There has been a flurry of state and national policymaking in the last week that could impact the business and operations of ASCs as legislators consider new regulations for physician contracting, new facility development and reimbursements.
Here are five policy updates for ASCs to know since March, 6 2026:
1. Mississippi lawmakers approved legislation that would temporarily loosen certificate of need requirements for rural hospitals, allowing them to add services or expand facilities more easily. As ASCs become increasingly essential to hospital service lines, the move could result in improved access to care and more outpatient sites.
2. There is an ongoing dispute between hospital and health plan leaders in North Carolina over the use of facility fees in outpatient billing. Last year, the Senate passed a bill that would restrict facility fees to only being charged when patients are treated at hospitals, facilities with emergency departments or ASCs. Hospitals would no longer be able to add a facility fee to bills from a clinic or physician’s office under the proposal. But the bill has yet to move forward in the legislative process.
3. Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan recently clarified their policy surrounding a modifier applied to certain outpatient surgical codes. In February, BCBS Michigan released a new reimbursement policy surrounding modifier 25. In the initial announcement, BCBS stated that beginning May 1, it would change its policy surrounding non-preventive evaluation and management services appended with modifier 25 billed on the same date of service as procedure codes that have a global surgical period of zero, 0 or 90 days for services rendered on May 1 or after.
After receiving pushback from the Michigan State Medical Society, specialty groups and individual physicians BCBS issued a clarification. BCBS revised the policy to remove the 90-day global surgical period. It also further defined a “minor procedure” as having a global surgical period of either zero or 10 days, often performed in the office or outpatient setting and being general low-risk and minimally invasive. It also clarified that the modifier 25 should be used if the patient’s condition requires “a significant, separately identifiable E/M service above and beyond the usual pre-operative and post-operative care associated with the minor procedure performed.”
4. A bill that would ban employee noncompetes and related repayment agreements awaits signature from Governor Bob Ferguson. The legislation would replace Washington’s current income-based restrictions surrounding noncompete agreements. Current statue declares noncompete void and unenforceable for lower- and middle-income workers, with a threshold of $126,859 for employees and $317,147 for independent contractors.
5. Surgeons from the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery planned to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill March 11 to advocate for policies aimed at protecting patient access to care. The group’s members will discuss several legislative priorities during the organization’s Congressional Advocacy Day, representing more than 13,000 ear, nose and throat physicians nationwide, according to a March 11 press release. One priority is passage of the Stop CMV Act, which would fund universal newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus, the leading non-genetic cause of hearing loss that affects one in 200 newborns. The academy is also urging lawmakers to pass Ally’s Act, which would require private insurers to cover bone-anchored hearing aids and cochlear implants.
