Specialties
Where the cases are going. Volume, payment, and migration signals across ortho, GI, ophthalmology, cardiology, spine, and pain.
- The cardiology societies signed off on ASC ablation — and that's the part that de-risks the build
A July 29, 2025 HRS comment letter told CMS that same-day-discharge ablation is safe in appropriately selected patients — the endorsement that lets an electrophysiologist clear a medical-staff and payer review before the first $20,256 case.
Why it matters: An operator weighing an EP line now has a primary-source society endorsement to cite against medical-staff and payer objections — the soft barrier that usually kills new ASC service lines before the capital question is even reached. - Lumbar fusion codes 22630 and 22633 land on the ASC list for 2026 — five years after CMS first opened, then shut, the door
The CY2026 final rule adds posterior lumbar interbody fusion (22630) and combined PLIF (22633) to the ASC covered-procedures list — instrumented spine work CMS first cleared toward outpatient settings in 2021 and walked back in 2022.
Why it matters: Spine-heavy centers can now bill Medicare for instrumented lumbar fusion — a far higher-revenue, higher-implant-cost line than the decompressions ASCs already run. - ChristianaCare puts cath, ablation and device implants into a $9.3M cardiovascular ASC
A three-way joint venture will build a 9,000-square-foot cardiovascular surgery center in Newark, Delaware, projecting roughly 10,800 outpatient heart and vascular procedures a year in New Castle County by 2029.
Why it matters: This is one of the first hospital-plus-physician cardiovascular ASCs to name and size the exact procedure mix — including ablation — that CMS opened to surgery centers in the CY2026 final rule, so operators weighing a de novo cardiac center now have a concrete comparable to model against. - 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.
Why it matters: Joint volume is the highest-revenue migration in the sector — capacity, block time, and payer contracting decisions made this year determine who captures it.