Cardiology is exploding in the outpatient setting as technology advancements, patient preferences and payer incentives align towards ASCs.
Here’s what three ASC leaders have recently said about cardiology’s outpatient expansion in 2025 and where it’s headed next:
1. Amanda Ryan, DO. Interventional Cardiologist and CEO of Advanced Heart and Vascular Center of New Mexico (Carlsbad): As a single specialty rural cardiovascular ASC, we were successful in forming a partnership to bring electrophysiology services to our wide, underserved rural patient base. Atrial fibrillation and heart failure are epidemic, and our patients would routinely need to travel 3 to 4 hours for advanced care in these areas.
Partnering with national leading electrophysiologists through an initiative focused on leveraging technology with physician skill to provide enhanced access to advanced arrhythmia care has been our major focus of 2025. This included a well-planned-out and dedicated training program over the past 6 months focused on creating workflows and staff education. It also coincided with the development of a focused atrial fibrillation clinic model to improve access and standardization of guideline based treatment options.
2. Kristen Richards, Vice President of Ambulatory Care at Cardiovascular Logistics: Cardiovascular ASCs are still the new kid on the block — migration has been a little slower. We’re still dealing with reimbursement issues. Reimbursement is definitely lower in this space — about 53% lower than a hospital outpatient department. That can be challenging if you’re not operationally efficient and focused on leveraging your organization to get better pricing. Financial sustainability can be tough.
Also, about 50% of states still have certificate of need laws that restrict PCIs or complex interventions, which creates barriers for outpatient migration. The cost of setting up a cardiovascular ASC is also significant because of the complexity of the equipment. Outfitting a single room can cost well over $1.5 million.
From a CVL standpoint, as we bring on more affiliates, if a group doesn’t already have an ASC strategy, we create one together. That’s critical for us and core to our mission. We’re focused on providing outstanding cardiovascular care and greater access at a lower cost — and ASCs are primed for that. They’re the right setting for patients: lower cost, great experience. That’s been our focus — helping our partners offer these services in their communities.
3. Thomas Hutchinson, Administrator of the Surgery Center of Central Florida (Ocala): One of the big trends that everybody in cardiology is looking at for ASCs is EP ablations. That’s probably our No. 1 topic right now in our industry. We’ve been pushing for that for a while.
With Medicare being able to allow us to do those ablations in the outpatient setting, I think that’s a huge advantage to our cardiology patients, and it will take some of the workload off the hospital a little bit.
