Data
Charts, snapshots, and trackers built from CMS claims, payer policy, and ASC News reporting.
- MedPAC will test how new ASCs change outpatient surgical volume
A Sept. 3 workplan presentation to the Commission lays out two studies — why some markets have no ASCs, and how outpatient surgical volume changes after a new ASC opens in a market — with no results yet.
Why it matters: The volume study is designed to answer the question payment policy turns on: whether ASC growth moves surgery between settings or adds to the total, which decides how much of the sector's cost-savings case survives the next time CMS or Congress revisits the ASC payment update. - CMS's new open-data release gives ASCs a HOPD benchmark — but no ASC dataset
An April 6 Federal Register notice releases seven Original Medicare and Medicaid provider-and-service datasets, including hospital outpatient utilization and payment — and none of them is ASC-specific.
Why it matters: The release lets ASC operators benchmark their case mix against named hospital outpatient departments, but it adds no new data on ASCs themselves. - The 2026 ASC valuation gap: single centers fetch 5x-8x, platforms 11x-17x
FOCUS Investment Bankers' April 2026 benchmarks put single-specialty ASCs at roughly 5x-8x EBITDA and regional or national operators at 11x-17x — a gap that decides whether an owner sells a center or builds a platform.
- Medicare ASC spending jumped 13% to $7.5B in 2024, MedPAC reports
The commission's March 2026 report counts 6,436 Medicare-certified ASCs — a net 140 more than 2023 — treating 3.4 million beneficiaries across 6.4 million services.
Why it matters: Spending growing nearly six times faster than facility count means revenue per center is climbing — the strongest simple signal in the sector's favor.