As the ASC industry faces financial squeezes, many ASCs are turning to technology as a key strategy for cost reduction and operational efficiency.
Twenty-five ASC leaders and physicians spoke with Becker’s about the technology helping them manage rising operational costs.
The leaders featured below are speaking at Becker’s 31st Annual: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Oct. 16-18, 2025, at the Swissotel in Chicago.
If you would like to join the event as a speaker, please contact Scott King at sking@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is connecting with healthcare leaders who will speak at the event to get their perspectives on key issues in the industry.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: Which tech has been the biggest asset in helping your ASC navigate rising operational costs? And how has it helped?
Melissa Rice. ASC Administrator, Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center, Trinity Health: One of the most valuable technologies in managing rising operational costs at our ASC has been our ASC software platform, HST Pathways. Its case costing tools provide real-time visibility into procedure-level profitability, allowing us to identify cost variances and make informed decisions without compromising clinical outcomes. This has increased surgeon engagement around cost awareness and supported more strategic vendor and contracting decisions. HST Pathways has been instrumental in helping us operate more efficiently and protect our margins.
Dr. Stephen Esper. Director, UPMC Center for Perioperative Care; Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical School: Cloud-based practice management and EHR systems, combined with automation and analytics.
Automation of billing, coding, and claims submissions reduces admin cost and human error, though all of it has to be accurate. It also helps with faster claims processing and reimbursement. We have dashboards that look at payor mix, cost-per case, and staffing efficiency, to help underperforming service lines. It helps with staffing efficiency to reduce overstaffing and idle OR time.
Dr. Sapna Thomas. Medical Director, North Ridgeville Endoscopy; Gastroenterologist, North Ridgeville Health Center, University Hospitals: We have found that transitioning to a closed waste management system has offset a significant amount of cost for our ASC. The upfront cost may seem substantial but the savings include waste disposal, storage, and improved sustainability. It also improves the overall efficiency in the endoscopy suite.
Leslie Jebson. Administrator, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Network, Prisma Health: To counter rising operational costs in our orthopedic centric Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs), enhanced data analytics has been yielding measurable benefits.
These advanced analytics enable us to collect, process, and analyze data to optimize operations, enhance patient care, and reduce costs. This includes predicting surgical risks, optimizing scheduling and resource allocation, identifying areas for waste minimization, and improving supply chain management. By comparing performance against industry benchmarks, we can identify strengths and areas for improvement.
Dr. Benjamin Levy. Gastroenterologist, Clinical Associate of Medicine, University of Chicago: Provation is a gastroenterology procedure documentation software that helps us document and bill GI procedures quickly, accurately and efficiently. I am also excited about AI-driven documentation software like Argus AI by EndoSoft, which allows gastroenterologists to document procedure reports in real time during GI procedures using voice-activated AI. By speeding up documentation, we can perform more procedures each day, helping offset rising operational costs.
Janet Carlson. Vice President of Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Commonwealth Pain & Spine: The biggest asset in helping our ASCs navigate rising operational costs has been the implementation of our inventory management system to track our medical supply spending per case. This helps us drive alignment with our surgeons and manage the rising costs of our disposable and surgical case supplies.
I will admit that it is labor intensive to accurately build and implement this software solution, the dividends are worth that investment during the building process. Anyone who is granted access to the database can drill down to KPIs per surgeon, per case and have a better grasp of how much each case costs in your ASC. This information is crucial to maintaining financial sustainability and improving operational efficiency.
Bruce Feldman. Administrator, Eastern Orange Ambulatory Surgery Center: It would have to be the utilization of EMRs specifically developed for ASCs such as SIS Complete. It has allowed us to have the data we need to make sound business decisions. This data includes such things as case costing, O.R. Turnover Time, Physician Block Time Utilization and Materials/Supply Utilization. It has also helped with revenue cycle management and third party payor contracts payment analysis. There is no tool more valuable to an ASC then having accurate and precise data such as previously mentioned. ASC specific practice management/EMR systems allow you to capture this data.
Sean Gipson. Division CEO and President, Remedy Surgery Centers: One of the biggest tech assets that I have taken advantage of with our surgery centers is our use of our cloud-based electronic health records and practice management. This software has several benefits which include cost efficiency, accessibility and mobility, analytics and reporting, and data security and compliance to name a few.
