgery. In its March 2026 Report to the Congress, MedPAC counts 49,258 total knee arthroplasties performed in Medicare-certified ASCs in 2024 — up 27.6% in a single year, and up from roughly 10,800 in 2020, the first year fee-for-service Medicare covered TKA in the setting.
Hips moved even faster: total hip arthroplasty volume in ASCs grew 28.7% from 2023 to 2024. Total shoulder arthroplasty, covered for the first time in 2024, logged 11,047 Medicare cases in its first year.
The clinical evidence keeps pace with the volume. A Michigan registry study of 24,596 knee replacements found 9.3% were performed in ASCs — and that ASC patients had the lowest 30- and 90-day readmission rates of any setting.
Policy is set to accelerate the trend. The CY2026 OPPS/ASC final rule begins a three-year phase-out of the inpatient-only list and added 271 of those codes to the ASC covered procedures list, including total hip revision and a slate of spinal procedures, per MedPAC’s summary of the rule.
These figures are fee-for-service Medicare only — Medicare Advantage and commercial volume sit on top of them.