The de novo ASC market is being reshaped by population shifts, site-of-service changes and the growing push toward value-based care, according to Leawood, Kan.-based NueHealth founder and chairman Dan Tasset.
As many existing ASCs struggle to adapt to new cost and care delivery models, de novo development is increasingly driven by the need for redesigned facilities rather than simple capacity expansion.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: How would you characterize the de novo ASC market right now, and is there anything misunderstood or underestimated about de novo ASC development right now?
Dan Tasset: There are a number of angles.
Number one, we’re seeing internal migration in this country from certain states to other states. That raises the question: is there enough capacity where people are moving to accommodate those needs? When you move a large employer from New York to Texas and bring 40,000 employees, is there enough capacity?
Second, there’s still a large site-of-service shift. The federal government continues to decrease the inpatient-only list, and that causes more demand on the ambulatory chain. So that plays into the de novo factor.
But the single biggest thing is that current facilities — many of them — will not be able to accommodate value-based care because they’re not built and designed correctly. I equate this to QuickTrip — stores tearing down locations that are only 10 years old to build new stores with new designs.
We learned so much during COVID. We learned we don’t need lobbies as big as they are — that’s space you have to heat and cool and clean. We learned we can do virtual communication. During COVID we asked family members to stay in the car, and we would text when it was time to pick up the patient.
So innovation around care — if you designed a surgery center for the fee-for-service world with a big waiting area and an atrium and chairs nobody sits in — doesn’t it stand to reason that if now I have to compete on cost, that might be antiquated and need to be redesigned? That’s a big driver of de novo right now.