These days, everyone is looking for ways to cut costs. With the use of our cloud-based EHR, I’ve been able to reduce IT costs, space, and FTEs. We simply do not have to dedicate people, time, space, and overall expenses to and for onsite servers. In addition, I’ve eliminated the costs of server maintenance and capital outlay for such.
Additionally, the accessibility and mobility to access our EHR also, eliminates slower offsite interaction and added software. This gives our system the ability to access patient information, reports, surgical notes, and billing data, efficiently saving time by eliminating calls, faxes, secure transfers and so on. Physicians can quickly access their patient’s information on referred surgeries again saving time and being able to speed the patient care process for their patient base.
An additional benefit with EHR is with the analytics and reporting abilities of the system. The ability to seamlessly share data with our billing department speeds the process for reimbursement. Additional capabilities with the reporting give us the ability to set software automation for compliance reports and meeting the ever-growing reporting requirements from state and accreditation bodies. We are also using these software tools to mine our data for marketing and prospecting data to keep our system relevant and competitive within the communities that we operate. We are using the reports to minimize the time spent on inventory control as well as vendor orders keeping fewer dollars on the shelves and more in our staff and capital.
No one likes to change, however, looking back at making the move has been very helpful with time, money, and overall system efficiencies. It was well worth our time, initial expense and the headache in the beginning, switching from paper to electronic records.
Dr. Thomas Jeneby. CEO, Palm Tree SurgiCenters, Chrysalis Cosmetic SurgiCenter, Maximus Plastic SurgiCenter: The tech that has most helped us with rising operational costs is the use of mobile time clocks for the Anesthesia crew. It is a Geofence software that the Anesthesia crew uses to check in upon arrival.
These times are compared to start times of the actual procedure to make sure we all are in sync. This avoids the anesthesiologist from checking in two hours before a procedure and claiming time. We then pay 15 minutes before the start of the first procedure (as described in the OR records), and 15 minutes after the last one of the day with hourly rates within the surgery. We use the mobile time clock as a gauge of the the anesthesiologist’s true time with the patient.
Natalie Malitz. Director of Operations, Red Rock Surgery Center: The biggest tool helping us manage rising costs is our case-costing process, which feeds into our profitability data model. It gives us better visibility into supply use and the true cost of each procedure. With this data, we’ve been able to standardize supplies, cut waste, and negotiate better pricing. It’s helping us stay efficient without affecting patient care—and automation has saved staff time by reducing manual work.
Angie L. Jiménez. CEO, Puerto Rico ASC Holding Co.: The biggest asset technique that we have implemented as a group for helping our ASCs navigate rising operational costs was an initiative named: “Adopt an item or contract”. In this initiative, each member of the management team selected an item and negotiated a price reduction or better payment terms. This has been amazing for our centers lowering the cost of seral high-volume items up to 20% of the cost. It has also strengthened the team!
Dr. Megan Friedman. Chair and Medical Director, Pacific Coast Anesthesia: Our shift scheduling software has been one of the most effective tools in managing rising ASC anesthesia costs. It enables real-time clock-ins, shift swapping, and dynamic schedule adjustments to match case volume, helping us avoid unnecessary overtime and underutilized coverage. We can reassign or increase staffing within the app to meet procedural demand, reduce idle time, and keep providers engaged and accountable. This flexibility supports operational efficiency without compromising care, making it easier to align clinical needs with financial goals in a high-volume ASC environment.
Dr. Narasimhan Jagannathan. Professor, University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix; Division Chief of Anesthesiology, Phoenix Children’s Hospital: At Phoenix Children’s, we have focused on improving block time efficiency to balance supply and demand. Hands-on coordination among scheduling teams, perioperative nursing, and surgical leadership has been key to aligning OR availability, staff resources and anesthesia coverage.
Maria Todd. Director of Business Development, Red Rocks Surgery Center; Interim Executive Director, Andry Alliance IPA: Surprisingly, the most impactful tools have been simple ones. We built a custom spreadsheet system—no SaaS fees, just Excel—that tracks per-case costs, block utilization, surgeon-specific usage, PACU times and vendor pricing.
