Today's outmigration of care is a change unlike any the healthcare industry has seen before, according to an Advisory Board report.
Three insights:
1. Historically, technological advances were the primary drivers of migration to the outpatient setting. New minimally invasive clinical capabilities motivated physicians to own equity in ASCs.
2. Today, however, the shift is driven by payers who want to push care to lower-cost settings. For instance, although there have been incremental advances in technology, CMS' decision to remove total knee arthroplasty from the inpatient-only list in 2018 wasn't a result of any major breakthrough in technology.
3. Commercial payers, consumers and physicians have joined CMS in driving care to the outpatient space, causing a 22.9 percent increase in ASC procedure volumes in 2017. Volumes are projected to grow 27.6 percent by 2027.