July 2, 2026
Alexandria, VA—The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association supports the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposal to continue to update ASCs via the hospital market basket inflationary update for 2027. Unfortunately, one positive policy means little to our member facilities, who will see the reality of their reimbursement rates dropping in 2027 if rates are finalized as proposed.
“We are gratified that CMS is proposing to keep ASC inflationary updates aligned with those of the hospital outpatient departments by use of the hospital market basket index,” said ASCA President Todd Currier. “However, other payment policies will disincentivize ASCs from providing care to Medicare beneficiaries. For example, despite the inflation update, this proposal would actually reduce payments for the most common procedures that ASCs perform.”
ASCA commends the continued expansion of codes eligible for performance in ASCs, many of which are those coming off of the inpatient-only list in 2027. We specifically support the addition of four hernia codes we requested earlier this year through the ASC-CPL Pre-Proposed Rule Recommendation Request process.
“CMS’ proposal to continue to eliminate the inpatient-only list and also add codes to the ASC-CPL will allow the clinical judgment of surgeons to determine where care can be best provided,” said ASCA CEO Bill Prentice. “While the great majority of these procedures will still be performed in the hospital for the foreseeable future, this change will spark advancements in clinical care that will lead to more procedures being available to patients in the more affordable and convenient outpatient setting.”
“Beyond the continued elimination of the inpatient-only list, this rule proposal largely maintains the status quo in terms of ASC policy,” said Prentice. “We implore CMS leaders to work with us to generate policies that use the ASC model to provide more care to Medicare beneficiaries and, in so doing, save the program billions of dollars yearly. A recent study by KNG Health Consulting showed that ASCs will generate over $84 billion in savings to the Medicare program over the next 10 years because we exist as a lower-cost site of service. Imagine how many more billions of dollars could be freed up if surgery centers were incented to provide more care to the beneficiaries who require outpatient surgery.”
ASCA will be submitting comments on the proposed rule by the August deadline.
Read the full CY 2027 OPPS/ASC proposed rule.