Our biggest breakthrough came with Bundlr™, which gives us a framework for CPT-based bundled pricing. It enforces price integrity by tracking surgeon-specific cost variations and aligning them with benchmarks. This transparency fosters cost-conscious decision-making without sacrificing quality or satisfaction.
Alex A. Andrade. COO, Medical Associates P.C. Iowa: We are mobilizing our internal development teams to focus on AI implementation, aligning their expertise with our most pressing operational needs. Through this shift, we will be unlocking smarter solutions to challenges like block schedule management, staffing ratio optimization, and real-time decision support. This is not just a technology pivot, it’s a strategic move to embed intelligence into the core of how we operate and scale.
Tricia Wollam. Administrator, Alliance Surgery Center: We have transitioned from paper charting to EMR this year and we have seen both operational and clinical efficiencies. Utilizing an EMR system has allowed us the ability to have complete, up-to-date, legible records in real time. We have improved our workflow efficiencies, which has allowed us to increase our case volume while maintaining the same staffing model.
Dr. Richard White. Orthopedic Surgeon, Fitzgibbons Hospital: We use AI tools to assist with coding, regulatory updates and resource allocation, helping us navigate rising operational costs.
Kayla Carey. COO, Ambulatory Anesthesia Care: The most impactful technologies we’ve implemented are our anesthesia-specific EMR and integrated scheduling and billing platform. This system streamlines pre-op assessments, optimizes scheduling and reduces administrative overhead. Real-time analytics have cut no-shows and same-day cancellations, which are costly disruptions.
Dr. Thomas Parent. Orthopedic Surgeon, Lake Oconee Orthopedics: The expansion and integration of EHR has significantly reduced paper-related costs and administrative work. It has streamlined workflows, improved documentation accuracy and boosted billing efficiency.
Carrie Marut. Administrator, Mentor Surgery Center: When I first joined, the center was still using paper charting. Transitioning to EMR has allowed us to automate pre-op processes, improving patient communication and ensuring accurate pre-surgical assessments.
Brett Maxfield. Director of Surgical and Anesthesia Services, Madison Avenue Surgery Center: We are exploring virtual inventory management systems to track supplies, identify cost outliers and source better pricing. We expect these systems to improve our margins and reduce waste.
Dr. Niazy Selim. Surgeon, Selim Surgery Center: Given rising costs, we rely heavily on continuous price comparison and smart supplier selection. Prices can vary significantly between suppliers, and smaller centers like ours need to remain vigilant.
Tara Good-Young. CEO, PDI Surgery Center: A vendor-agnostic procurement platform has been a game changer. It enables price comparisons, tracks availability and streamlines ordering. This transparency helps negotiate better pricing and avoid costly shipping delays.
Azizza Dorsey. COO, Advanced Pain Medical Group: While transitioning to a new EHR is costly, we have found Adobe tools to be surprisingly helpful. Converting PDFs to Word and merging files has reduced paper, fax costs and staff time.
Alan Wagner. President and Founder, Wagner Kapoor Institute: AI sitting on top of a robust EMR integrated with supply chain and staffing management systems.
Neeraja Kikkeri, DDS, Owner and Chief Financial Officer, North Texas Team Care Surgery Center: I believe the most valuable tech tool in helping us manage rising costs has been the integration of case costing with payer analytics. This allows us to assess the projected revenue per case in advance and determine whether a case is financially viable before we proceed. In addition, the ability for patients to pay across a number of different platforms enables us to capture payments easier and faster.
Shirin Hasan. PhD candidate, University of Chicago: While I don’t work directly in an ASC, based on my awareness from multiple industry sources, technology such as AI-driven scheduling and supply chain management platforms has been one of the biggest assets in helping ASCs manage rising operational costs.
These technologies optimize staff allocation and accurately predict inventory needs, reducing labor expenses and minimizing waste. AI-enabled revenue cycle management systems also improve billing accuracy and accelerate claims processing, supporting healthier cash flow. Together, these tools increase operational efficiency by reducing delays, improving resource utilization, and enhancing patient throughput. Such technologies appear to play a crucial role in helping ASCs maintain cost control and operational resilience in a challenging financial environment.
